me to we
Spotlight: Anne Keiser
Anne B. Keiser has been a decade-long supporter of Dream Banners, and recently recalled the origins of placing dreams on pieces of fabric, stringing them together and putting them on display.
The idea grew out of a presentation she gave to a sixth graders at a suburban Philadelphia girls school about her book on early 20th century explorer Sir Edmund Hillary and the Sherpas of Mount Everest.
“I talked a lot about Buddhist Prayer Flags, which are all over the region. Buddhist prayers are inscribed on all the flags, and the idea is that the winds carry the prayers up to the gods who live in the heavens in the Himalayas.”
At the time, the students were also studying the poetry of Langston Hughes, a Harlem Renaissance writer who penned the famous poem “The Dream Keeper.” A student suggested putting their dreams on flags and sending them up to the poet, Keiser said.
“The project grew exponentially over the next few years, first regionally, then eventually connecting kids all over the world who would share their dreams, their fears, their hopes,” she reminisced. At first the flags were shown in a single location, but as the project grew and involved other schools, larger combined exhibitions and readings were staged in the Philadelphia region.
As the Dreamline, the project reorganized as an independent non-profit organization and went online in 2016, and has since expanded its reach to schools and communities all over the world.
In 2011, Keiser traveled with several school-age children to the Mount Everest region to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first school that Sir Edmund Hillary built for the Sherpas in the Himalayas, a legendary mountain range in Nepal, which separates India and Tibet in Asia. Hillary built 26 schools in the Khumbu region, where there were none.
“We carried with us flags from The Agnes Irwin School and hung them in the Khumjung School yard alongside flags the students from that school had made,” Kesier said. “Students took turns reading and sharing their dreams to villagers who had gathered from all the area villages in the schoolyard as part of the multi-day celebration.”
Today, Keiser remains one of Dreamline’s most stalwart supporters and longest-running donors, providing financial support for more than a decade. She said one of her most moving experiences was watching the Nepalese and American schoolchildren interact.
“As the world shrinks due to instant communication, with the ability for students to connect globally and share their hopes, dreams and concerns, organizations like Dreamline serve as a vehicle of connectivity,” said Keiser.
To date, the Dreamline program has been incorporated into classrooms in over 55 countries and in most states in the United States, with more than 160,000 students participating.
“My hope for Dreamline is that it continues to move forward and align with current times and circumstances and address challenges that we face in today’s complex world. Having students communicate with each other and sharing their thoughts is more important than ever these days, especially with greater ease of communication.”
