We would like to thank the Springhill Suites for such wonderful accommodations for the team. We are very grateful!.
Today, we are honored and privilaged to offer the Torch Bearer Award to three of the most beloved and revered elders of Boston's Black community. Our first recipient was the great Mel King, who was very kind to receive us at his home.
For over 55 years, Mel King has been an affordable housing advocate, educator, community organizer, state legislator, and adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is responsible for for creating community programs and institutions that have positively changed the lives of low income, grassroots people across the city of Boston.
He was totally surprised to receive his award from Ganapati.
The Peace Run team was delighted to honor such an amazing local hero!
Mr. King and his wife Joyce.
Our local Boston Coordinator, Begabati, introducing the Peace Run.
Tchintcia and John Barros, Boston civic leader. As friends of Mel King and the other Torch-Bearers, they helped to arrange the ceremonies.
Sidney Baptisa, right, invited his running club, the Pioneers Run Crew - named for the New York Pioneers running club, founded by his hero Ted Corbitt, who was a hero of our runners as well! Pictured holding the torch is Pioneer runner, Angel. Thank you so much to Sidney and Angel for joining us, inspiring us, and safely and enthusiastically guiding us through the streets of Boston to our next destination!
Arriving to our second ceremony of the day to honor two exceptional women leaders in the Boston Community: Sarah-Ann Shaw and Clementina M. Chery.
The team introducing ourselves and singing the Peace Run song to our guests.
Sarah-Ann Shaw received the Torch Bearer Award for her selfless service for her community. She is the renowned for being the first female African-American reporter to be televised in Boston. Shaw is also known for her presence in civil rights movements and as a volunteer in education programs.
Mrs. Shaws beautiful daughter, Klare E. Shaw, feeling peace in her heart. She is a leader in the funding community for her contributions to non-profits in the Commonwealth's cultural community, and became the excecutive director of the Boston Globe Foundation in 1999. As they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!
Our third recipient of the Torch Bearer Award was Clementina M. Chery. She is the Co-Founder, President and CEO, of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute in 1994, which she started after the murder of her fifteen year old son Louis. She reached out with compassion to the mother of her son's murderer, and she is the founder of the Mother's March for Peace on Mother's Day. Her programs are believed to be responsible for Boston's low homicide rate and have been copied in cities across the country. Clementina is also an ordained Chaplain and is an internationally recognized expert in the field of homicide response. She has also published tools for survivors of homocide victims across the country, as well as peace curriculums for schools, amongst many other initiatives.
Clementina Chery and Sarah-Ann Shaw share a warm moment. Along with Mel King, they all work together, admire and support each other in their work for Boston's Black neighborhoods. Thank you all for inspiring not only your community but the whole world with your influential achievements and selfless service.
Earlier on in the day, along the way we found these wonderful friends who were very happy to hold the peace torch in this beautiful day!
All morning as we ran we met peace lovers who were very happy to hold the torch today and make their own wish for a more peaceful world.
