After a restful night at my mom’s house, we headed out to run along Route 1which follows along the southern border of Connecticut and Long Island Sound. Running through all the towns and cities that I have been familiar with since childhood, it was a very special experience for me on this final day as we headed to New York, my present home.

Our first meeting was with Kenneth Flato, the First Selectman of Fairfield, who has kindly greeted us a number of times in the past. He came with his daughter Diane and shared with us the idea that harmony among the general population starts with the individual and the family. We are grateful to him and all those present who took the time to share with us these valuable moments on our last day.

A few more miles down the road we ran into the beautiful town of Westport. We were very fortunate to be greeted by a fine group of individuals associated with the United Nations and other local community minded groups. We were thrilled to be greeted by Aye Aye Thant of the UNDP. She hails from Myanmar and is the daughter of the late U Thant who was the third Secretary General of the United Nations and good friends with Sri Chinmoy , the founder of the World Harmony Run.

We also were fortunate to meet her good friend Aye-Mi Kyu, a Human Resources specialist from the United Nations Developmental Programme. Their messages of support for our efforts to inspire harmony among the world community from the local level were very encouraging to us.

Aye Aye Thant also appreciated the efforts of Sri Chinmoy and mentioned how many times she has been able to meet him since her first meeting when her father was still alive. She also mentioned the U Thant Institute which was founded in 2003, inspired by the work of her late father and his vision of world of diversity and peaceful coexistence. The mission of the Institute is to promote understanding that there is only one world and we are all citizens of one world. Its programs try to reflect the diversity in oneness.

We also had the pleasure of meeting representatives from the International Hospitality Committee including Virginia Ruebensaal whose kind words of encouragement were very much appreciated. Ms. Micaela McCall of the Westport Hospitality Committee also

greeted us warmly here. She organizes a yearly picnic for the United Nations staff members and helped to organize this event as well. We are grateful to her for her work on the local and international level to promote harmony and understanding.

Dr. Mary Misevich from the Long Lots School and Joan Haas from the school system in nearby Bridgeport along with Anna Batista shared with us their project called ‘Oneness through Diversity’ which is a grant program to promote understanding of diverse cultures and to break down racial isolation.

The program pairs up students from two distinctly diverse social levels or cultures and teaches them to work together and learn from each other. This is indeed a very practical step towards promoting harmony and understanding from the personal to local level and on to the international level as well.

After this wonderful Westport ceremony, I was fortunate to be the one to run to our very last ceremony of our four month journey. It was a short run of less than three miles to Stew Leonard’s, the world’s largest dairy store which also is a supermarket with very fine foods.

Along the way I was joined by more of our runners including Sutusthi Lang who helped to organize these last few ceremonies. It was also our honor to have Mary Roman from the office of the Mayor of Norwalk to join us in the last part of our run to Stew Leonard’s.

She carried the Torch to the Mayor, Richard Moccia, who greeted us under the huge digital sign in front of Stew Leonard’s, displaying our colored logo in bright lights. After a brief ceremony and introductions there, Mayor Moccia led us through the very busy store with the Torch.

We were then treated to free ice cream there due to the kindness of Jill Greenwood, who helped us with this event, and to Megan Flynn, the Supervisor who arranged the event for us but unfortunately could not be here today. We also want to thank Stew Leonard himself who has always been kind to us over the years. His store reflects the care and concern for the public and their shopping needs, especially the children. There is a little zoo outside as well as many wonderful childlike displays indoors such as an overhead running train and singing milk bottles, cows and other very amusing displays for children and adults alike.

After our fond farewells to Mayor Moccia we had some time to speak with Mary Roman who works for the Mayor as a City Clerk for the City of Norwalk. She is also a highly decorated senior Olympian, who recently competed in the National Masters Championhsips in Charlotte, North Carolina where she won a gold medal in the hammer throw, a silver medal in the shot put and bronze medals in the 100 meter race and the discus. She even gave us a few pointers on the proper technique to throw the shot put. We are so inspired by her discipline and her own personal efforts and we are grateful for her presence here to support us and our efforts for harmony through fitness and sport, among other activities.

This was a wonderful way to end our run officially until the grand finale international ceremony on August 23. Details about that event will be posted soon. After our last team ran the Torch to the Connecticut-New York line, we made our way to the home of our dear friends and generous supporters, Nidrahara and Nripal. We congratulate them on their 30th Wedding Anniversary which is the reason why they could not be with us today. But still they offered us the use of their house without reservation or hesitation. It has been the site of many a post-run celebration as it is located near the finish of our 50 state route.

We are also very grateful to the Hoffmanns: Henry, Nancy and Kristin, who came to join us in our modest celebration with food and stories and some videos of the run.

Salil, our Director, and our good friend Pujari from San Francisco who also ran with us for some time in the Northwest, drove up from New York to join us as well. It was a very enjoyable evening which even included some acapella singing from our incredible singer/songwriter friend, Kristin Hoffmann. For years her music has inspired us and many other lovers of truth and harmony with her soulful voice and very meaningful and insightful lyrics. Her family also treated us to three large pizzas which we did not expect and we deeply appreciate.

After a good night’s sleep, we plan to do a big clean up of our vehicles before we head down to New York City where the re-entry into ‘normal’ life will hopefully be a smooth one filled with harmony.

Arpan and the Grateful U.S.A. Team

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