Josh Imhof | features editor

Mary Maloney sat on A-Walk surrounded by chalk drawings and messages. These childlike designs and phrases reaffirmed to her something she has been thinking for a while.

“We’re all really just kids at heart … We all start off as somebody’s son or daughter. We all have the same roots,” Maloney said.

The Spiritan Campus Ministries hosted the “Chalk the Walk for Peace” event on A-Walk and a craft making event in the evening at the NiteSpot to celebrate the United Nations International Day of Peace, which happened on Sunday.

First established in 1981, the goal of the International Day of Peace is to promote peace and non-violence around the world, according to the U.N. website. The U.N. holiday is observed annually on Sept. 21, but campus ministries extended its observance with 11 days of peace, starting on Sept. 11, the day of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Linda Donovan, a campus minister at Duquesne, started the event more than 10 years ago. During this time, Donovan has invited guest speakers and held peace-themed services at churches like St. Benedict the Moor Church in the Hill District.

“Catholicism and other faith traditions are always looking for ways to find peace and be peace,” Donovan said. “Peace is something important to all of us.”

This year, students were encouraged to draw and write chalk messages that embodied what peace meant to them.

Meghan Wholley, a junior psychology major, works at the campus ministries and drew a rainbow at the base of the steps behind the student union. She said it was important for college students to understand their role in creating peace and the world’s future.

“Our generation … we’re next for making the difference. As much as people think it’s out of our hands … we’re next,” she said.

Wholley said she believed that political hatred has grown to a point where adults are not leading to be an example, but rather to gain money and power. Through events like Chalk the Walk, she said she has enjoyed giving others hope that things will change and has restored her own hope in people and the future.

“I think if you don’t [believe in the chance for peace] then it’s all kind of for nothing,” Wholley said.

These messages of peace resonated with Maloney, who also hoped for a resolution to political division.

“Unison and respect is the answer through and through,” Maloney said. “You don’t have to agree, but respect other people.”

Other students, like John McCrea, focused on big picture messages and how they apply to small-scale ideas. He came across the event and wrote two messages that said “Choose Love” and “When all else fails, love prevails.”

McCrea said that these phrases can be applied to something as small as getting a bad grade on a test and that people strive to find peace in their day-to-day lives.

“No matter what happens to you, it’s going to be love that brings everyone together,” McCrea said.

Still, some had their reservations.

Donovan said she hoped for peace regarding to wars around the world and gun violence in the United States, but questioned whether or not she believed in large-scale peace due to the greed and selfishness of others.

“I would love to say yes, but being a realist, I can’t say it. I’m not sure if it’s totally possible,” she said.

Despite this, Donovan said that peace is her passion, and that these small-scale showings of it give her hope. “Piece by piece,” she wants them to build off one another, hopefully leading to peaceful resolutions.

Her message has rubbed off on Wholley.

“I think there’s peace in everything. That’s why the little things make a big difference,” Wholley said. “You can’t achieve peace on a big level without doing the little things first.”

Josh Imhof can be reached at imhofj@duq.edu