Amazing Peace: FCS Students Receive Maya Angelou Quarters

The quarters are attached to bookmarks featuring an excerpt from “Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem” by Angelou.

Much like the first line of this excerpt, June has watched hope born in the faces of children at FCS since its founding. She shared that it has been a joy to watch the diversity of the school grow, and she wanted to find a way to celebrate that in words and with a keepsake students could hold onto. 

Getting the coins was not easy. The US Mint released a limited number, many bought by coin dealers in bulk amounts. June found an eBay seller of the commemorative quarters, only to fall short when non-Maya Angelou coins were included. Thanks to friends, the last few needed were located. June spent a long evening taping the hard-won coins to bookmark cards printed by the school. She was thrilled to have them ready to share on a week when Black History Month ended and Women’s History Month began. 

June’s Quakerism has driven all she has done in her adult life and fuels much of her care for the school. In this project she saw an outward expression of the Quaker belief that there is that of God in everyone - the acknowledgement of which leads to peace. As she has watched hundreds of people come through FCS over the years, she sees it as a place where people are invited to “recognize the gifts that each and every person brings whether they are students or staff, parents or maintenance workers. Every single person who comes into the building is a human being who offers themselves as a gift to the community and we need to recognize and respect that.”