At least one little corner of Carbondale is dedicated to world peace.

City officials, members of the Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois and community members turned out Friday morning to dedicate Friendship Plaza’s newest monument – a peace pole. The pole, which has the prayer “May Peace Prevail on Earth” inscribed into it in eight languages, was erected in the northwest corner of the plaza.

In addition to a dedication speech given by Mayor Brad Cole and remarks from Margie Parker, a co-director at the peace coalition, eight members of the community represented the global peace movement by reading the prayer in their native language, including Hebrew, Swahili and Chinese.

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Cole said the whole community worked together to make the peace pole a permanent monument at the plaza, which is located on the corner of Illinois Avenue and Mill Street.

“With the inscription, ‘May Peace Prevail on Earth,’ this pole translates into several languages the message of a prayer for peace,” Cole said. “It represents a connection to the people throughout the world sharing that same prayer.”

Carbondale joined more than 200,000 cities in 180 countries that have dedicated peace poles, according to the World Peace Organization Web site. The peace poles are usually made of environmentally safe materials, such as wood from renewable sources, and have the peace prayer inscribed on them in different languages so communities can show their dedication global to peace, the Web site said.

Lori Senteney, also a co-director of the peace coalition, was chiefly responsible for bringing a pole to Carbondale. She said she got the idea from her brother who works for a peace coalition in northern Illinois. She said he helped install three or four peace poles in northern communities in the past few months, so she decided to bring a pole to the city.

Most peace poles have four to six different languages inscribed on them, according to the World Peace Web site, but Carbondale’s pole has eight languages. The pole at Friendship Plaza also stands taller than most – almost 10 feet out of the ground – and was inscribed using a distinctive method.

Senteney and Shawn Welch, a senior at Cobden High School, prepared the pole together by wood burning the inscriptions into the side. Welch said he worked on the peace pole for a few weeks in between school and other activities.

Senteney said she originally hoped the pole would be placed near the Town Square. But making the peace pole a permanent fixture at Friendship Plaza, along with a sculpture by a local artist and benches honoring Carbondale’s sister cities, made perfect sense to Senteney at the dedication ceremony.

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“The spirit of it is here,” she said.

[email protected] 536-3311 ext. 262