Parasols for peace at Sonoma Plaza

<p>Friday afternoon was sunny and breezy, but about 500 children and adults cheerfully opened their hand-painted umbrellas for a brief stroll around the Sonoma Plaza.</p><p>“It was pretty,” said Siobhan Hernandez, 8, a second-grader at El Verano School and one of the participants in the “Umbrellas for Peace” procession.</p><p>Her rather abstract umbrella design stood for “peace,” she said.</p><p>Classmate Nicole Flores, 8, painted stars and flowers on her umbrella, along with two hearts “for me and a friend,” she said.</p><p>The lighthearted event was co-sponsored by the WillMar Center for Bereaved Children, a Sonoma nonprofit organization, and Matt Lamb, a globetrotting artist and peace activist who led the parade.</p><p>“You people here holding umbrellas are the new leaders of the world,” the white-haired 77-year-old Lamb said, exhorting the marchers. “You will be the people who lead us to peace.”</p><p>Lamb, a former Chicago businessman who turned to art at age 51, launched his “Umbrellas for Peace” project with children who had lost a parent in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.</p><p>He’s since done so many kids marches for peace around the world that he’s lost count, he said.</p><p>“Fabulous,” Lamb said after the march. “I live for these.”</p><p>Sonoma Mayor Ken Brown, wearing blue jeans and flip-flops to lead the procession with Lamb, said events like the Plaza walk are “the best part of my job.” </p><p>The procession included about 350 kids and 150 adults.</p><p>Barbara Cullen, program director at WillMar Center, said the umbrella painting started three weeks ago at the center, which serves children and teens who have experienced the death of a loved one. It branched out to other Sonoma Valley organizations, including the Boys and Girls Clubs, Hanna Boys Center, Mentoring Alliance and Valley of the Moon Children’s Home.</p><p>Oscar Rivas, 7, a first-grader at El Verano School, said the happy faces on his umbrella were “for the mayor.”</p><p>Asked if he feels like a future leader, Rivas looked puzzled. “I don’t know,” he said.</p><p><i>You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.</i></p>