About 200 middle-school and high-school students gathered at Orono (ME) High School May 20, 2025 to celebrate their participation in this year’s Samantha Smith Challenge. Approximately 500 students took part in this year’s program, although not all were able to make the trip to Orono. Schools represented include:

Monarch Learning Academy (FL)

Hazelwood Elementary School (WA)

Troy Howard Middle School (ME)

Waterville Junior High School (ME)

Bruce Whittier Middle School (ME)

Orono High School (ME)

Asa Adams Elementary School (ME)

George Stevens Academy (ME)

Leonard Middle School (ME)

Although students from Monarch Learning Academy in Florida were not able to attend the celebration, they shared a video of their all-school “anti-plastics-pollution” campaign. Having just traveled by bus on a cold, gray spring day, the Maine students enjoyed the sun-filled Florida images, splashed with bright tropical colors. Students from Hazelwood Elementary School, in Lynnwood, Washington also sent an in-depth video about their plastics project “Plastics and Orca Recovery.”

Then band students from Leonard Middle School, Old Town, Maine, wowed the student audience with a video of their anti-bullying performance piece Me.

The students had plenty of time to share their projects, which addressed a wide range of issues, including environmental concerns, gender awareness, racism, plastic waste, mental health, drug addiction, inclusion and other societal problems that they wanted to learn more about and to act upon. Many of the students – in addition to their art project – had completed extensive research on their topic, which they wrote about in beautiful essays. Some had developed plans to further awareness of their issues in their communities.

Here are some samples of student feedback from the day:

“The most rewarding part of this project was at the very end sharing it with everyone. . . . I saw kids [of all ages] who cared about their future and that made me have hope for our future again and I’m proud that I got to be a part of that community.”

“The most rewarding part of this project was knowing that I was part of the solution. I chose a global issue that affects many women throughout the world and knowing that I created a powerful and strong piece of art that conveys a purpose, shows that I can do more than I thought I could. I wanted to make people aware of this issue and that’s exactly what I did! The compliments from other students and adults were nice to hear too.”

“Art makes people look closely at what the issue is, and most of the time art has more words and communication than speaking or writing an essay about your topic. It brings out emotions and feelings in people that normally can not be expressed, and I think that’s important.”

The traditional mid-morning cookies-and-lemonade break topped the list of favorite activities – also presenting a practical, on-the-ground sharing challenge.

The final session of the half-day event included remarks by teacher, poet, and veteran peace activist Doug Rawlings. His brief address included the themes of building community through activism and discovering your life’s work – which can appear in surprising ways, as it did for him during a war in Viet Nam. Rawlings also captivated the students with a poem he had written for his then-teen-age son, which concludes with this advice:

“Yet we have known for years now
that the silences of our fathers will not do

And we have known that words alone
cannot bleed you free
of your raging doubts

So listen up
to what we have found
between silences and words:

Open up your fists

Scorn uniforms

Don’t march

Dance”

The half-day gathering was topped off with a group sing of “Dandelion Insurrection” – a tune written recently in honor of author and peace activist Rivera Sun.