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Our first stop was at Common Space Centre for Creativity, a community arts centre that was hosting a fine arts summer camp for children. This camp was started 30 years ago by Martin Nagy.
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Pam Ashanti, our organiser for the day, introduced us to the kids and read out a proclamation from the Mayor of Toldeo, Wade Kapszukiewicz.
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Aloha! We unrolled our map and played the country guessing game with the children, can you guess which island Banshidhar is from?
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They had great geography skills and had no problem pointing out Hastakamala's home country of Australia. The girl is pointing to Woolongong where she was born!
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Judy Trautman received the Torch-Bearer Award in 2014 along with her late husband Woody Trautman. She said that medals are not something you expect from peace work and that it meant a lot to her to receive it. Judy is the chair of the Multifaith Council of Northwestern Ohio.
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Judy and Pam have been friends for many years and are now both working for the cause of peace in their community. Toldeo is a "compassionate city" and they even hold "compassion games".
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They were very talented actors as well and performed skits about how to create a better world for us all. They held up the signs for the causes that they acted out.
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They had prepared a world map to show where our team members are from, they used post-it notes with each runner's name and country. They really did their homework!
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There was a tour of the RV, to give the kids a peek at life on the road! The RV provides a place to prepare our lunch and dinner and gets us around. Some of the children thought that might be more fun than others!
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Saranku and Nikolaus whisked us away back to the 1980's - when neon headbands were mandatory attire - and acted out the history of the Peace Run.
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No matter what is happening outside of us, we can always take a moment to breathe and feel peace inside our heart.
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Simple skits show how the little decisions we make each day can help to contribute to a better world... or the opposite!
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We presented them with a special peace painting by Sri Chinmoy. Thank you to Leslie Geer, one of the supervisors of the camp.
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We met Monica and Chris who are marathon runners, Monica decided to run for half a mile with Saranyu.
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There are so many wonderful chance encounters that happen while we are out running, here are some of the lovely people we met.
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Accommodation for the night was kindly sponsored by the Comfort Inn in Chelsea. Alyssa, the friendly receptionist, came out to hold the torch.
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We had a nice conversation, he was very encouraging and was amazed at the running miles we do in the hot sun!
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Our dear friend Kapila, who has been coordinating several states for the Peace Run for many years, took the whole team out to a most delicious Italian meal.
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Arpan and Sarankhuu received thank you goodbye gifts. Arpan, who has been on the team for most of the run, is taking a break for a few weeks. Sarankhuu is also headed back to New York after a long time on the road. He did the greatest miles of the men's team!
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Kshema, our intrepid Ukranian runner, also had her last day. She was on the Peace Run for one month, since Bellingham, Washington. We gave her a buffalo hoodie from the state of Montana, where she loved running through the pituresque scenery.
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