We are members of the Bookmakers and Dreamers Club a group of students from Groton-Dunstable Regional School District in Massachusetts. Our goal is to
build the biggest book in the world about PEACE. We believe kids CAN
make a difference in helping to create a more peaceful world. Our after-school
club has been meeting since 2004 to create a giant book that tells our story and
includes letters, poetry, artwork, photos and even songs that we have collected
in answer to our questions about world peace.
We have contacted people all over the world and have
received responses from nearly 1000 people including Nobel Laureates President
Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, Dr. Helen Caldicott, and the Dalai Lama. We also
have letters from veterans, soldiers, school children, politicians and religious
leaders.
Bookmakers & Dreamers
Club - Part One
Bookmakers & Dreamers
Club - Part Two
In October of 2004, eight fifth grade students joined a Groton Dunstable
Regional Middle School after-school enrichment program with the intention of
making a book filled with student literary offerings that would be accepted into
the Guinness World Book of Records. That initial project has considerably changed and an even more admirable goal resulted: to make the biggest book in the world about peace.
These optimistic students decided that their book should be 10 feet by 12
feet and would be a volume that was not only large in size, but larger in
stature by making its contents meaningful. Teacher/adviser Betsy Sawyer attended
a Jimmy Cliff concert and brought back a powerful message to her students from
the activist reggae musician, "It's up to us to teach the children about peace"
she described the singer as saying. Cliff also asked his audience, "What have
you done to promote peace lately?"
The Bookmakers and Dreamers took that message to heart and began researching
the topic of world peace. They sent letters to thousands of people around the
world asking for their opinions about peace:
What is world peace?
Would there
ever be world peace?
Where would they like to see the world in 20 years?
Responses began pouring in and to date, the club has received more than 3,000
letters from politicians, veterans, students and teachers to Nobel Laureates
such as Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama. Club members followed advice from
former President Jimmy Carter, himself a Nobel Laureate, and a traveling
ambassador for peace.
President Jimmy Carter
told the students to
chart all of the world's conflicts on a
large map and join other peace initiatives to stay involved in their quest
for peace.
The original members of the Bookmakers and Dreamers Club have now graduated from high school and over 180 other students from Groton Dunstable Middle School have joined the club to continue peace studies along with making the Big Book. Besides researching prospects for peace by writing all of those letters
and mapping the conflicts that continue today throughout the world, the students
have also expanded their academic horizons as their journey has exposed them to
up-to-the-minute technology required in order to make the world's largest book.
They have traveled to the
University of
Massachusetts at Lowell’s Francis College of Engineering to learn about some
engineering concepts in order to choose the proper media on which to print their
giant book. They watched as technicians demonstrated tests for tensile strength
that ultimately determined that
DuPont’s Tyvek� was the media of choice as it was very strong, wouldn’t tear
and was light enough to be practical. People are more often familiar with other
uses for Tyvek such as in the construction trade where it "wraps" buildings to
offer air and water resistance, postal delivery envelopes and protective covers
for boats and cars.
The next step in the process required some expertise in printing "really big"
things. Some research lead teacher Betsy Sawyer to seek the help of a New
England company, EFI VUTEk, a
manufacturer of grand format ink jet printers in Meredith NH. Representatives
from EFI VUTEk offered to provide some technical expertise for the project as
well as donate the huge volume of ink required to print the 500-double sided
page book. (If you think the toner for your computer’s ink jet printer is
expensive, imagine how much ink is required to print such a huge book.)
In order to grasp a better understanding of how the giant printers work, club
members took a field trip 90-miles north to EFI VUTEK’s Meredith NH headquarters
to gain some first hand knowledge about the world of grand format printing. It
was an awesome sight to see club members’ looks of amazement as they watched a
copy of a photo being printed that had been taken of them that morning. The
photo was as large as one of the pages of the book - 10 feet wide by 12 feet
tall!
The staff at EFI VUTEk introduced the Bookmakers and Dreamers to UniGraphic of Woburn, MA, one of New England's leading printing companies that agreed to print the giant tome using the VUTEk GS3250LX. During the students' first trip to visit UniGraphic four years ago, it was then estimated it would take as long as 25-minutes to print each side of 10 foot by 12 foot page. EFI's technology has rapidly changed since that time with the introduction of the more environmentally friendly VUTEk GS3200LX in 2011, and recently purchased by UniGraphic. It is now estimated that it will take only nine minutes for UniGraphic to print each side of a 10 foot by 12 foot page. The 3.2 meter wide LED printer contains no VOCs, uses less consumables, produces less waste, uses less energy. So the printing of the Big Book: Pages for Peace is today a far "greener" project that it was when it was first envisioned in 2004.
Big Book: Pages for Peace, when completed, will be displayed in museums around the world. The club partnered with University of Massachusetts Lowell engineering students who developed a prototype robotic,
automatic page turner
that is one-fourth of the size needed for the final project. Today, the full size robotic page turner is being designed by several volunteer professional engineers from several New England high technology companies. Two of the original project students from UMass Lowell are part of that team. The automatic page turner will allow the masses to view each page of the giant book.
The Bookmakers and Dreamers Club traveled to United Nations Headquarters in New York City as part of the observance
of the International Day of Peace in September of 2008. The students were asked to give a presentation to the annual international youth conference with over 700 attendees within the UN General Assembly and international participation via satellite with students from UN missions in Afghanistan, Liberia and Sudan. The club has been invited back to the UN each year to particpate in the International Day of Peace Ceremonies each September.
These optimistic students decided that their book should be 10 feet by 12
feet and would be a volume that was not only large in size, but larger in
stature by making its contents meaningful. Teacher/adviser Betsy Sawyer attended
a 
The original members of the Bookmakers and Dreamers Club have now graduated from high school and over 180 other students from Groton Dunstable Middle School have joined the club to continue peace studies along with making the Big Book. Besides researching prospects for peace by writing all of those letters
and mapping the conflicts that continue today throughout the world, the students
have also expanded their academic horizons as their journey has exposed them to
up-to-the-minute technology required in order to make the world's largest book.
The staff at EFI VUTEk introduced the Bookmakers and Dreamers to UniGraphic of Woburn, MA, one of New England's leading printing companies that agreed to print the giant tome using the 
