It’s hard for any Malibuite, much less a child, to imagine life away from an ocean view. Yet, a family outing nearly two years ago inspired Mimo Reynolds to write an internationally recognized essay about the lives of millions of refugees around the world.
On May 1, fourth-grader Reynolds was one of 32 Malibu students, nearly 50 percent of the finalists, honored by the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) in response to a regionwide call for literature, art and photography on the subject “Turning Boundaries Into Bridges.”
More than 3,700 youth from North Hollywood to Palms to Santa Monica and Malibu submitted entries for the human relations organization’s 42nd annual Literature and Arts program. The program invites young people to thoughtfully consider ways that bigotry divides the human family. Seventy finalists received certificates of honor and gift certificates from local book, art and photography stores at last month’s ceremony at Lincoln Middle School.
“We want to move young people in the direction of a pluralistic, diverse society,” Mark Benjamin, literature and arts chair of the Santa Monica Bay Area Region of NCCJ, said.
“Our program has children in the fourth to the 12th grades dig down in themselves at least once a year to express something that strikes a chord with them on the subjects of bias, bigotry and racism.”
The work of all participants has been published and is on display in their school library, Malibuite Benjamin said.
Reynolds and his mother, Michela Anderson, visited the exhibit “A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City” mounted by Doctors Without Borders, an international medical relief organization, in Santa Monica in the fall of 2000.
“The children in the pictures were sick and starving,” Reynolds told Doctors Without Borders, who posted his essay, on their Web site. “That bothered me a lot, because I didn’t realize that kids like me were dying because they didn’t have what I have.”
The literature and arts program is meant to be part of a teacher’s curriculum, so it isn’t an extra burden on teachers, Benjamin added.
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, with their visual component, inspired this year’s theme, “Turning Boundaries Into Bridges.”
“If you have poetry, let this be one of the subjects,” he noted as an example.
Benjamin, whose younger son, Luke, is a junior at Malibu High, wants to increase the number of participants in the NCCJ region’s program to 5,000-6,000 next year. That’s only a fraction of the estimate 8,000-10,000 fourth to 12th graders in the school district, he said.
“If we could get that many kids involved, we would turn out some pretty well connected students in subjects not usually taught,” Benjamin said.
Anderson, Reynolds’ mother, agrees.
“I think this kind of reminder is critical in our community,” Anderson said. “It encourages parents to provide opportunities for their children to learn deep lessons about those who don’t have benefits many of us have.”
NCCJ MALIBU HONOREES 2002
Student Grade School Category
Mimo Reynolds 4 Point Dume Literature
Ryan Matthews 5 Point Dume Literature
Fallon Cislo 4 Webster Art
Jackson Pfeiffer 5 Webster Art
Sarah Zweig 5 Webster Art
Julia Dimitriadis 5 Cabrillo Literature
Mackenzie Beer 6 Malibu High Art
Kelsey Smith 6 Malibu High Art
Alex Vazelakis 6 Malibu High Art
Katelyn Michael 7 Malibu High Art
Seana Diemer 8 Malibu High Literature
Natasha Merback 8 Malibu High Literature
Diva Kass 8 Malibu High Literature
Juliet Wolf 8 Malibu High Art
Catherine Calvert 9 Malibu High Art
Erick Prins 9 Malibu High Art
David Bresler 10 Malibu High Literature
Zachary Drapkin 10 Malibu High Literature
Mollie Vandor 10 Malibu High Literature
Jasmine Sugarman 10 Malibu High Art
Tracey Young 10 Malibu High Art
Chris Park 11 Malibu High Art
Liz Broberg 11 Malibu High Photography
Jessie Chaney 11 Malibu High Photography
Sabrina Landworth 11 Malibu High Photography
Ashley Nelson 11 Malibu High Photography
Sophie Stern 11 Malibu High Photography
Danielle Boucher 12 Malibu High Photography
Helen Hening 12 Malibu High Photography
Lukas Mehring 12 Malibu High Photography
Jessica Norvet 12 Malibu High Photography
Emily Ochmanek 12 Malibu High Photography