LAST Friday, Peace For Champs made its third stop in the 2014 campaign at Kingston College in downtown, Kingston.

The 2014 campaign trail got underway with devotions at the Tarrant High School as well as Jamaica College on February 7.

This year’s ambassadors are Miss Jamaica Universe, Kerrie Bayliss and Miss Teen Jamaica, Soyini Phillips. The ambassadors speak at each school visit, prayer breakfasts and the Peace for Champs expositions and concerts about the importance of friendly rivalry and why it should be practiced, imploring the young men and women to support their schools in a respectable manner.

Peace for Champs representatives led the young men in worship, then the participating schools, which included JC and Calabar, were introduced before the transition was made into the performance of the official ‘Peace for Champs’ song.

Finally, the representatives joined hands symbolically and declared “Champs 104. Peace, mek it work fi wi!” — the official motto of the movement.

The Peace for Champs is an initiative of student leaders, under the purview of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Inter-Secondary Schools’ Association (ISSA), which was formed in 2008.

Its aim is to ensure peace during the run-up and the actual event of ‘Champs’.

Since its inception, the JCF/ISSA Peace for Champs initiative has been working hard to ensure that high school violence is not tolerated during the ‘Champs’ season. Annually, the campaign conducts a series of high school tours, which include going into the schools with activities such as taking devotion, prayer breakfasts, as well as the Official Peace for Champs Trophy competition, in order to promote their message of peace.

According to former Kingston College (KC) head boy and outgoing president of the Peace for Champs campaign, Joel Nomdarkham, “these schools include those participating in the Boys’ and Girls’ Championships and those which have an ongoing struggle with the discipline of its students, both internally and towards rival schools”.

Nomdarkham represented the prominent school and regular ‘Champs’ contender KC in the movement, which now involves 25 schools represented by their student leaders, last year. Each school is represented by those student leaders at weekly meetings, held at the Half-Way-Tree Police Station. Nomdarkham says that “last year saw a major decrease in the cases of high school violence, and a through the Peace for Champs movement, history was created in the National Stadium when Kingston College and Calabar supporters had a symbolic coming-together, cheering on their respective schools.”

teenAGE Observer endorses the valiant young representatives and the Peace for Champs initiative, ensuring peace in the lead-up to and at the 2014 ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships.