A Teacher and a Bunch of Fifth Graders

In October 2004, a Groton Dunstable Middle School teacher, Betsy Sawyer, started an after school club consisting of a group of fifth graders called the Bookmakers and Dreamers Club.

Their dream was to create the largest book ever. On peace.

So they started drawing, and writing, and asking a few people for their thoughts on peace.

To date, here are some statistics on this effort:

• Over 400 students have participated in this club.
• The club has received over 3500 letters from peace activists, teachers, politicians, veterans, and students all over the world.
• The book is 10 x 12 feet.
• The book holds over 500 double sided pages.
• The book weighs over a ton.
• In 2010, the project won the Children’s Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey

Now in addition to writing the book, there were a few other logistics to worry about – like materials, printing, assembling, and transporting. To solve these logistical problems, a number of educational partners, professional partners, and parent volunteers jumped in to help out.

Back in March Ms. Sawyer, some of her original 5th graders, and a team of others brought The Big Book to New York City for the International Day of Happiness Conference held in the General Assembly of the United Nations for viewing.

Are you as impressed as I am? If not or if so, take a look at the Pages for Peace web page for more info.

Back to the logistics. Specifically, the assembling. Once again, my friend Susan got me involved. This past Monday, a group of us got together to put the pages on the book covers. It took eight of us just under three hours to do so. It was slow going at first, but once we got into a rhythm and became comfortable with our assigned roles, we went at a punishing pace.  Here was our process:

1. Two unrollers remove 15 pages stored in a canister, unroll them on the back of the book, and then take care of the empty canister.
   1. Two holders grab hold of the left side of five of the pages and crouch down.
   2. Two turners take the right side of the five pages and turn them over the holders onto the front of the book.
   3. The holders, after coming out from under the pages and twisting around from the back of the book to the front, thread the pages on the spindles on the front of the book.
   4. Two pullers pull the pages taut.
   5. Repeat 2 more times.
2. Repeat 33 more times.

I was a holder. Yes, I am looking for praise and recognition. I considered it my work out for the day.

We were assembling The Big Book in preparation for an event being held today – The First Annual Betsy Sawyer Day in honor of Betsy Sawyer who passed away in April from leukemia.

The next dream for these dreamers – a world tour.