Well look what we have here. Stanton Park Day Camp! How lucky are we?! The children at Stanton Park were absolutely ready for us. They were brimming with enthusiasm and really had their thinking caps on. They correctly guessed where each of our team members are from. That meant we owed them a song!
They no no strangers to soulfulness either. It was like second nature to go inside and cultivate Peace.
The children had even spent time preparing artwork on the theme of Peace to share with us.
Who doesn't love a Peace Train?
And afterward we were treated to a performance by the Jesse White Tumblers. This program provides youth with an avenue to develop academic and personal excellence through rigorous tumbling training. They train their tumbling skills to inspire others to reach a little higher and dream a little bigger and have taken their show on the road internationally.
The children (and adults, let's face it) were in awe and can each see ourselves doing more than we might have otherwise thought thanks to their dedicated offering.
Our longest-serving team member, Arpan from New York, always bakes a huge batch of cookies for his birthday. Even though he's not out on the road with us, he made sure the team got some sweetness by sending it all the way to Chicago with a friend! Happy belated birthday Arpan!
Can't take Boijayanti anywhere without her making new friends!
Next we were welcomed with eager cheers at McCormick YMCA Sports Summer Camp.
The crowd was full of Peace Lovers and we hope that they will be able to take the torch from us one day as Peace Runners.
They've already got the running part down.
Just clownin' a bit. All in good fun, but with a simple lesson snuck in.
We love artistic participation. Children can put big ideas like peace into such simple and direct form through their creativity.
And we finished the day with a little relay! the YMCA staff and campers joined in to run the torch along the 606 trail. There were some good runners in the group!
