We begin our day with a team driving into Raleigh, NC for a nice ceremony at the Unity Church of the Triangle. They have welcomed us into their "home" for many years now and we are always grateful to make the early trip into Raleigh.

After we represented our mission, Phran Gacher shared her common adventure, A Walk for Peace from LaVerna to Assissi, Italy in October of 2011. Along the way they collected Holy Water from the myriad churches on their journey.

She brought some of that water to add to the watering can that we were to use to plant some vegetables on Earth Day in the church gardens.

Amy Allen, Director of Youth and Family Ministries, lead the team out to the garden to pass the torch and plant many different types of vegetables.

It was a little too wet and chilly for some of the littler ones...

...but you could tell they wanted to be there.

The kids had no problems getting hands dirty!

Two friends united after two decades. They used to work in the same organization twenty years ago.

The three pillars of the North Carolina Harmony Run.(From left to right, Prakhara, Sarbaga and MaryGail)

Spring brings a new beginning to the Children's garden at the Unity church. All the kids were most excited about growing watermelon. We concur!

The children offered us a song about the five principles of living in harmony.

The running continues...rain or more rain!

The weather could not curb these folks' enthusiasm.

Arpan - self portrait.

Our last visit of the day was to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences where we awarded the Torch Bearer's Award to Dr. Betsty Bennet for her tireless years of creating an incredibly inspiring and educating museum. The museum is place of wonder and creativity that ignites the imaginations and inspirations of thousands

The award was accepted by Dr. Meg Lowman on behalf of Dr. Bennet. We thank and honor them both for their great contributions to making the world a more harmonious and interesting place.

We then adjourned outside to experince the new 70-foot diameter globe! It was awe inspiring. A real monument for Raleigh!

Many passersby could not help but stop to hold the torch.

Michael, MaryGail's husband, very nicely stood in as photographer for us today. Thank you Michael!

Super heroes need harmony too!

 Even the local news was excited to hold the torch.

Thanks to Holiday Inn and Suites in Cary, NC for housing 4 of our runners.

Thanks to Motel 6, Raleigh for their generosity.

The Renaissance Raleigh Hotel at North Hills housed the women's team. It was so luxurious and a welcome treat after the previous night of camping in the rain!

It's not so easy to blow these torches out! And sometime we singe eyebrows and eyelashes.

– Atulya

Distance: 88 miles

Team Members:
Atulya Berube (San Diego), Jagadhata Amrhien (Chicago), Teekhnata Berube (USA), Arpan DeAngelo (New York), Shobhavati Davies (New Zealand), Jana Duskova (Czech Republic), Tom McGuire (New Zealand), Katya Percheklii (Ukraine), Ratuja Zub (Belarus), Zuzana Klaskova (Czech Republic), Matthias Eckerle (Germany)

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

Gallery: See more images!