Download Below is an Article from the Tacoma News Tribune Woman to

Below is an Article from the Tacoma News Tribune
Woman to receive Greater Tacoma Peace Prize KATHLEEN MERRYMAN; STAFF WRITER
Published: 05/22/1012:05 am |
Kim Ebert-Colella believes that peace begins in every heart and spreads from there to home,
community and the great wide world.
She believes that, given the tools and the will, every person has the potential to become a
powerful peacemaker.
As the volunteer adviser of Bryant Montessori School’s Peace Committee, she’s giving students
the chance to understand that principle in their own lives.
Ebert-Colella, 50, will receive the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize this evening at Pacific Lutheran
University.
It’s a perfect fit for someone who learned from none other than Mother Teresa, 20 years ago in
India.
“The purpose of the prize is to recognize, honor and promote peace and understanding in our
community, region, nation and world,” the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize Committee wrote in its
announcement.
That’s exactly what Bryant students aim for in their Peace Committee work.
They have gotten the school designated an international peace site, and dedicated a peace pole.
They’ve had a Pennies for Peace Campaign and raised $9,000 to build a school in Pakistan. They
also pick a long-term project.
“Every year, the students choose a focus,” said Ebert-Colella, who lives a stone’s throw from the
Hilltop school. “Then we implement that together on a personal, community and global level.”
Here’s how that plays out with this year’s focus: water.
“We talked about how our bodies are over 70 percent water, and how our actions affect the water
of our own personal being,” she said. “We started a kindness campaign at school. Kids get
caught by other kids doing kind things, and get reported for swimming in the peace pool.”
On Fridays, Principal Claudia Mason talks with the students about the kindness they have shown
during the week. At Bryant, it’s cool to be nice.
On the school level, the Peace Committee kids raised money to buy four rain barrels. They’ve
painted them and use them to water their garden.
Globally, they want to raise $6,000 to give a clean water system to the Bolivian town of Las
Maratos. They’ve held a plant sale, made and sold natural cleaning products and raised $4,300.
The kids say all these peace projects work.
“I used to be way more violent,” said Kazaria Walker, 12.
She was suspended twice for fighting, she said.
“I’m starting to get out of that phase. I’m going to Peace Committee and learning how to
cooperate better.”
Craig Chapman, 13, said helping people in places such as Bolivia is a personal stretch.
“On the one hand, it feels really good,” he said. “On the other, it’s strange to give money when I
won’t see what they do with it.”
Ebert-Colella has encouraged the kids to research their charities thoroughly, then trust the work
they do.
That seems OK to Craig. “I’m learning to give to things that are bigger than my own self.”
Ebert-Colella is walking, working proof of what kindness can mean.
She was the seventh of eight children in a tumultuous family in St. Paul, Minn. A Catholic priest
made sure she had cultural opportunities, including an education at the College of St. Benedict.
She worked in marketing for two years after graduation, then joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.
Over the next few years she served young people and the elderly, and began volunteering in
L’Arche communities with developmentally disabled people.
When she turned 30, she bought a ticket to Calcutta to volunteer at the L’Arche home there. She
did not know it was on Mother Teresa’s property. During her six weeks there, she prayed with,
listened to and was ushered to confession by Mother Teresa.
After her return, she worked as youth minister at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Gig Harbor,
became a massage therapist, married Niko Colella and had their son, Sam Colella, now 11.
She followed Sam to Bryant Montessori.
She’s been a gift, said teacher Pam Somhoff.
Somhoff does not apologize for her tears when she talks about what Ebert-Colella has done for
the community.
“She’s made such an impression on me,” Somhoff said. “Everything she does is for good, every
life she touches, every student she touches, every family she touches. She is just a peaceful
person.” Now it’s official.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677 kathleen.merryman @thenewstribune.com