Eddetrick Carter won a unique honor last week. Ms. Terry Walker Moore, Executive Director of the George Washington Carver Boys & Girls Club, nominated him as an Ambassador for Peace, and he was selected. The honor is more of an appointment than an award, according to its website.
Ambassadors are expected to go out into the world and work for peace and reconciliation. Ambassadors are adults chosen for their history of service to others. Carver is the first Boys and Girls Club, and Eddetrick the first youth, to take part in the global program. Eddetrick will invite other young people to work toward peace with him.
The ninth grader joined his neighborhood Boys and Girls Club seven years ago. He served in the Torch Club and the Keystone leadership program. He has worked with Hands on Atlanta doing repairs and painting, and he keeps the books and records for his high school basketball team. He teaches Sunday school. He said "Boys and Girls Club is a good place to be."
Craftsman bungalows and trees line the streets of the Kirkwood neighborhood. Some houses are dilapidated, and some freshly renovated and expanded. Across the street from the Boys and Girls Club, a social services complex houses a day program for chemically dependent children. Children as young as elementary school age were graduating the day we visited, receiving certificates from their fellow students and from a smiling counselor with long dreadlocks, dressed in a fuchsia silk pants suit. One of the certificates was for "Best Job Getting along with Peers." A slight girl read a statement "The staff never judged me. Some days when I felt like giving up, I didn't."
Aware of the dangers children face, neighborhood resident and parent Susie Davis approached Director Moore about Ambassadors for Peace. Ms. Davis had been in touch with grandparents and leaders who wanted the best for young people, and she knew Director Moore. She felt passionately about involving adults in supporting their children's education without seeming to preach or to talk down to the adults. She felt intensely aware of the vital role parental involvement plays in children's success, because of her own history.
Her father died when she was young. She had been doing well in school but her grades declined for a time. Her teacher called her mother to see what was wrong. Her grades had declined when her mother had less time to talk to her and be with her because of the extra effort of caring for the family as a widow, she said. She knew her learning had slowed when she was not exposed to all the natural teaching that comes when parents and children talk and spend time together.
First Goal: Conflict Resolution
Now Ms. Davis seeks creative ways to involve adults in children's learning. She said she liked the AFP program's mission to "Encourage reconciliation and cooperation beyond traditional boundaries of religion, race and ethnicity." Ms. Terry added that Eddetrick planned to get a committee of children and interview them about what kinds of things they wanted to do. The children would seek consensus, then work towards peace in the community. Eddetrick had identified conflict resolution training for his peers as one of his first goals, she said. He nodded gravely.
He lives with his family, his grandmother, mother, brother and sister. He has two dogs, "a chow and a hot dog dog" he said. He likes to swim and play golf, and his favorite subjects are math and science. He wants to be a District Attorney when he grows up, because he "just likes that." He stood in the spring sun with Ms. Terry, holding his Ambassador for Peace Award. He wore an expression of resolve.
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