In honor of United Nations Day on Oct. 24, the Edgartown School held its annual ceremony in the gym with a powerful message about the importance of community service, and getting to know and understand classmates and neighbors in order to foster a more peaceful world, starting with your own town.

The agenda included an introduction by principal John Stevens, seventh and eighth grade presentations of the 59 U.N. flags, and a guest presentation by high school students about their summer experience in Haiti helping the impoverished. It concluded with schoolwide recitation of United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the raising of the U.N. flag.

Oct. 24 has been celebrated annually as United Nations Day since 1948.