This year marks the 40th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s first visit to Australia in 1976. To celebrate this historic occasion a group of his Australian students have embarked upon a project to offer 40 Peace Talks about Sri Chinmoy and his philosophy in 40 different university campuses.
Coffs Harbour campus of Southern Cross University is one of the first to host the event. The beautiful coastal city of Coffs Harbour, situated halfway between Brisbane and Sydney, will also be on the route of next year’s 30th anniversary Peace Run.
As we prepared to publicise the university talks, it seemed to be a natural fit to incorporate some of the Peace Run activities into the programme. Consequently a call to the media went out and an invitation to meet with the Mayor of Coffs Harbour was extended.
The Advocate newspaper responded and we were asked to charge up a sandhill on the beach as their photographer Trevor snapped away. Then our kind journalist-friend Claudia spent a good half hour with us talking about all aspects of Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy.
In the afternoon, we were off to meet the Mayor of Coffs Harbour, Denise Knight, at the Council Chambers where we presented her with a Certificate of Appreciation ...
... and a bunch of locally grown flowers.
Aryavan Lanham presented the Peace Torch to the Mayor and Unmilan Howard tried to defend his support of Queensland in the upcoming State of Origin rugby league series.
The Mayor is a strong supporter of the Blues (New South Wales). However, all ended well and we are invited back to have tea with her before the university talk on June 16, 2016.
