During the Summer of 2004, Recycle-A-Bicycle students from IS 90/Children's Aid Society decided to forgo mapping in favor of a peace quilt. They worked with instructors Rich Conroy and Pasqualina Azzarrello who led field trips, by bicycle, to the United Nations, Amnesty International, Hague Appeal for Peace and other organizations where they got to talk about peace and conflict, and (because this is Recycle-A-Bicycle after all) how bicycling relates to peace at the personal, community, and global levels. 

Students looked both at New York City neighbhorhoods and  at they places around the wolrd that they and their families come from, including Somalia, Barbados, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Ireland, and the US.  In brainstorming the link between peace and recycling, students responded that “recycling fostered less violence, noise pollution and waste, it created more space, people pay attention more and are more creative.”

The 7-week summer project concluded with the students creating a quilt recycled materials to display their message for peace.

The quilt was sewn by Gaelyn and Cianfarani and displayed at a NYC art gallery.