3rd Annual Children's Peace Festival Returns Saturday, Nov. 15

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Anna Whitely

Email: childrenspeacefestival@gmail.com

Phone: 732-770-6570

CHATHAM, N.J. --- The Chatham-Summit Quaker Meeting will once again host the Children’s Peace Festival on Saturday, November 15, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., bringing families together for a day filled with creativity, connection and hands-on learning about peace.

The goal of the festival is simple, yet powerful: to have fun while introducing kids to practical skills they can draw on to be peacemakers in their own families, schools, neighborhoods and the wider world.

Now in its third year, the festival, founded by Anna Whitely, a Summit High School senior, celebrates the idea that peace begins with small, everyday actions---and that children play a vital role in shaping a kinder, more peaceful world.

“My vision for the Children’s Peace Festival from its inception was to show that peace can start with something as simple as a smile, a kind word, a helping hand,” says Anna. “After visiting Hiroshima with my family this past summer, I saw firsthand how remembrance and hope can not only coexist, but also support each other, and how people around the world continue to choose peace, even after unimaginable loss. I want kids here in our community to feel empowered to do the same, to become peacemakers in their own right “

The lineup of activities, entertainment and learning opportunities has something for youngsters of all ages including their accompanying adults.

Activities and Interactive Station

Families can explore peace-building games, kid-friendly skill building offered by the Alternatives to Violence program as well as introduction to the “community circle” concept often used by schools to encourage respectful listening and interaction. Also being offered are thoughtful activities like the Postcards for Peace station and the Carter Smile booth.

Also returning this year will be the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey to lead this year’s Community Art Project---a collaborative quilt celebrating peace and unity. Participants of all ages are invited to contribute to the quilt, which will later be displayed at the Quaker meeting house.

Entertainment Lineup

And there will be music! Throughout the day, in addition to individual musicians, visitors can enjoy live performances of the Kent Place School Hummingbirds, the NJ Youth Chorus (Primo Coro) and rising performers from the Elefante School for Music & the Performing Arts.

Honoring a Legacy

New this year is a special exhibit honoring Chatham-Summit Meeting’s remarkable history as a place of post-war healing and peace. In the 1950s, members of the Meeting hosted two of the Hiroshima Maidens, young women from Japan who traveled to the United States for reconstructive surgery after surviving the atomic bomb dropped on their city. Visitors can learn more about this history from a display on site. Especially absorbing for children will be a reading of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, the classic children’s peace story about Sadako Sasaki, a child survivor of Hiroshima. This will be accompanied by the playful making of origami peace cranes.

This free, family-friendly event invites visitors to recognize and nurture the innate capacity each child has for peacemaking: one smile, one kind gesture, one playful game, one child at a time.

Key Event Details

WHAT: Children’s Peace Festival

DATE: Saturday, November 15, 2025 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m

LOCATION: Chatham Summit Quaker Meeting house, 158 Southern Boulevard, Chatham, NJ

For more information and up-to-date listings, visit www.chathamquakers.org or follow @childrens_peace_festival on Instagram.

CONTACT: Anna Whitely: childrenspeacefestival@gmail.com

VENDORS: There will be food trucks with food for purchase including Merry Hot Cocoa, the much talked about, turnaround business success recently featured on The Fixer.

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