Inaugural Key Biscayne International Day of Peace Calls for Climate Action

Isabella LeGrand (left) and Ana Sofia Godley accompany organizer Debbie Wanninkhof in a song during the UN International Peace Day event hosted at the Key Biscayne Community Center (Teri Scott via Key News)

A group of Key Biscayners came together Saturday afternoon in a moment of calm. The wind and rain howled outside, neatly amplifying the theme of the day: a call for peace through climate action.

Celebrated since 1981, this year’s UN International Day of Peace fell one day after global climate strikes saw an estimated four million people take to the streets in over 150 countries. 

In Miami Beach demonstrators gathered in front of City Hall, whether their schools excused their absences or not. They may have taken their lead partly from 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thurnberg, who has inspired millions with her Fridays for Future initiative, in which young people ditch school to get leaders to listen to their message. 

On Key Biscayne, organizer Debbie Wanninkhof said of Thurnberg, “See? One person can make a difference.” 

Wanninkhof, a Montessori teacher, was inspired by her day job to put together the event. “I hope the community feels new sense of peace from this,” she said. 

Speaker Frank Caplan, a former Mayor of Key Biscayne, hoped the event would be “transformative,” enabling attendees to be “powerful to bring peace out into the world.”

Caplan’s keynote address described how solving climate crises can create peace by addressing the impoverishment and displacement of peoples. 

“Nature does not negotiate,” said Caplan, quoting the UN Secretary General.

On the scale of the challenge, Caplan said that although the UN agenda is long, action starts locally. “We can start here, today,” he said. 

Small actions like turning the light off when leaving a room, composting and reducing what we consume can be a good place to start, said organizers. 

Wanninkhof sang songs of harmony with schoolchildren including Ana Sofia Godley and Isabella LeGrand, who also graciously shared personal anecdotes of how they find peace in their daily lives – from spending time with family to watching shooting stars. 

Speakers from around the community included Anne Rothe, Director of the Key Biscayne Presbyterian School, who shared with the gathering her initiative to make 1,000 origami cranes – a Japanese movement for peace. Once built, the cranes will form a structure to be presented to the Village Council, “So they’re reminded every time they meet that this is a community that wants climate action,” said Rothe. 

Patricia Woodson, a former Council member, also introduced an effort to help young people learn to be “compassionate in action” by participating in Peace First, an online OpenSource program that equips them to translate their ideas into initiatives with real growth potential. 

The current Council was represented at the event by Council Member Katie Petros, who said she was there to support Wanninkhof because, “It’s important to focus on positive elements and not just the negative.” 

Petros said she hopes the community feels after the event that they can “lead with a feeling of hope and optimism, to work together to correct things that need to be improved on in our community.”

Spirituality for the day came chiefly from the Youth Director of the Key Biscayne Community Church, Tony Goudie, who prayed for attendees to remember they are instruments of peace. 

The event closed with songs and affirmations of peace, with Caplan musing whether the “hard rain” outside signalled that, finally, “the times they are a-changing.”

Editor’s note: Frank Caplan is the publisher of Key News. He did not contribute to this report.