We met local firefighters at Piltzville Fire Station.

Also we met Cooper and Kate and their delightful and angelic 2 year old son Jack. He had no hesitation about holding the torch and asked Mark, “Can I give you a high five?”

When Dima ran through Missoula this morning a car pulled over with this family from Austin, Texas and asked Dima about the run. They were so excited about what we are doing and offered a kind donation. Half an hour later they saw us again and we took this picture with them.

From our tranquil forest campsite we headed into Missoula for our first ceremony of the day with Boys and Girls Club at Sacajawea Park. There we met up with Erin Lamb, program co-ordinator and a few children, Mathias and Christian and their mother Yvonne.

At the ceremony we were reunited with Julie Brown who we had met the previous day at Quinn’s Hot Springs Resort.

Our second ceremony in Missoula was at Caras Park with Camp Mak-A-Dream where we met various staff of the organization, director Beth and survivors of brain tumors. They were an inspiration to the whole team and we had a lot of fun with them. Their positivity and cheerfulness was very infectious. After we sang the World Harmony Run song to them they sang us a song that was wonderful.

Camp Mak-A-Dream

The participants come from the entire U.S. I had a chance to talk one of the councelors who is also a cancer survivor coming from Oklahoma. He was a track and field runner as a child but at some point he started experiencing serious headache and double vision. He learned that he had a brain tumor on the back of his head. He recounted the visit to the doctor for an examination - the doctor was surprised how aware his child patient was about his condition.

I learned that it definitely is a life changing experience to be a cancer survivor at such a young age, leaving one grateful for our life offers. He pointed out that all these children have much wider perspective on life compared to other children.

The running out of Missoula was very scenic, following the Clark River and with a wonderful backdrop of pine forests on steep hill tops and dramatic rock formations.

Just outside Missoula Mark met a local lady named Kay who ran with him for 2 miles.

We met Dean and Susie Schifferer just east of Paradise. They also had a story to tell - their son is cycling from the Canadian border to Mexico to raise money for a cancer charity.

We spent a very, very, very cool night at Good Time Camping and RV. Thank you for your donation.

– Jagadhata, Mark and Kokila

Distance: 107 miles

Team Members:
Atulya Berube (San Diego), Jagadhata Amrhien (Chicago), Drsalu Gruenstaeudel (Austria), Vladimir Salnacov (Moldova), Mark Collinson (England), Kokila Chamberlain (England), Surya Smolennikova (Russia), Kshetragna Ulanova (Russia), Dima Grygorievski (Ukraine), Sukhada Korshunova (Russia), Michaela Pokorna (Czech Republic), Moni Neradilek (Seattle), Rupasi Young (Seattle), Jwalanta Voelckner (Germany)

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

Gallery: See more images!