We started our day by thanking the staff at the Best Western Carlton Plaza Hotel in beautiful downtown Victoria for the great complimentary rooms they offered the team. The suites were so comfortable and spacious it was hard for us to leave the hotel!

We bumped into Nigel Seale before starting our run which was quite a coincidence as he is the founder of the Canadian "Earth Day" and this year Earth Day was held just the day before on April 22! We had a nice exchange of words and he continued his run as we got ready for ours.

Then we met up with Deb Whitten, the Principal of Monterey Middle School, and some members of the track team who ran about 1km to the school with us. Arriving at the school we were impressed by the enthusiasm of the students and their vice-principal Sean McCartney.

The ceremony started off with our video as well as some slides of really creative harmony-themed student artwork. Then we taught everyone our song, they were good sports and joined us in all of the actions!

Two Torch-Bearer Awards were presented to outstanding students who strengthen the community through volunteer work, sports and leadership initiatives.

A poem about Harmony, written by one of the grade seven students, was read out (it can be found at the end of this report). Then we all headed outside and chatted, played some basketball and had a boys vs. girls relay race- the girls won! The torch was passed around and everyone made their wish for world harmony, then we ran a lap around the schoolyard to end the event.

We ran along the waterfront to our next event at the Legislative Buildings.

As we ran toward the front steps, we were greeted by the wonderful voices of the Gettin' Higher Choir singing us their version of the World Harmony Run song.

We were kindly welcomed by Murray Coell, MLA.

Four Torch-Bearer Awards were presented, the first to Alexandra Morton a marine biologist who has dedicated herself to raising awareness about the plight of the wild salmon in British Colombia and ways to conserve the ecosystem.

We were very happy to present the second award to Butch Dick, an aboriginal educator and artist. He is well known for his incredible hand-carved public art displays.

Shivon Robinsong and Denis Donnelly both received awards for their work with the Gettin' Higher Choir and their philosophy that everyone can sing.

Shivon expressed her belief that people's singing voices are a sacred and unique part of who they are and to deny oneself the right to sing is to neglect a special part of the human experience. The Gettin' Higher Choir is a perfect example of this- people of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels singing together in harmony and joy!

We were lucky enough to hear them sing two more songs for us, accompanied by Denis' guitar. As we ran off to our next destination, they sang the World Harmony Run song once more. We only wish we could take them with us and have them sing at all of our events!

After our great send-off we were running with an extra bounce in our step and we enjoyed the lovely run through downtown Victoria to George Jay Elementary School.

They caught on really quickly as we taught them our song and actions, then we showed them some skits expressing harmony and disharmony. Salil asked the students to tell us some different words that describe harmony; we got the usual "peace", "friendship", "love", ect. Except for one boy who said "Quebec", it was one of the most unique answers we've ever had! The students all got a chance to hold the torch as they left the assembly.

At sunset, we took the ferry into Galliano Island and enjoyed the beautiful views of the Gulf Islands. We even saw a group of deer!

And here is the poem by a grade 7 student at Monterey Middle School:

Without Harmony

You stand alone,
Gasping with inner pain.
Your knees are strong
But your voice quakes.
You have to tell someone,
But no one cares.
The room is crowded
Except there's no one there.
You can run for a while
But eventually you'll get tired.
Then you're offered help
But you turn away.
How do you know you can trust them?
Well, sometimes you have to.
So join hands and feel the love
Because it's everywhere!

 

– Daily report by Brahmata

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Video Mesage from Davidson Hepburn, President (2009 - 2011) of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for 25th Anniversary of the World Harmony Run and a vision for the decade: "Toward a Oneness-World". With FRENCH subtitles

Full Text of the 25th annversary message and link to 25 language informal Translations: http://www.worldharmonyrun.org/25

See also:

• Youtube video on African experience which illustrates IYY slogan "Our Year Our Voice" International Year of Youth - Zambia World Harmony. They surprisingly mention Presidents and UN Secretary-General in a unique way!

• Listen to the World-Harmony-Run song: 2 min version // 6 min

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Team Members:
Prapti Jensen (Canada), Salil Wilson (Australia), Daniel Stewart (Canada), Yatkara Aleksapolskyy (Ukraine), Brahmata Michael (Canada), Sarvagata Ukrainskyi (Ukraine), Dimitriy Dudko (Ukraine), Varunavi (Slovakia), Sulabha Wisniewski (Canada), Amburoha (Ukraine), Moni (Czech Republic)

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

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