Meet the February MVP - Angela Wirt | Called to Be a Peacemaker
By Barbara Myers Myers Mason APR

Angela Wirt never saw herself as a person of great influence—until she discovered the power of peace. As president of the Rotary Club of Gwinnett Sunrise, she found inspiration in Rotary’s focus on peace and conflict resolution. What started with one Peace Pole at a Texas elementary school has grown into a movement, fostering hope, conversations, and change in communities near and far.

Read more about Angela’s journey and how small actions can create a lasting impact.

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Angela Wirt considers herself an ordinary person with “no positions of great importance. Nothing to wield influence within the community,” she said.

Yet, she acknowledges, “I have been called by my faith to be a peacemaker in whatever capacity I can find.”

She recalls that when she first became president of the Rotary Club of Gwinnett Sunrise, she was “struck” by Rotary’s Areas of Focus, especially peace and conflict resolution.

“To me, peace was helping in a war-torn area, and I didn’t know what we could do to offer our help, especially being a smaller club.”

She came to understand that peace means something different to everyone and human beings need peace to help face individual battles. “Opening up conversations about peace became my focus,” she said.

Realizing the Impact of a Peace Pole

At the time, Wirt’s youngest son, Andrew, was a first year Teach for America teacher at Carman Anaya Elementary School in Pharr, Texas, located on the border of Texas and Mexico. Andrew told her stories of how the children and their parents lived between the two countries, and struggled with education and employment.

Her Rotary Club discussed how they could help. Around the same time, Wirt read an article about the Rotary Peace Pole project. “It seemed so simple,” she said, “to put a pole with a message of peace prevailing on earth to help offer a solution.”

With school approval, the project began.

“Seeing the way not only the school, but the parents and the community rallied behind the Peace Pole was overwhelming,” she said. A ceremony was planned and students, teachers and parents attended, along with school board members and the media. Even that year’s Rotary District 6910 Governor David Cooper came to Texas for the ceremony. The students thought he was the Governor of Georgia, Wirt said with a smile.
To garner a sense of ownership, each child was invited to bring a stone, painted with a message of peace to lay at the base of the pole. The school choir sang a song about peace.  Wirt spoke at the ceremony explaining that Carmen Anaya, the school’s namesake, was a peacemaker. “She fought for the rights of the people in the Los Milpas community and, because of her, changes were made to the area,” Wirt said. “It gave the students a concrete example of how to become a peacemaker.”

The ceremony was not the end of the Rotary Club’s involvement in Pharr. Over the years, the club planted an olive tree so the children could learn about this peace symbol. The tree became a source of food and shelter for migrating birds and helped the school achieve the ‘Wildlife Refuge’ distinction. The club installed benches, and the school counselors used the area to have conversations with students. The club provided students with the book, ‘Putting Peace First’ and it became the theme for the school year. Over 1,000 pencils branded with encouraging messages to use on test days were given to students.

“The children knew they came from the same source as the Peace Pole and felt special that people so far away cared about them,” Wirt said.

The pole also opened up areas of conversation about manners and how simple acts of common courtesy are a form of peace.

“Hearing stories of the children asking their bus driver to stop at ‘their’ Peace Pole was encouraging,” Wirt said.

To date, the club has installed four peace poles including one in Snellville’s Brisco Park in 2017, Gwinnett’s first Peace Pole, and The Grove in 2023, and one on the Lawrenceville Green in 2020, alongside three other Gwinnett Rotary clubs.

Discovering the True Meaning of Rotary

Wirt joined Rotary in 2013 to provide a networking opportunity and to meet like-minded individuals and has found so much more. Now, she considers her fellow club members a part of her family. She also greatly enjoys the aspect of Rotary that gives her an opportunity to offer insight into areas that may be overlooked in her community, state and the world.

Married to Mark Wirt for 40 years this June, she works as an office manager for a CPA group in Lawrenceville. The couple has two adult children, and Wirt considers her family her greatest achievement. “Watching them live our faith and values whether that is through supporting food banks in their communities or teaching in underserved areas,” is gratifying. Her family has enjoyed being a GRSP host family five times.
Other volunteer activities involve serving at her church and at Maryfield, the Monastery of the Visitation of Holy Mary in Snellville.

She said, “For me planting Peace Poles gives me hope.  By starting conversations and understanding that peace has many meanings.  Not just wars, but battles fought on a day-to-day basis whether that be homelessness, food shortage, being bullied, not fitting in, it all needs peace.  And when we understand that and do something about it, no matter how big or how small, it brings peace to our communities.  In a lot of ways, the Peace Pole reminds me of our club.  We are a small club, but when we come together, we can do great things.”

“I am proud to be able to stand in the silent vigil of the Peace Pole and offer my help and support for peace to prevail on earth,” Wirt said.