Students gathered on the athletic field at Bridgehampton School and formed a giant peace symbol. Nearby stood a newly installed Peace Pole bearing a simple message in eight languages: May Peace Prevail on Earth.
The ceremony celebrated peace, understanding, and the values students hope to carry into the future. But during preparations for the event, organizers discovered something unexpected about the past.
The Peace Pole had been placed beside a memorial bench honoring former teacher Nancy Bagshaw, a beloved member of the Bridgehampton School community who passed away in 2023.
While helping a student prepare remarks for the dedication, teacher and Interact Club advisor Hamra Deedee Ozsu learned something few people knew about Bagshaw. As a teenager, she had spent a year in Brazil through a Rotary Youth Exchange program.
The discovery transformed the meaning of the ceremony. A Rotary program that had influenced Bagshaw decades earlier had, in a sense, returned to the school community she later helped shape through her years as an educator.
The Peace Pole dedication brought together students, teachers, school administrators, Southampton Rotary members, and community leaders. Student musicians performed during the ceremony, while more than 200 students participated in the Pinwheels for Peace project, placing colorful pinwheels around the grounds as symbols of peace and understanding.
Students selected the languages displayed on the Peace Pole—English, Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Polish, and German—to reflect the diversity of the Bridgehampton School community.
Rocky Point Rotary Past President Kevin Mann, who coordinates Peace Pole installations throughout the region, participated in the dedication. Having attended ceremonies around the world, Mann later described the Bridgehampton event as the most organized Peace Pole dedication he and his wife had ever attended.
The placement of the Peace Pole beside Bagshaw's memorial bench was chosen by students. The decision carried special meaning.
Bagshaw spent her career helping students feel welcomed, valued, and connected. The message on the Peace Pole reflects many of the same ideals.
For current students, the pole serves as a daily reminder that peace is not simply an idea discussed in a classroom. It is found in small choices—in kindness, respect, curiosity, and a willingness to understand people whose experiences may be different from our own.
The words on the Peace Pole are simple. The story behind it is not.
A teacher shaped by a Rotary Youth Exchange program. A generation of students learning the same lessons of understanding and respect. A symbol of peace standing quietly between them.