Lewisham Public School, situated just outside the centre of Sydney gave us a most memorable experience today. The school's whole day was dedicated to harmony and they kicked it off with a visit from the World Harmony Run.

The orchestration of their ceremony, run entirely by the school captains was flawless. They greeted us, sang for us and performed a short skit about the origins of the different cultures within Australia.

It was our turn to sing for them and we had a very special award to present to the whole school. The Torch-Bearer Award was given to the staff, parents and children of the school as a whole for their outstanding contributions to unity and harmony in the community.

We embraced their message of harmony and they also grasped ours in a mutual celebration of common values.

Finally we ran out into the courtyard and the children formed a circle to pass the torch and enjoy its warming glow:

Many children dressed in traditional costume to demonstrate their unique cultures which was a very charming display of colour and character.

They made symbolic lanterns to light the way similar to our own cherished torch.

Gratitude to Lewisham School for inspiring us and being an example of harmony in multiplicity.

- Prabhakar Street (Canada)

After the joyful meeting at Lewisham Public School we made our way into the hustle and bustle of the city centre. With sky scrapers towering into the pale blue sky we ran down through busy streets and past the Town Hall on the way to the ceremony. The beautiful little Wynyard Park was the location of a ceremony with special guests Barry Crocker and Katy Manning

Barry, being a fantastic entertainer, led the ceremony in a delightful manner. He firstly introduced singer song-writer, Ineka Hanepen who sang a beautiful rendition of "Message in a Bottle."

Then it was time for the international team to be greeted and Barry added hilarious humour and wit to the introduction of each runner.

As I stepped up for my introduction, Barry started singing the famous Irish song Danny Boy and for Sandro there was a short rendition of O Sole Mio which brought laughter all around. (You can read some of Sandro's inspired poems about the Run in Sandro's Blog.)

After an eloquent speech by our Icelandic runner Runar,

Barry Crocker was then awarded with the special Torch-Bearer Award, given to those who have taken great steps in inspiring others. He was delighted to receive this award and paid homage to its significance.

Before we departed Ineka sang a very sweet version of the World-Harmony-Run Song in which all the runners joined in creating a most harmonious ballad.

Ineka happens to be our own team member Rathin Boulton's cousin and a wonderful singer.

And then it was time to...you'll never guess...that's right...Run!

– Colm Magee (Ireland)

 

We met a wonderful friend in our hotel who was very enthusiastic about our run and joined us for the day of running through Sydney. Sam had the full experience of life on the road and left us fully inspired and excited to maybe join us tomorrow, or somewhere down the trail! Thanks Sam.

A special welcome to two new team members joining us today:

Colm Magee...

and Julie Anderson

Here is Julie's firsthand report of today's activities:

This morning at 9am sharp our team was happy to be introduced as special guest at Lewisham State Primary School’s Harmony Day celebrations. What an inspiring school this is! After being welcomed onstage by the principal and senior school leaders, we were invited to sit back, relax and enjoy a colourful musical and theatrical tribute to world harmony. Great outfits, by the way! Students and parents had worked hard to make many bright orange lanterns and ribbons which festooned hall and hands alike (bright orange being the official Harmony Day colour). It was also wonderful to discover the school is even more multicultural than our very own culturally diverse team, populated with indigenous Australian, Lebanese, Fijian, Tongan, Polish and Greek children just to name a few.

It was also our very great pleasure to present the school, along with parents and friends, the World Harmony Run Torch-Bearer Award for their tremendous enthusiasm, efforts and support in promoting harmony within their community. The teachers and kids at Lewisham Primary worked together like a well-oiled machine and impressed the socks off the team… talk about Harmony! A great start to our morning!

At midday the team ran to Wynyard Park in downtown Sydney, where we attended a small public ceremony hosted by legendary Aussie entertainment icon Barry Crocker. Those of you who are familiar with Barry’s style won’t be surprised to hear that his colourful humour and razor wit caused more than one head to turn in our direction, which was of course exactly what we wanted.

Our audience, mainly a lunch-time crowd with a sprinkle of drop-in pedestrians, was small yet receptive and, I believe, more than well-entertained by the many antics of charismatic Barry Crocker, who was indispensable in delivering our message of harmony to the audience. Barry was duly presented with our Torch-Bearer Award, which he assures us will take its place next to his collection of Logies. We’ll hold you to that, Barry!

Another highlight of this ceremony was our very talented guest performer and musician, Ineka Hanepen, who warmed up the crowd beautifully before we took to the stage, and also performed a stirring rendition of The World-Harmony-Run song. Very much appreciated, Ineka! It was a great day and the runners truly enjoyed running through the crowded city streets, complete with torch and country flags, and being able to connect directly with the people of Sydney. We hope they enjoyed seeing us!

- Julie Anderson (Australia)

We also have to offer a very big special thanks to our Sydney co-ordinator Aryavan Lanham for a wonderful job of hosting us here in this beautiful international city.

– Prabhakar Street (Canada)

If you would like to place a link or a write a story about the World Harmony Run on your website, click here to Link to Us. We'll be happy to place a reciprocal link and list you on our Friends Online page.

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Team Members:
Prabhakar Street (Canada), Edi Serban (Romania), Standa Zubaty (Czech Republic), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Runar Gigja (Iceland), Misha Kulagin (Russia), Dima Lehonkov (Ukraine), Colm Magee (Ireland), Angela Muhs (Germany), Anubha Baird (Australia), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Garbitashri Webster (New Zealand), Julie Anderson (Australia), Nigel Webber (Australia), Rathin Boulton (Australia), Noivedya Juddery (Australia), Amalendu Edelsten (Australia)

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

Gallery: See more images!

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