Maui Upcountry student wins Dr. King Jr. Peace Poem award

Fifth grade student Rebecca Czar is the Maui grand prize winner in the 24th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Peace Poetry Awards.

Czar, a student at the Carden Academy in Makawao, received a certificate as the grand prize winner along with an original painting from internationally renowned artist Davo during ceremonies at the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College, Saturday.

More than 125 people attended the ceremonies recognizing student finalists from as far as Molokaʻi, including Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen and Gov. Josh Green’s representative Leon Bolosan.

Some 40 finalists read their poems and received a limited edition poster with a photograph of the double-hulled canoe Hōkūleʻa on its worldwide voyage, as it sailed near the United Nations in New York City.

The photograph was donated by Bryson Hoe, the Polynesian Voyaging Society, and ʻŌiwi TV.

Event organizer Melinda Gohn, co-founder of the International Peace Poem Project, said the Czar’s poem was chosen for expressing the sentiment of peace and for Czar’s skillful use of poetic methods in composing the poem, including repetition and extended metaphor.

Czar’s poem, “Please Pour,” asks people to pour kindness on the people who are suffering in the Ukraine war.

“I am waiting, waiting by my door/for the war to end…to pour kindness on those mourning/and so this war will end.”

A coalition of scores of volunteers, including teachers and artists, participate in organizing events in Hawaiʻi’s four counties to honor Dr. King and promote the message of peace.

Gohn and members of the International Peace Poem Project and the nonprofit Maui Peace Education help to organize the event yearly.

The International Peace Poem Project was invited by the United Nations to participate in Peace Millennium Day in 2000, before UN General Assembly President Harri Holkieri.

For more information about the Dr. King awards and International Peace Poem Project, go to peacepoem.org or send an email to poem@maui.net.