What a great day on the WHR. At the first ceremony, I was asked to lead the beginning part but I must admit that my insecurity was strong and I passed up the opportunity.

Perhaps it was for the best though as it was a huge group of 560 children at Hawes Side Primary School. The ceremony was in an echoing auditorium lacking a microphone so during much of the ceremony we were walking a fine line between mild chaos and outright anarchy.(LOL)

With this being the case I was astounded by the results of the exercise we do using silence to enable the children to connect with the peace that exists within their hearts.

They stayed very quiet, save a few coughs and giggles for a whole minute and when it was over they began chanting, "again, again, again!". I've never seen that happen before! So they had 2 silence exercises.

Our torch was doing its best not to smoke.

We ended the ceremony with an improvisational run around the school ground in the rain.

We set up flags with different continent names on them and the kids run around in a large circle passing each flag and high fiving the flag holders, symbolically running around the world.

Needless to say, the children love this part. I'm not sure the teachers love us so much afterwards as we've just amped up the children's energy a few notches and then, at the end, send them back to their classrooms.

But they sure seem to be having fun during the run!

We'd like to thank all of the wonderful and caring teachers we've met so far and we are total admiration for what you do!

From here we headed off to the 2nd ceremony at Anchorsholme School.

Another first for me in the UK happened as we ran up to a group of children waiting outside. They were singing the WHR song.

They had learned it and arranged it as well. I wish we could take them along with us because they were far better singers than we are.

We were escorted in by the Head Girls and Head Boy of the school - both demonstrating poise well beyond their years.

After the game where the kids guess our home countries and the skits demonstrating harmony and disharmony, a young girl of 11 approached me because she was also an American but had moved to the UK 3 years ago.

She was thrilled to connect with Americans on the team. Her name was Georgia and strangely enough, she was from Florida. I had alot of fun with her at the ceremony.

Sometimes I think that I am not so wonderful with children, not haviing been around them much since I was a child myself and I don't really remember what that was like.

Georgia helped me to remember my inner child and it was beautiful to connect with her.

The Head Teacher had enough enthusiasm to power our spirits in to the next ten Harmony Runs. He was really great with us and the children.

This school was so impressive, many of the students came up to the runners at the end to sincerely thank us for coming to their school. We want to thank them as well.

That was it for the ceremonies and we were off to run our miles.

Another instant roadside buffet! You get really creative on the road to keep the fuel flowing.

Susan, from Liverpool, was so excited to see us that she went all the way home and back to get her camera to take a photo!

 

By the time we ran it was sunny and beautiful....hypothermia averted. Yep, a great day!

We would like to thank the Hope Street Hotel in Liverpool for hosting the womens team...

and Mr. Amine El Guaddar, Assistant General Manager of Ibis Hotel in Liverpool, for hosting the men. Without your support our endeavor to inspire peace and harmony would be a much tougher journey.

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The World Harmony Run proudly supports the International Year of Youth (IYY) and the International Year of Forests (IYF) proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly.

See the recent 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! 

See also the UNESCO World Heritage (WH) Centre support for IY of Forests.  ... Convention for conservation of forest biodiversity. (more)

– Atulya and Teekhnata

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Distance: 60 miles

Team Members:
Salil Wilson (Australia), Apaguha Vesely (Czech Republic), Balavan Thomas (Great Britain), Shobhavati Davies (New Zealand), Amalendu Edelsten (Australia), Shraddha Kurzemniece (Latvia), Lenka Svecova (Czech Republic), Teekhnata Metzler (USA), Atulya Berube (USA), Ilvaka Nemcova (Czech Republic), Nandathu Zach Saltzman (USA), Atul Arora (India), Devashishu Torpy (England)

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

Gallery: See more images!

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