It was Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. in 1918 in France, and the signatures carefully added to the document on the table put an end to fighting by sea, land and air in World War I, bringing relief to overwrought, grief-stricken nations.

More than 16 million people worldwide were killed in the war, which raged for four years.

This year, the world looks back on 100 years since that armistice was signed in France. It was called “the war to end all wars.” And yet, since that moment, at least 108 million people have died in war, estimates The New York Times.

But how has America moved toward peace? Some Stowe residents are searching within themselves to find answers on the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

To Lou D’Amore, who lived in Stowe before moving to Utica, N.Y., last year, the concept of peace is more than simply the absence of war.

D’Amore sees peace as a spectrum, beginning with striving for understanding within the self.

“It begins with peace within ourselves, peace with our neighbors, and the people we work with, go to school with,” he said.

Then, it’s important for people to make peace with nature, and generations that came before, D’Amore said.

“Tourism goes a long way in doing that,” he said.

Finally, people have to make peace with the future, whatever it may hold both globally and for them personally.

Before 2020, 100 years after the Treaty of Versailles was signed and made permanent the peace accord reached on Armistice Day, D’Amore hopes to have 2,000 Peace Parks across the world, parks that encourage visitors to pause and reflect on what peace means to them, and how they can achieve it.

Thanks to a few Stowe residents, Thompson Park has one, too.

The Stowe Peace Park was built there this year, spearheaded by Stowe resident Lynn Altadonna, who served in the U.S. Air Force for 12 years.

Altadonna said he’s friends with D’Amore, who approached him right before he moved away and asked him to lead the construction of the Peace Park, working with the Stowe Interfaith Coalition. Coalition members include the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe, Stowe Community Church, St. John’s in the Mountains Episcopal Church and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stowe.

Altadonna himself is a parishioner of Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church in Stowe.

The Peace Park consists of hundreds of colorful tulips and crocuses planted by Stowe High School students, a commemorative plaque, and flags from all around the United States.

Altadonna and the Stowe Interfaith Coalition approached the Stowe Select Board in April about building the Peace Park.

“I’m hopeful that the Peace Park in Stowe will serve as a means, and it has already, for continuous interfaith dialogue and collaboration among the different religions in Stowe,” D’Amore said.

Altadonna said he’s received plenty of feedback about the Peace Park.

“A lot of people say thank you. I got a beautiful voicemail from a fellow who was 80 or 81 years old” who loved visiting, he said.

Altadonna was also grateful to Stowe High School teachers Norm Williams, Gaelan Chutter-Ames and Anastasia Schafer, who encouraged their students to help plant the tulips and crocuses at the Peace Park in a ceremony last month.

Schafer teaches global citizenship, and her classes often touch on war, genocide and their global effects on humanity.

Her Human Rights and Genocide class participated in the Peace Park planting ceremony, and will be part of a school-wide essay contest on peace in the spring.

Schafer thinks participating in community, school and global events such as building the Peace Park will help generations grow with an eye toward peace and compassion.

“I think that global peace today starts at the micro level through education in schools and in the home. We learn from those who surround us, and cultivating peace at both the micro and macro levels starts with respect of oneself and others, empathy and mindfulness,” Schafer said.

She says defining peace in today’s times is complex, because the word’s meaning is ever-evolving, but its principles, to her, remain the same: “We can aspire to understand each other, think before we speak or act, and slowly strive for global peace.”

“You’ve got to have the self-discipline to manage disappointment, and then you’ll be at peace,” Altadonna added.

Honoring veterans

Sunday, Nov. 11, is Veterans Day, a day set aside to honor those who risked their lives by serving in any of the U.S. armed forces.

Barbara Allaire of Stowe can’t talk about Veterans Day without tearing up. Her father fought in World War I, and both of her sons are veterans.

“I think about the men and the women who have given their lives” for the United States, “and I enjoy just the thought of being part of honoring them.”

That’s why Allaire helped start the Stowe Veterans Day free community pancake breakfast in 2014, working with Terrie Wehse and Stefi Clymer. The breakfast serves more than 100 people every year, many of them veterans.

Stowe High School students are a cornerstone of the community breakfast, volunteering to flip pancakes, wash dishes and serve veterans.

“I love the idea that we put together — to have the high school kids be the servers and run the show — because I think the whole next-generation thing is very important,” Wehse said. “Honoring veterans alone is very important, but the thing that makes it great is having the teenagers in our town doing the work for the people attending.”

Her son Ethan, 19, volunteered at the breakfast for three years while he was a Stowe High School student.

Spending time around Stowe’s veterans taught him a great deal about service, he said.

“Veterans Day means a lot to me. It’s giving back to the people that have fought for our country,” said Ethan Wehse, whose father served in the armed forces.

“I got to catch up with a couple of veterans after the breakfast. It was just a really neat experience,” Wehse said. “It’s breathtaking. You have no idea, as a kid, what they went through, what they struggle with every day with PTSD to recovering from injuries still. I talked to someone who was handicapped as well, because he got his legs blown off” in combat.

It gave him new perspective on what war really means.

“I didn’t really research what war was like, and I had no idea really what to expect going into Veterans Day. It’s just mind-blowing. It really made me respect veterans and what they do to protect the U.S. every day.”

Wehse had to gather his thoughts for almost a full minute when asked what peace means to him.

“There has to be work to get to peace. I feel like what the veterans and whoever is serving today is doing leads to peace,” he said.

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