Liberty students help MaPS customers take pledge against violence

Left: MaPS Credit Union customer takes the Hands and Words are not for Hurting pledge with the help of a Liberty Elementary School student. Center: Liberty students ran the "Hands and Words are not for Hurting" booth at the Commercial Street MaPS Credit Union. Right: Fifth-grade students from Liberty helped MaPS customers take the pledge against violence during "Hands and Words are not for Hurting" week.

Liberty Elementary School students helped MaPS Credit Union customers to take the pledge against violence during the Hands and Words are not for Hurting week, which was Oct. 14 - 20. Students set up a booth and asked customers to take the pledge: "I will not use my hands or my words for hurting myself or others." After the pledge, each customer had his/her hand traced on purple paper, his/her name was written on the hand print, and the print was posted on the wall of the credit union.

Schools across the District honored the "Hands and Words are not for Hurting" week with similar activities in which students and staff took the pledge and posted their hand prints on school walls. The \"Hands and Words are not for Hurting" project originated in Salem and has since gone nationwide. The goal is to send the project's message around the world so that one day the purple hand will be an international symbol of the quest to end abuse and violence everywhere.

For more information on the "Hands and Words are not for Hurting" project, go to http://www.handsproject.org/.