Ortonville- In a world filled with turmoil, Karyn Milligan hopes to foster peace with a quiet event in this town.
The International Day of Peace is a worldwide event started by the United Nations to bring attention to world problems. This year, Milligan, St. Anne Christian Service Coordinator, is asking local residents to participate, simply by signing a pledge to pray for peace.
The pledge book will be open from 1-5 p.m., tomorrow, Sunday, Sept. 21, at the Old Town Hall, 486 Mill St. (at the corner of Mill and Church streets).
‘We seek world peace, but I also want to draw attention to peace within our families, our community, our homes and our children,? said Milligan.
This is the first time, she continued, that anything like this has been held in the village. There will be no speakers at the hall, but there will be signs and written prayers from all different faiths, as well as handouts. Milligan hopes that area residents will sign a pledge committing to pray for peace, and then walk from the town hall to the Don Kengerski Veterans Memorial Park (located next to the police substation in the village, at the corner of Mill and South streets) and pray for those who have fought for the freedoms this country enjoys that other countries do not have.
‘I think we have gotten so far away from caring about our neighbors, it makes me sad,? she said. ‘This is a way to show solidarity in our community and with the world… Take a deep breath on Sunday and remember what we have and that the baddies are not going to run our world.?
Milligan hopes to have the prayer pledge book be passed from church to church in the community, eventually returning to St. Anne Church to be kept in a sacred place.