Some kids return from camp with archery trophies, swimming certificates, or their bunkmate's sweatshirt. But teenager Hila Arie returned to Israel from a special camp in Maine two summers ago with something precious: renewed hope for peace in Israel despite the continuing violence.

Removed from the scene of the violence, the Seeds of Peace International Camp brings together Israeli and Palestinian teens to help them plant the seeds of friendship and understanding. Like at other camps, the teens swim, run, and play soccer. Israelis and Palestinians even team up to compete in a playful color war. But the real conflict back at home is never far from anyone's mind. In emotional "co-existence sessions," campers reveal their feelings of pain and anger and work toward solutions. For example, when her Palestinian bunkmates angrily accused the Israeli army of brutality, Hila supported Israel's defense forces, describing the army's ethical code and reminding her new friends that Israeli soldiers, like her brother, wish they weren't forced to defend themselves against terrorism.

As the campers played, talked, and lived together, they began to understand and appreciate each other. "I stayed up one night talking to Abir, a Palestinian girl," Hila recalls. "She told me about how she was learning Hebrew and trying to understand both sides. And we talked about boys, and somehow something clicked between us," she says.

Meeting Palestinians like Abir, who abhor terrorism and want to reach a peaceful solution, gave Hila renewed hope that carries her through troubled times. A few months after Hila returned from camp, a Palestinian terrorist detonated a bomb at the local shopping mall in Afula, destroying innocent lives and crippling the fragile peace process. "I turned on the television to see the footage," Hila recalls, "and I saw that some of my friends were wounded. My heart was bursting."

Hila turned to her summer-camp photos for comfort. "Tears came to my eyes," she says. "Knowing that my new Palestinian friends want to live peacefully alongside Israel and that they mourn the loss of all innocent life gives me strength. Hope is the only thing we have. If we lose that, we lose everything- it's the greatest tool we have."

As she heard the ambulance sirens cry out in the streets of Afula, Hila cried also. "But it was not tears of despair, but tears shed in hope that God will make a better future," says Hila. "I believe that God wants there to be peace, and there's a reason why a prayer like Oseh Shalom is in the Siddur."

She's convinced that to achieve peace, people must do their part also. "You look at the pictures of the attack and you say: I must not despair, I have to hope for a better future. Something in your heart says: Go out and change the world."

Empowered by her feelings of hope and determined to spread its message, Hila returned to the Seeds of Peace camp this past summer- even after witnessing the Afula attack. As a program graduate, she provided peer support, helping Israelis and Palestinians see past their political differences to their shared humanity. "The camp is like a bubble of peace," she says, "which makes it easier to have hope." She keeps that bubble afloat all year by staying in touch with her new friends through a special chat room where Seeds of Peace graduates build upon their personal relationships, which they hope will change the landscape of the conflict as they become leaders.

Hila's hope is also the greatest gift she can give terror victims and their families. "Sometimes when I see a report on terror attacks, I say Kaddish for the victims," she says. "It's my way of telling them: One day things will be better, I promise you."