"Peace starts in the home."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That's the firmly held belief of Dr Henry Gardiner, who will be attending the Rotary club's annual peace day ceremony on Sunday.
The ceremony will acknowledge the work of Wagga's most selfless volunteers, who contributed their bit to world peace by making a difference in their own community.
"Peace starts in the street, the village, the suburbs," Dr Gardiner said.
"Who knows, there might be an outbreak of peace in the world one day."
Dr Gardiner was the presenter at Wagga's first peace ceremony in 1993, and during that time he's been proud to see peacemakers of all kinds be acknowledged for their hard work.
He's won a peace award himself, and he was there when the iconic peace symbol was unveiled on the Wollundry Lagoon and Wagga was named the world's first Rotary peace city.
This year's event will be the 27th of its kind, and Kooringal Rotarian Phillip Tome is working hard behind the scenes to keep the torch burning for many years to come.
"We're trying to keep the event within the combined Rotary clubs of Wagga to have this peace award every year and try to bring peace to the world," Mr Tome said.
"Peace starts with you and I in the home, in the families, towns, cities."
In other news:
Sunrise Rotarian Deidre Tome said she'd seen positive change in the Wagga community throughout the years, thanks to the hard work of many volunteers.
"Volunteers in our community bring about so much change by chipping away at things - finding some kind of project that benefits other people that are less fortunate than us," she said.
"From that grassroots level we can eventually get to the point where people are more tolerant, respectful, and we stand a chance of having less conflict in the world. We need to look out for each other, treat each other with kindness and respect, and reconcile our differences."
The event starts at 11am on Sunday at the Charles Sturt University playhouse, where awards will be handed out to community members and student leaders who spearheaded community projects at their school.
There will also be a Wagga City Council Peace Award for one notable individual who made their presence felt in the community.