West River Neighborhood Parties for Peace

“This is a time to celebrate peace.”

These are the words that Stacy Spell said on the stage at the West River International Day of Peace Festival Sunday, as people relaxed on the grass or listened to him from chairs below the stage. Kids ran around, playing in summer’s last few days of warmth.

It was an idyllic scne, which was the point — as people came together to celebrate peace in the community.

The festival started nine years ago in the same place it was held today, with only six people at the first event. From those six, the celebration of peace has grown to a couple of hundreds some years.

The number of attendees, though, isn’t the point, said Spell (pictured), the president of the West River Neighborhood Services Corporation (WRNSC) and chief organizer of the festival. He said that the mission is to build a peaceful neighborhood, where the people of West River can feel safe.“Those that want to celebrate peace will be here. We move with what we have. If there are 100 people here, we celebrate and move on. If there are 200, we celebrate, and so on. No matter what happens, it’s a time to celebrate peace, locally and globally.” Spell, a retired detective, is a force for peace in West River year-round. (To read more about Spell and his endeavors, click here.)

“This neighborhood is very diverse — and everyone wants to be able to live in a home where peace is practiced. For us, as the WRNSC, our mission is to build a caring, peaceful, vibrant neighborhood, and that’s what we continue to work on. We want to build peace, in the form of taking ownership of where we live. We’re trying to take back our streets— no, we have taken back our streets. We aren’t where we once were, and we aren’t where we want to be, but we’re on the road to success. And that’s the key. Community engagement, community involvement, and making that change.”

Community engagement was a big theme at this year’s peace festival, with many stalls and tables scattered across the field. Some, like the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE), work directly with the WRNSC. In their case, CARE works to make the local park more easily accessible, to keep people healthy.

Other stalls offered fun for the kids. The Peabody Museum table brought fossils, shells, and other artifacts. There were magnifying glasses for budding paleontologists, and books that helped them identify what everything is. Kids chattered to one another as they inspected dried sea urchins and tarantulas encased in glass.

Those who were more artistically inclined exercised their skills at the ​“Give Peace a Chair” station (pictured), where you could grab a couple pots of paint and decorate chairs and tables with other young painters.

In the background of all this came soulful reggae and Bob Marley, played by the band I.N.I.T.Y, a ​“funky reggae dance band.” Some onlookers swayed to the music peacefully, while others shook it dancing below the stage, provoking cheers from the band and the audience.