Our first ceremony since coming to Australia began this morning at Milpera State High School where we were greeted by Acting Principal Helen Byrne. She told us about the school and its purpose of helping immigrants and refugees to start a new life, teaching them English, and how to live and work in harmony before they start to attend public or private schools. When we met the kids in the school yard they were really glowing with happiness, enthusiasm and smiling like anything for they knew the purpose of the Run and its was as though they had never done anything else than live in harmony. A few children even remembered the Run from Samoa some years before.


Helen Byrne gave a very nice welcoming speech to the runners then passed the microphone to our country coordinator who spoke on the the goal of the Run and its founder Sri Chinmoy and then called on the runners to introduce themselves and announce the countries they had come from, all to big cheers from the children.


We then watched a DVD about the event with pictures from around the world and you could see on their faces how much the children appreciated the Run.


The children then performed the world Harmony Run theme song under the direction of Tania Belil, Milpera's music teacher, in six different languages from six continents – very beautiful and with so much joy.


Then Deputy Director Cathy Pappalardo and Donna Torr, on behalf of their class, presented 13 children with the Milpera Harmony Award for creating harmony in their classroom and school. Then each of the children who received the award gave a heartfelt talk on how we can all live in more harmony and peace.


Milpera State High School was then presented with a Torch-Bearer Award medallion and certificate that acknowledged Milpera as a harmony builder and harmony lover.

We sang the 'Thank You' song written by Sri Chinmoy for all their support and enthusiasm. And then the two main music teachers and music therapists Tania Belil and Girano sang the school song for us. After some time a young schoolboy named Wender joined and together they created a magnificent trio.


After this great ceremony we left the school with smiles on our faces and gratitude in our hearts.

– Standa Zubaty (Czech Republic)

Team Members:
Edi Serban (Romania), Standa Zubaty (Czech Republic), Runar Gigja (Iceland), Prachar Stegemann (Australia), Kapila Moses (Australia), Kylie Williams (Australia)

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.