Thank you so much to the Fort Walton Best Western for accomodating the whole team in their beautiful hotel by the beach. Pictured with the team is Chloe, who gave us exceptional service, thanks again!
We were delighted to meet with the mayor of Fort Walton Beach, Mike Anderson, who presented us with a Proclamation of Peace and officially welcomed us to his beautiful city.
Outside the Fort Walton Beach City Hall next to their eternal flame with Mayor Anderson.
Jeff and Donna Harris, owners of local running store, "Run With It" came out to meet the team and run with us. The mens team was happy to have the chance to visit their beautiful store.
Kalyanika started us out for the day!
Today we met so many wonderful people from all different walks of life as we made our way west from Florida to Alabama...pictured here are two friendly early morning runners, a mother and daughter duo, who helped us head in the right direction.
While running in Fort Walton Kalyanika made two new friends, Ali and Eileen. We thank them both for their enthusiasm and support!
Harita made some new friends along the way..
all of them were hard at work on the side of the road...
How could one refuse the opportunity to hold the torch?
Homagni with some friends he met further down the road.
Everyone is interested in the torch, not just people..
The goats in particular were curious as to what was going on!
Entering Alabama!
We had some spare time waiting for the boys to switch vehicles, so took some shots of the girls team in the carpark to send to a local reporter.
Our first school visit of the day was to Elsanor Elementary in Robertsdale, Alabama. John Edward from the Independant News was waiting to interview us and also hold the torch and make his own wish for peace.
This school was amazing, they only heard about us coming through Robertsvale today and immediately wanted us to come! The whole school was waiting out in the field to greet us.
In one afternoon they managed to draw and paint many bright and beautiful paintings, drawings, and messages of support.
We were so moved by the spontaneous enthusiasm of the teachers and students!
There was even a peace sign made from plastic cups stuck into the fence!
We only had about 20 minutes until the kids had to go home, but we managed to fit in a shortened version of our school presentation.
Some of the kids had time to run a super fun lap for peace!
Cheyl Moore, the physical education teacher, is planning to keep in touch with us as part of her school program, we hope she does!
Pictured with the team is our new friend Emily, who saw us running past when she was driving, went to work and looked up our contact details, gave us a call, and pretty soon afterwards came out to meet us and run with the team! She ran to meet us at the school, and then continued on. Her Dad picked her up further down the road and took her home, all the way back to Pensacola, Florida.
Much gratitude to all the children and teachers for their enthusiastic participation!
Christie and Mandy, first and second grade teachers at Elsanor, threw on their running clothes and joined Emily and the team to run a mile down the road, thank you both so much for joining us!
Today was a great example of the joy we all get from spontaneous enthusiasm and oneness!
An extra big thank you to Emily for sharing our miles and her enthusiastic inspiration. It really means so much to us when people spontaneously want to run with the torch! We look forward to running with you again, Emily!
Dennis felt so good he could even lift up a battleship!
Sarvodaya finishing up the teams running for the day..in the United States!
A special thanks to the Nimit family for their extraordinary hospitality at their family restaurant, Bangkok Thai Cuisine, in Mobile. We were wowed by the authentic Thai decor and their fresh, scrumptious, award winning vegetarian dishes.
The Nimit family are Buddhist and have a beautiful meditation center adjacent to their restaurant. They graciously invited us in to offer us their goodwill and peace salutations. We felt very honored to be with such love and kindness. In return we sang them our Peace Run Song and had them hold the torch outside their center!
Power Is never Peace.
Peace Is always Power.
-Sri Chinmoy
