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Kids on the Edge of a Minefield | Meeting their hero | The kids are leaders | By Cristian Carlson NINE and 10-year-olds are standing in the middle of a minefield hoping not to get their legs blown off. "To us it's just a game," says Michael, a 4th grader at J.J. Hill Montessori School. "But to kids who have their legs blown off for real, it isn't fun and games." This is how kids in St. Paul attempt to relate to kids who live this experience in real life. The minefield is a drawing and the only penalty for the St. Paul kids that step on a landmine is the humiliation of being handed a wooden leg. Michael and his classmates are young activists. The have written letters to a senator and the President. Both wrote back. They also got a chance to meet their hero, Jody Williams. Meeting their hero "We met Jody!" screamed Emily, a fourth grader, when she met Jody Williams at the 1999 Peace Prize Festival. "We met Jody! She said our letter was beautiful. Come on Lisa, you've got to meet her." Williams met the J.J. Hill kids and is excited by their action. "These young kids learn about children all over the world who have to live in fear every day about getting their leg blown off and they want to do something," says Williams, who won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which she co-founded. William says, "They believe, in their young innocence, that they can make a difference. And if they grow up with that belief, then they'll be active, involved, citizens in the world and they'll make a difference." "We were rolling this huge globe in," says Cate. "I told her that she had to walk up front because she's important and we're nobodies. She said, 'No you're important.' Then she grabbed my hand and made me walk with her." The kids are leaders The J.J. Hill kids were leaders at the 1999 Peace Prize Festival in Minneapolis, which was a forum to educate kids about peace and peacemakers. They began the program with the presentation of a seven-foot round globe, and throughout the day introduced people to their mock mine-field. Lynn Schultz, the children's teacher, says the edict for her kids to work on landmines came from the kids. "We were working on child labor laws, and the kids stumbled across landmines one day," says Schultz. "They have found something that concerns them and they've ran with it. I've just been here for support. It's their mission." Peace Matters home