Today was another busy day for us as we had three school ceremonies earlier in the day followed by a big ceremony in downtown Seattle. Our first stop was the Meridian School, was just a few blocks from the house we were staying at near Green Lake. The school is located in the historic Good Shepherd Center within North Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood. In addition to sharing the beautifully landscaped 11-acre Meridian Park with the larger community for work and play, The Meridian School has established relationships with other non-profit organizations within the Good Shepherd Center, including the Wallingford Senior Center, neo art school, and the Seattle Tilth Association. Service and learning is integrated within their curriculum, expanding the students' awareness locally, nationally and on a global level.

Integrity, compassion, and responsibility are essential to the mission of Meridian. They help students develop a positive self-image and confident attitude toward learning. By integrating curriculum, citizenship, and community, they provide a foundation for well-rounded students. Our ceremony with them reflected the philosophy of the school as we enjoyed our program with them. Thanks to the Principal, Ron Waldman, and the teachers present, we had a wonderful time sharing the essence of harmony, service and friendship that the children seem to be learning here on a daily basis. The kids really enjoyed the final event of the program when the teachers, led Lori Van Etta, a third grade teacher, jogged around the gymnasium with the Torch. Soon the children joined in as well as the enthusiasm and excitement swelled. We left the school after the children had time to touch the Torch, making their own wishes for a more harmonious world.

We had just enough time to get there to run to the next ceremony at the Greenlake School. We were welcomed at the small outdoor amphitheater by about 200 children and staff. Cheryl Grinager, the Principal, kindly introduced us as we came running in with the flaming Torch. Thanks to Cheryl, Sandra Hixon, who is a kindergarten teacher there, and some of the other teachers as well, we were able to have a nice ceremony in the short time span available. Being outdoors in such a conducive setting on this beautiful day made for a peaceful and energizing program. During the program children displayed their handmade flags of various countries as well as peace doves beautifully made out of folded paper as well. They all made a wish for something good as they touched the Torch on their way back to class. This is always an important part of the program as it gives them the opportunity to think positive thoughts for the world.

After a short break between schools for lunch at the Silence-Heart-Nest Restaurant, we went to a school in another area of Seattle, called the John Stanford Immersion School where children learn a foreign language more adeptly if they are "immersed" in that language. At JSIS, from day one of the kindergarten year, the children spend half the day learning core subjects like math and science entirely in a second language. They also offer E.S.L. (English as a second language) to children from many foreign countries. They are teaching Japanese to the kindergarten students presently.

Joanne Uhlenkott, the Physical Education teacher, helped our coordinator, Pipasa Glass, to organize an exciting program here. We had many of our local runners here from various countries and a good friend, Mia Angelica, from Sedona, Arizona, who joined us for the first time today. She played a small harp for the children before and during parts of the program. The children surprised us with their knowledge of Japanese and other languages as well. There must have been over 30 languages represented there today. Our program included lots of various foreign language words, especially Japanese, to the delight of our Japanese runner, Tyagini. It was so sweet to see with her and the Japanese language students interacting after all the other children left for class.

In the early evening we went to the Westlake Plaza in downtown Seattle for a large program there. It was an exciting venue with hundreds of people coming and going to work and shopping at the many shops there. Luckily we had a good sound system to attract some attention to our event in the middle of the hustle and bustle of life here in downtown Seattle.

First to attract attention was Pat Wright and the Total Experience Gospel Choir. They had very kindly performed for us many times as we came through Seattle on previous runs. We are so grateful to them for their efforts just to make it here this evening. Singing two inspiring songs to start off our program, they attracted a crowd of passersby who could

Another honored guest came to this event as well and we are so grateful to him for his presence here. Raj Manhas, the Superintendent of Schools in Seattle, kindly made time for us in his busy schedule. He made a wonderfully touching speech about education and its relationship to harmony in the schools and the communities.

Our next guests were long time friends of ours from Wenatchee, Washington as well as some of their relatives from the Seattle area. Allen Retasket, his wife Rose, and their daughter Jody and her family, Dan and son Garry, came to take part in our ceremony here. Allen and his family are Native Americans who have been performing Native American dances for many years. They design and make their own beautiful costumes that embellish the dance with beautiful color and movement. Allen Jr., who is a champion dancer, could not make it here today but his friend, Kateri, danced a beautiful and dynamic dance for us.

After the dance performance of Allen and his grandson Garry, we all formed a large circle in the Plaza and we did a friendship dance moving in a circular fashion to the Native American music and shaking hands. We are very grateful to the Retasket family and to Kateri as well for making this event truly special. I realized as they were dancing that this city of Seattle is named after a great Native American Chief named Seattle. During the dancing I strongly felt that we were all honoring Chief Seattle and the wonderful traditions that the Native Americans brought to this part of the country.

After a short presentation by our team members we were fortunate to have the Total Experience Gospel Choir once again perform a very soulful and moving song for us. As we were winding down the program and gathering our things many people who were in the plaza were able to mix with our guests that so kindly offered their harmony through music and dance so beautifully. We are very grateful to everyone who came, especially our guests who went out of their way to bring a little more beauty, love and harmony to Seattle.

Gratefully, The Seattle Harmony Runners

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