About 60 kids aged 4 to 12 years old celebrated the simplest of ideas – peace – after spending several days last week learning how to preserve it.

“We talk about positive conflict resolution, the environment, foreign languages and how to communicate with other people,” says Katie Mae Gonko, one of the organizers of the week-long Peace Camp.

Participants ended the week last Friday with a pizza party and face painting. They also put on skits and led a peace parade from Grace Lutheran Church to the Old Capitol Plaza in order to “spread the word of peace,” Gonko says.

Once run by the Heartland Peace Center, Peace Camp is now organized by individual volunteers. The free day camp was held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day for one week. To watch over the children and teach them about peace, about 20 young adults generally ranging from age 16 to 20 volunteered their time.

“It used to be that Peace Camp would go out and find campers who weren’t in good schools or good situations. Not any more,” Gonko says, pointing to the popularity of the event.