Gold Coast Montessori College (9.00am) We had beautiful start to our first day in Queensland, with a visit to a small Montessori school. The children were very interested in hearing about the World Harmony Run and loved watching the video. The children were thrilled to see the team arrive with the Torch and made heartfelt wishes for world harmony. We all sang the World-Harmony-Run song together and then went down to the oval where the children lined up and had a turn of holding the torch. The whole school ran with us to the end of the school and passed the torch from one to another, and excitedly waved us good-bye as we ran off.

Broadbeach Mall Launch - Gold Coast (11.30am) We had an uplifting launch of the World Harmony Run in Queensland at the Broadbeach Mall on the Gold Coast. It began with the Harmony Run team running the Torch into the Mall and passing it to Adrian Burragubba, a well respected Aboriginal man from the Wiri Clan from BiriGuba.

The Torch was then passed to a line of students from Broadbeach Primary School, Jade Welch an employee from Crazy Clark’s, Christiane Waldorf from Funky Sun Café & Bar, Belinda Meekcoms Niecon Plaza & Tower, Don Jones President of Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce.

Broadbeach Primary School students then carried on the Torch to the beach, where 200 white balloons and 8 white doves were released for world harmony against a spectacular ocean backdrop.

We would sincerely like to thank Corinne Pettersen, the Marketing & Communications Executive from Broadbeach Marketing and her team for organising the whole event.

Mudgeeraba Primary (1:30pm) We arrived at Mudgeeraba Primary school to be welcomed by a huge assembly of children clapping. After a beautiful introduction by the school principal, we gave an overview of the World Harmony Run and its aims and ideals. Following this, we gathered outside on the oval with 700 children from the school to commence the outside ‘ceremony.’ The children gathered in a circle and one of the World Harmony runners ran around the outside of the children whilst the children cheered and clapped. All of the children were eager to get a glimpse and a touch of the torch, so when the opportunity arose for each to hold, there were smiles all round! The highlight of this event was when numerous children lined up in succession to be part of a relay. Here the children ran around the oval passing the torch from one student to the other. The speed at which the children were running was very impressive (watch out Carl Lewis!!). All in all it was a very inspiring and enjoyable visit!

Pimpama Primary (2:00pm) Half of the Harmony Run team visited Pimpama Primary school at 2pm. This was such a special, warm little school. The whole school (140 students) assembled in the music room and, after a little introduction, the runners came in with the torch, causing quite a sensation. We then watched a DVD of the Run, which was very well received, particularly with the younger students who couldn’t help singing “Run, run, run, run ,run run…” every few seconds. The questions and answers were largely supplied by boisterous grade ones and twos, but it was also very nice to see the upper grades showing interest and volunteering to answer questions. We were especially impressed when they joined in singing the song so enthusiastically too!

For such a tiny population, the school boasted a very, very large oval. It was quite spectacular to see all these little people spread out in such a huge circle, each child waiting solemnly for their turn to hold the torch. But the real highlight was watching the torch actually being passed. The principal himself took the torch around to every student on that enormous oval and allowed each child to hold it for at least 5 seconds so they could close their eyes and make a sincere wish for world harmony.

There were still many students waiting for their turn when the bell went at 3 o’clock, and parents were starting to arrive, but the principal still made sure that each student had a proper chance to hold the torch and make their wish. And the children all took it so seriously, screwing up their eyes and bowing their heads when their turn came. It was this kind of sincerity and enthusiasm that reminded us what we were actually running for, and the impact such a special event can have on the people we visit.

We started relay running from the Gold Coast to Brisbane at 3:30pm, and arrived in Brisbane around 7:30pm. Thanks to Nigel, David and John, who were our star runners, and to the rest of the team for chipping away at those miles. Well done guys!

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