On a Sunday afternoon in a small Ontario town, the message "May Peace Prevail on Earth" is getting louder — in more languages than ever. The Schumacher International Peace Park in Timmins now holds 41 peace poles, each one a hand-decorated post carrying that same wish in a different cultural voice, after 10 brand-new poles were installed and will be unveiled on International Peace Day, Sunday, Sept. 20.
The new poles represent Ireland, Wales, Portugal, Lithuania, Nicaragua, Zambia, Poland, England, the Dominican Republic, and the Royal Canadian Legion. Together they lift the park's total from 31 to 41 poles — growth that happened because people kept asking for more.
"There were previously 31 poles, and last year we installed 10 more in response to growing community demand," said Chinelo Nnoli, coordinator with the Timmins Local Immigration Partnership. "The new poles have been in progress since last year, and I'm pleased to say that they have now been completed."
Each pole honors a culture, its flag flying beside it and its language spelling out the shared wish for peace. The celebration is more than a ribbon-cutting. It begins at 1:15 p.m. with a walk from the Schumacher Lions Club pavilion to the park, followed by an opening ceremony and the unveiling of the new poles and flags.
Then comes the part Nnoli says matters most: "cross-cultural conversations and dialogue," informal, guided chats where people from different backgrounds sit down together. "The conversations will encourage participants to share their experiences, traditions, perspectives, and ideas about peace, inclusion, belonging, and living in the community," she explained. "The focus is on creating a welcoming space where people can meet one another, ask questions, listen to different perspectives, and discover what we have in common."
Attendees are encouraged to wear traditional clothing, and the afternoon wraps up with cultural performances and light refreshments at the pavilion until 3 p.m. Organizers confirm presentations from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Zambia, the Philippines, and the First Nations. If it rains, the party moves to the "Lion's Den," the clubhouse inside the McIntyre Community Building.
The event is organized by the Timmins Local Immigration Partnership and brings together residents, cultural groups, newcomers, Indigenous community members, and local partners. It marks the United Nations International Day of Peace, observed worldwide every Sept. 21 and devoted to strengthening peace within and among all nations.
Timmins sits far from the world's headlines, but on a patch of parkland, dozens of cultures now stand side by side, all agreeing on a single sentence. In a town that keeps welcoming newcomers, those 41 poles are a quiet promise: peace isn't just an idea — it's something neighbors build together, one conversation and one pole at a time.