DV Teens Consider Community Unity in Art and Language
Milford's Unity in the Community group held a visual and literary arts contest for Delaware Valley High School juniors and seniors, who discussed community issues at the awards ceremony.
In a school district riven by school board squabbles about books, curriculum and health issues, at least one class has been devoted to conciliation. Out of the Peace Studies class at Delaware Valley High School, taught by Tyler Barnett, several students emerged with projects celebrating unity, prompted by the first Unity in the Community Youth Allies Program arts contest, with cash prizes. Students also came to the program from other classes.
Juniors and seniors could submit visual or literary “projects that address why unity is important in a community, and how one could foster unity among diverse groups in the Pike County community,” according to UITC member Paula Luckring. Entries were judged by a group of five judges, blinded to whose work they evaluated. On June 10, in Biddis Park on Broad St., the group gathered for an awards ceremony for students whose project had won an award.
Paige Gualandi won first prize for her poem, “Unity.” In her poem she describes unity as “together yet unique.”
“If we’re unified, there would be less bullying,” said Gualandi, 18, chatting after the ceremony. “I see a lot of transphobic actions. But we can educate each other. Deep down everyone is human and we all have feelings. I have trans friends.”
She noted texts that hurt the feelings of those friends several times in the last year.
“If we had unity in this town, we’d be happier. The older generation needs to have personal experience with different kinds of people, without fear of being judged,” she said. “Men are afraid of risking their masculinity if they support LGBTQ people. At school, guys say, “Oh, that’s gay,” as an insult. If you wear rainbow colors, they say, ‘Oh, that’s gay.’”
Gualandi learned about UITC and the contest from UITC member Megan Strub, with whose daughter Gualandi plays volleyball. She played the lead role in the “Mama Mia” production and plans to study theater at Western Connecticut State University. She was awarded $500 for her winning poem.
Lajhia Rosario, 18, won $250 as runner up in the visual category for the cube she created. It opens up in multiple ways, so each side illustrates an example of unity. One side shows bees; another, a fingerprint—the lines of which show a kind of unity, she said; another contained many kinds of fruit, and another side had a Henry Ford quote.
“I felt I had an idea beyond what I could say in words,” Rosario said.
Initially she planned to become a veterinarian, but then assisting people became more compelling. She plans to attend Elizabethtown College in Lancaster, PA.
“It’s a small private college with a great social work school,” she said. “I see the destruction of drugs and alcohol in people’s lives, and I want to be a drug and alcohol counselor.”
She was moved by a Philadelphia TV news segment about the drug xylazene.
“What opened my eyes to the issue was hearing about and seeing the zombies on Philadelphia streets,” she said. “It’s terrifying what people do to get the high feeling.”
Anthony Bellino, the literary award runner up, wrote a poem, for which he was awarded $250.
“My best friend got me interested in peace studies and civil rights,” he said. “I write poems in my spare time, and my parents inspired me to write a poem. To do the right thing. Many people say bad things about other people. But it’s the little things, saying nice things about each other, that makes a difference.”
Bellino will study real estate at Penn State University.
The Unity in the Community group was launched at the end of 2021 by Milford Borough Mayor Sean Strub and Lisa Emery after their rivalry in the mayoral election generated bitter divisiveness in the borough. Aided by clergy and others, they formed a group to work on depolarizing a community troubled by political divides. They devised communication ground rules to help sustain civility.
The group has involved themselves in various community gatherings, for instance providing cookies for a Christmas tree lighting and a picnic before a music event. Recently Luckring and other UITC members met Beverly Braxton, founder of We the People Warwick, formed with similar intentions for Warwick. They share strategies and explore approaches developed elsewhere.
“Groups like us have formed across the country,” said Luckring.
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