Living My Dream: A Children's Wish for Peace

By Trish Booth

A dream that became reality, and a hope to inspire many on earth.

A new beginning. An ordinary human being, a shy and yet caring character. A thoughtful person, someone who rotated her life and transformed it into a peaceful and adventurous one. Trish was just like everyone else, she worked and was a housewife. Trish now has a totally different perspective on life as a whole. She takes on challenges and inspires others along the way. She looks at life with the desire to fulfil and enjoy it; she knows that there is more to lifemore that can be achieved.

Trish now participates in various voluntary activities, as well as public speaking, as she shares her story and talks about the Schools' International Peace Quilt.

Trish had a dream. A dream to unite the world in peace and harmony. Trish is essentially living her dream. From the safety of her Guisborough (North Yorkshire) kitchen table an amazing cultural journey woven with passion and determination, spiced with the complexities of our society, unfolds. Trish founded The Schools' International Peace Quilt, uniting schools internationally. Children sent in drawings that were transformed into something sensational, a most brilliant piece of art a quilt, with over 200 countries involved! The quilt now travels throughout the world for all of those children and the rest of the world to see.
Trish Booth has most certainly caught the eyes of many across the world. Trish has most certainly Lived Her Dream
(William Booth,age 14).

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Apr 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491887585

Trish Booth

Trish Booth was born in Co. Wexford, Ireland. She is mother of two boys, and is just like any ordinary human being strolling the earth. A shy, thoughtful and creative person, Trish had a part-time job as a barmaid, and holds various fitness qualifications. Trish went from being all of this into being a wonderful inspiring person. Trish has committed her life to many voluntary activities within her community. Trish was also part of The P.T.A. (Parents & Teachers Association) group at one of her sons’ schools. Trish is also involved in the King George V Playing Fields Group, a group dedicated to protecting the fields for society and to further promote the name of King George V. Trish had a dream. A dream to unite the world in peace and harmony: world peace, you might call it. Trish is the founder of “The Schools' International Peace Quilt,” a project that has united over 200 countries. Children from all these countries submitted drawings, which were then transformed into a great big quilt for all to see. It was a brilliant adventure, full of peace and harmony. Trish Booth has inspired many along the way on her exotic adventure. Trish has fulfilled her most ordinary life and, most extraordinarily, stood up for peace in the world, for all to see. Trish Booth has most certainly “Lived Her Dream.” (William Booth, age 14)

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© 2014 Trish Booth . All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/23/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8757-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8758-5 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

Idea

Course on Health Related Exercise for Children

November 27 to 31, 2008: The HRE Assessment

February 2009: The HRE for Children Exam

The Idea Progresses

The Leadership and Governance Course

A Week in My Life at This Point

Peace Quilt Policy

Trip to Westminster, November 16, 17, 18, 2010

Living My Dream

January 2011 to December 2011

Visit to Entebbe, Uganda, November 2011

Living My Dream

January 2012 to December 2013

PEACE IN OUR WORLD!

For the future.

I dedicate this book to my two gorgeous, wonderful sons and to every other child who walks this earth! To everyone who has played a part in this project, thank you so very, very much. There are many students and their teachers without whom it would not have been possible. The numerous people who have contributed have all made a difference in creating this project. Thank you—especially to my family for putting up with me through it all!

My intention is for everyone who reads this story to be left with a course of action and the inspiration to do positive things in our world. God bless.

Though it is a true story, some names have been changed to protect people’s privacy.

Introduction

What an amazing journey the Schools’ International Peace Quilt project has been! There is a quote that says, Nothing happens unless first a dream. This was one such dream!

Ever since my younger days, I often had the feeling of wanting to help people but never really did anything about it. This was mostly because I thought I couldn’t make a difference or didn’t know how I would go about it; I just didn’t have a clue.

I remember a bad experience at school. I was never asked to speak in front of the class in all of my five years in secondary school, except for one occasion. Whatever I said that day came out all wrong, and the whole class stared at me. Feeling so embarrassed and humiliated, I swore never to speak in front of anybody again. I realise now that it was this subconscious fear of humiliation that held me back for so long. I felt my dreams were never going to come true. Feeling that recurring fear, the usual cycle would follow with anything I wanted to do in my life. I would think, I would love to do that, but then I would feel so helpless and useless, because I believed that I couldn’t! I was trapped in my own thoughts of not being good enough. From a very early age, I think I had an underlying passion for peace; I recall that at school I would draw the word peace and doves on the inside cover of my copybooks. But most of my life I spent inside my own quiet world, keeping to myself. So this is my story of how someone can change from being quiet to retiring as someone who wishes to take on the world and even help to bring about world peace.

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This is a drawing I did while in secondary school and have kept to this very day. I guess it is about thirty-odd years old! I notice that I have only coloured in the olive branch and the cross. Either I didn’t have time to do the rest or felt these were the important parts.

In 2000, after my husband and I moved to the United Kingdom from Ireland with our one-year-old son, William, my good friend Cath told me, There is a bar job going in the local club. I know you can do it.

That is where Cath worked part time. My self-confidence was practically nil, except around horses, where most of my life had previously been spent. But Cath believed in me—and still does to this very day. I took the job, and with Cath’s help and support, I went from being red-faced and shy in front of the customers to being confident and chatty—well, most of the time. So, for the next eight years that was my life, moving between home life and three work shifts in the club. I was happy enough.

It was 2005 when my second son, Joseph, arrived in the world. I took only a short time out from work. If I remember correctly, I took only four months off before returning. My good health at the time I put down to half-hour walks every day, come hail or snow, in the Pinchinthorpe Woods at Guisborough. Interval hill work proved valuable for race horses, so I assumed that it would work well for humans, too. This proved to be correct!

Back at work, things were going as well as could be, but I started to feel that work was not such a challenge any more. I had stayed there so long mostly because of the very good friends I’d made. I continued to go through the motions, as you do from time to time.

Then, in February 2008, Carmela, a friend from the United States, came to visit out of the blue. She was looking to expand her exercise and fitness business, The Honouring My Body Workout and Quality of Life Program, but she also wished to catch up with our twenty-five-year friendship. Carmela was so full of energy, a total inspiration, as she explained how she had overcome barriers to get where she was. She arrived at a time in my life when I felt I was in a total rut. She spent the summer with our family in between her trips to Germany to see her own relations there. We had many moments of reflection, and Carmela instilled in me, Trish, you can do more with your life.

Once my friend had returned to the States, refreshed by her visit, I began signing up for various courses—it’s never too late, you know! First Aid was one course, and I studied a public licence exam for which I received a qualification in July—which meant I could possibly run my own pub/bar. As mentioned earlier, being a barmaid had been my part-time job for eleven-plus years.

Though health has always been important to me, after the experience of Carmela’s three-times-a-week workout and exercise programme, I now had a passion for fitness too. During this programme, I had begun to realise what having true energy felt like and the difference it was making to my ability to live life. The next step was to take on a Health Related Exercise for Children course, which was really stepping outside my comfort zone. Around the same time, in September 2008, I had the idea which was to propel me from being an ordinary housewife/barmaid to taking on a massive global project. I am still pretty much the same person underneath, but I have grown in confidence and possibly knowledge along the way.

Idea

That particular night in September 2008, I asked myself what I would choose to do if there were nothing to stop me.

With all my newfound energy, I sometimes had feelings of being able to take on anything. Lying quietly on my bed one evening, I thought, I want to unite schools all around the world, to bring them all together. As I said previously, peace and unity had played a big part in my thoughts from a very young age; I had even owned a racehorse called Peaceful Waters. I remember that on the actual day my mum and I went to purchase this beast, we were both thrilled to be taking home a horse that had been owned by the family of a well-known singer. We didn’t pay much for her, and I might add that she never did turn out to be a world beater. I do now wonder at the significance of being drawn to the name.

So my thoughts progressed to uniting children through the use of exercise, as this is what I had been studying for. I was thinking of the Olympics being held in London in 2012, so the idea to unite schools could be a celebration of that. I’d always loved watching the Olympics—they have always been such an inspiration. That’s it! I thought. Perfect! I was inspired by this idea and immediately jumped up to email Carmela. I wanted to bring the world together through schools, hence my attachment to having every single country involved in the upcoming project, as you will later learn.

I was so excited, thinking, Gosh, if I can do this… The thought did send a tingle down my spine! In the meantime, I started to think that I would need loads of training, hence the importance at that point of doing as many courses as possible. What else would I need to make this happen?

However, I did sit on the idea for a whole year before deciding to go forward with it. Inspired then, I began to think, How will I go about it? I figured the training should come first, as I needed to be qualified as a fitness instructor before anyone would take me seriously.

Course on Health Related Exercise for Children

In September 2008 I enrolled in a course called Health Related Exercise (HRE) for Children. Considering the fact that I did not have a clue of the intricacies of teaching exercise, and the fact that I was not a very confident person, I am still surprised that I did this. In the meantime, I began a weekly Paediatric First Aid course, which started on 19 September 2008. The HRE coursework arrived on the first of October, and I was a little daunted by all the work ahead of me before the three-day weekend training session in November.

There was not much time, so I got cracking straight away while continuing with the weekly exercise classes and first-aid course. I was aiming to do three hours of study a day, at least. On 15 October, I volunteered for Joseph’s school’s PTFA (Parents, Teachers and Friends Association) group, having also begun to attend a ten-week business workshop on Wednesday evenings. Slowly but surely my life was beginning to fill up. Little did I know how full it would become!

On 24 October 2008 I had a job interview at a primary school in Redcar, to teach exercise classes in the school. Surprisingly, I felt more confident than usual, and the interview went well. Even though hopeful, I think I knew in my heart that I was lacking in experience. The feedback was great, and I was told that I had narrowly missed out. Maybe the interview had been a little too soon. If only I had done all my training before this, my life might have turned out so differently, but for the moment it was asking a bit too much.

On 19 November I attended the first PTA meeting—how nervous I was back then in this kind of setting! I literally would shake in meetings, even though I knew I did not necessarily have to speak. At the very first business workshop session when we all had to introduce ourselves, my legs were shaking under the table! The fact that I had felt quite confident for the school interview was most certainly out of character—God knows where that strength had come from.

November 27 to 31, 2008: The HRE Assessment

On 27 November I drove to Winston in Cheshire for the three days of fitness-assessment sessions. My goodness, what on earth had I gotten myself into? The written exam went very well, as did most of the oral classroom work. Top marks! However, my practical left a lot to be desired. Talk about being a fish out of water; if ever the saying was true, it was in this case. Everyone else in this course seemed to have lots more experience than I did; goodness, they were personal trainers, fitness instructors, karate instructors, teachers, and so on. Every single one had been teaching in some way beforehand. There’s one particular guy I remember because he was so helpful. He knew I was finding the practical extremely difficult, but he helped me through it. A couple of the practice sessions involved teaching my comrades. Now, remember, I’d never even spoken in front of a class throughout school, except for that one time in secondary school that finished me for life (or so I thought). I was so, so nervous that I was shaking, which I normally did at even the thought of standing up and being counted. The last time I walked out of the fitness-assessment classroom, I distinctly heard a voice in my head saying, Remember, you have come so far. The problem was that getting that far had happened in a matter of months. Why hadn’t I done this kind of course when I was in my twenties!

Then it was on to a self-development course in Bristol, in February 2009. Individuals were standing up to say what they wanted most in their lives. Many said more money, love, a good job, or whatever. I remember distinctly putting my hand up and being called on to say my bit. I want to unite schools around the world. That was it, short and sweet. Afterwards, a lady said to me that uniting schools sounded the most interesting to her.

February 2009: The HRE for Children Exam

The few days before I intended to teach a children’s class for my exercise exam, I was running around the neighbourhood, encouraging eight young children to participate, one of whom was my eldest son, William. Peter, a friend from work, taped the exam session for a DVD; it was done with very little preparation and practically no practice at teaching! Amazingly, everything went really well with me stepping into teacher mode—well, except for one instance, when my son and his best friend, Edward, decided to mess about. That they were being filmed was most likely the propelling force. It must be one of the first instances in my life when I had to be firm. I was determined that I was going to pass this exam, and if it meant me reprimanding my son during the exam, then so be it. After all, a fitness instructor who allowed children to do whatever they liked in class was most likely not going to pass, anyway. I had to do what I had to do! After this little episode, the class settled down. I began to enjoy the whole thing, and I think the children did too.

Amazingly, when the results came back, I had passed! So then I really began to think, If I can do this, I can do anything!

The Idea Progresses

In July 2009, I decided to take on a three-month long course which involved doing projects, as again, I felt this was important for my training. The idea of the course was to take a real-life project designed to contribute to other people and apply what you had learned from the course. I knew I needed to learn about things like making contacts, planning (my weak point), and organisation.

Now, this was to propel me right into the heart of my community, something I had avoided most of my life. We were given a project plan and asked to complete a project of our choosing within the three months. I could hardly believe it! How on earth could anyone do a project in three months, unless it was a fairly easy one? So I chose to do a small tidy-up of the over grown common areas on my housing estate, thinking that it was probably too easy but at least feeling sure I would get it done in time. Little did I know how even a small project could have so much red tape attached!

As I was beginning to make contacts in the community, I met Lynda, and I told her, I would like to do a tidy-up on our estate. I remember her face at the time; her expression said, Oh no! I tried to reassure her that everything would be fine and that this would be different. Don’t ask me how it was going to be any different. Lynda gave me the names of a few contacts that could help, and she invited me to a community meeting or two. Lynda, a strong character herself, has been a rock of support throughout the past few years, and thanks to her positivity, I learned a lot from that tidy-up project and beyond.

How difficult it is to get over some barriers, but unbelievably, gaining permissions was the most difficult part of all. The biggest lesson I learned through this was never to give up—although there were times when I was pushed to the wall, and that was all I wanted to do! At that time, Lynda was also in the process of setting up a new voluntary group in the area. Well, to make a long story short, I became the chairperson of this group. Experience I had none; again I was thrown in at the very deep end, but I learned to swim—and quick! This group was called ‘Friends of the Playing Fields’, and my work there was to continue alongside the other project right up to and after the Olympic Games. Again, not knowing what I had gotten involved in, I found being chair of this group a real eye-opener to the world!

It was 15 August 2009, and having been called for an assessment to do a personal-trainer course in Leeds, I decided to bring the whole family along so we could have a weekend away at the same time. Besides being very nervous before the assessment, I was thinking, "If I am successful, how on earth will I fit this course in? Good question. It would mean travelling to Leeds for many days to learn the coursework. The assessment seemed to be going okay, until I mentioned in my one-on-one interview the issue of paying for the Health Related Exercise course for children. Then I noticed a change in my assessor. The pound signs were showing. I am guessing his thoughts were something along the lines of She could pay to do this course." Obviously, that would have been out of the question, as it would cost a couple of thousand pounds, whereas the other course was just a few hundred.

We enjoyed our weekend in Leeds, but I was not hopeful. On returning to Guisborough, I met Josephine, whom I had not seen for a while. Josephine had been my boss when I did bar work in a local golf club. This was a second part-time job I’d had for a while. She asked me, What are you up to these days, Trish? We haven’t met in ages!

I replied, I have just come back from Leeds, after doing a personal-trainer assessment, but I am not very hopeful.

To this Josephine said, Trish, you would be good at that sort of thing. I think I knew as well that I could be, if only given the chance.

It was 18 August 2009. It hasn’t taken long for the reply from the personal-trainer assessment, and not unexpectedly, I did not succeed. They invited me to pay to do the course! I wonder why on earth I told them I had paid for the other course. That was only a few hundred—I could not afford to pay thousands. Who did they think I was, Rockefeller? Feeling as you do after having a knock-back, down on the one hand but also determined not to give in, I decided to look up courses to see if there was a cheap one online which I could do from home.

On the first of September, I ordered the ACE Personal Trainer course material; their course had received good reviews online. I thought this would be better than attending classes, as I would be able to do the study in my own time, and I would be able to carry on with all the voluntary work I was now doing. In a few days, the study work arrived. Wow! When I saw the size of the book, I thought, How on earth am I going to get through all that, nearly 600 pages in A4 size, and small writing, too! Doing three night shifts in the club every week and still getting up for school meant there were days when I was exhausted. As they say, When the going gets tough, the tough get going! Or, on the other hand, maybe I was just crazy!

At this point, becoming more involved in the community and actually enjoying it, I decided to do a local committee-training course. It involved several sessions on how committees worked, how to chair meetings, take minutes, and suchlike. It was run by our local volunteer organisation and proved a real help, particularly as I was finding my feet on the whole chairing business. The first session was to begin on 30 September.

I thought it was time to get back to the initial idea, and on 21 September 2009, I decided to contact a lady called Helen in a peace organisation in London. My intention was to get feedback on this dream of mine. Believe me, at the time I did not know that 21 September was Peace Day, a day that has proven significant in the spirit of this project.

I have a return message on 6 October in the evening, after the local tidy-up project had finished. The tidy-up project had proved to be my baptism into community work. Despite the barriers that we had had to overcome, we did get to finish it! Sitting and taking in Helen’s email for a few minutes, I was a little mesmerised at her reply having arrived the evening after this project had finished. Helen suggested that my original idea of uniting schools through exercise was a bit adventurous to accomplish for 2012. Her recommendation was doing a collage of drawings instead. This could all be done on the Internet to create a more manageable project. Compared to what I had previously wished to do, surely this was a much easier way! The end result would be a big collage of peace, representing children across the world.

I took this email as the prompt for the next thing—the dream to unite schools and the whole world in peace! Was this dream too big?

So, in the meantime, I decided to suss out the Olympic coordinators, knowing they would already be planning things for the Games. The first point of contact, Michael, thought it all sounded like an exciting concept. Michael was the programmer for Yorkshire and Humber. The programme he was coordinating was an opportunity for outstanding non-commercial projects and events to be part of London 2012. Michael went on to give a brief summary of the programme, also attaching an information leaflet.

The Inspire Programme

• The programme recognises and supports outstanding non-commercial projects and events inspired by the games coming to the UK.

• We’re looking for innovative projects and events that are about excellence, personal best, and participation across the themes of sport, culture, education, sustainability, volunteering, and business opportunities.

• Yorkshire already boasts several outstanding Inspire projects; our aim is to open up hundreds of opportunities like this and inspire people throughout the region to join in!

Michael thought this project had the potential to be part of the Cultural Olympiad. He provided a link where I could get in touch with my region’s creative programmer, who would be able to offer advice on shaping the project. I was not to hesitate to call him with any further questions.

I thought of how upbeat and helpful Michael was—this was another positive response. My next move was to contact our North-East coordinator. Messaging Michael, I explained that I had found the North-East coordinator’s name in the art council but not her email address. Again very helpful, he sent the address and kindly wished me luck with the project.

Proceeding to send an email to the Arts Council, I asked our contact, Sarah, for her thoughts on the proposed project. She emailed back with many questions about who my partners were, what funding I had, and what my role was in the project; she advised that she still considered the project very ambitious. If I were able to give them a bit more information to go on (which was all very understandable), then they might be able to help with unseen links and possible discussion. At this point, I did not have the answers to all these questions, and really, I just wanted to know whether it was worth going ahead.

Sarah was not saying it was impossible, of course—just a huge organisational feat!

On 17 December 2009, I got in touch with Helen again in London, giving her the Art Council’s response. I was beginning to waver a bit, accepting that it might be too much to take on, especially as I was mostly alone on the project at this stage. Though I did add that I was not going to give up easily. But maybe those were just words!

In early January 2010 I heard back from Helen. You are right not to give up, she told me, and she went on to say, It’s funny, we have an article in today’s paper about the project we fund in Newham, called Truce, and a peace builder from Mozambique—but in the article it talks about the power of one person to achieve real change. What you say below about not giving in too easily just reminded me of this.

Helen told me that the peace builder from Mozambique taught youngsters the following:

• that you don’t always have to have a Plan B if you believe strongly enough in Plan A;

• that there is always something that can be done and that you shouldn’t expect someone else to do it;

• that, with patience, just one person can make a massive difference;

• that if you put your heart and soul into something, then anything is possible.

It was certainly very inspiring and encouraging to read this article. Strange how Helen happened to read this piece today and was then able to remind me how one person can make a difference. I was not going to be stopped by a list of unanswerable questions—not yet, anyway.

Helen gave me some links to organisations that worked with school partnering, and she suggested contacting local schools to see whether they had partner schools abroad. Helen sounded really interested in the idea; she also suggested a teacher in Manchester who was implementing a peace syllabus at the time. This teacher might be interested in getting involved or at least be a good contact to bounce ideas off. Helen said she could put me in contact.

I always maintain that this project was meant to be, and everyone who prodded it along certainly made sure of that. So I send grateful thanks to all of you who did so. Not being stopped at the very first hurdle was key!

It was 5 January 2010 and time to book a place for the ACE Personal Trainer Exam. Talk about cramming for an exam! The amount of study I had to get through by February was unreal. Studying up to twenty hours some weeks on top of everything else that was going on in my life was literally too much, but I knew it had to be done to achieve the end result. There was the option to wait another six months for the next exam, but I felt I had to do it now—and pass, at that. There was something driving me onwards!

On the opposite side of the sphere, on 12 January we eventually had our local playing field meeting, which we had postponed the previous week because of snow. Something reared its head at this meeting which went on to cause major issues regarding the playing fields and affect future projects which our group and others wished to carry out. I need to add at this point that probably everyone in our town believed these special fields to be held in a charitable trust and safekeeping for ever more, amen.

The meeting minutes, as read, follow.

8. Playing Field Site Legalities

The Legal Section within the council have been contacted regarding the Covenant. Basically, there are legal issues regarding the proposed use of the playing field area by the user groups; the Council is to take legal advice and inform the friends group once the legal situation is clear. The process will take some months.

Actions: Waiting for answers from Fields in Trust/Council

Actually, this would take years rather than months! Please note that a covenant is a written agreement or promise between two or more parties, usually under seal, especially for the performance of some action.

The same day, a message from Helen said that the teacher contact she had mentioned would be happy to speak about the proposed project. Lucy Tasker, a Citizenship teacher, had been working on a peace syllabus in her school. Helen had given Lucy some background for the project, the idea of creating a collage of peace from children all over the world to be exhibited for 2012. Helen explained how it could involve school linking, possibly beginning with the schools in the United Kingdom.

Anyway it’s all just an idea at the moment, but Trish has been talking to someone at the Olympics, and she has heaps of enthusiasm to make the project work, and I just wondered if this might be something you would be interested in being involved with? Even if just as a sounding board to give advice on involving schools?

As Lucy was happy for me to get in touch, Helen passed on her email address and asked that I let her know how everything went. When I contacted Lucy on 20 January, she seemed happy to help, and we set up a call to discuss the project.

On 2 February, with this new information and support added to my bow, I got in touch once more with Sarah, our local creative programmer. Attempting to relay the extra support I now had, I mentioned Lucy being a citizenship teacher who was willing to help and who had been involved in other peace initiatives. The Manchester School had links to other schools around the world and Lucy had passed a contact for another peace organisation that also had several school links. Thinking ahead, I decided to get in touch with this organisation once I’d finished my Personal Trainer exam. I reiterated Helen’s support. Going on to ask advice on who the best partner organisation might be for the project, I suggested all kinds of people, from the playing fields new group, to our school PTA group, to my local community development officer, Lynda, and their departments.

The very same day, Lucy and I created the International Peace Quilt project on the phone. We spoke about the art designs, the size, etc. Lucy suggested the quilt part; I had no clue about quilting or how it was done; I was really just trusting that this was how it was all meant to happen. I did have faith in the project, which was to stick with me most of the way. Quilting was some form of sewing, I guessed. We already knew the project was going to be a wish for peace, incorporating this into the sentence