Some of our teams stayed at La Quinta Inn. We are very grateful to them for their friendly service and clean and spacioud rooms which they offered to us for a good night's rest.
One men's team stayed at the Hampton Inn in Winston-Salem.
We are also grateful for their complimentary room and breakfast and this artistic sculpture of a flaming torch.
Peace means starting the day running and smiling.
Meeting people spontaneously and sharing the torch as we pass through their communities is a very uplifting to both parties.
Mark from the Salisbury Post Newspaper drove over 12 miles to find our team running. Even though we did not pass through his city he felt compelled to cover our story. We are grateful for his kindness and sincere concern for peace and friendship.
Our Executive Director, Salil, puts in some good miles as well.
Jumping for joy as the weather was perfect and the people were so kind and friendly as we ran towards Charlotte.
Deborah Cress stopped her truck when seeing the runner running through her town of Ulla. She is also a runner and coach of 'Girls on the Run', a nationwide running club which encourages and coaches young and teenage girls to stay fit. She was thrilled to meet us and learn of our efforts to share peace as we run through communities large and small.
The women's team also met some very friendly and supportive local citizens of North Carolina today.
Yasodevi coming in from a great run.
Samunnati enjoys her morning run as she makes her way to the Moore Magnet Elementary School.
At the Moore School we were greeted by lots of happy children and beautiful peace posters they created for us.
This teacher translated our ceremnoy into sign language.
We addressed a very large audience in this spacious and modern auditorium.
The children participated in a guessing game with our team. Letter by letter randomly shown they had to guess this word.
The children and teachers always love to sing our song with actions included.
Prakhara, our local coordinator who also attended this school in her youth, presents Principal Amanda Smith with our Certificate of Appreciation and a colorful painting on theme of peace and harmony by the Founder of the Peace Run, Sri Chinmoy.
Samunnati passes the torch to some of the children who ake their own wishes for peace and friendship.
Some of the teachers were also quite happy and excited to offer their wonderful smiles with the torch.
Channel 11 News came out to cover our activities here as well.
Some or our women runners share the torch with Tamatha Fullerwinder, the Assistant Principal of Moore School.
A good stretch before running?
Actually they had to push the car across the street to a service station to get repaired.
This helpful gentleman tried to get the women's team car started after they stopped to get gasoline.
Our men's team had to come to the rescue as the car need to stay overnight for repairs.
A small men's team of three of us were able to make it to the Boys and Girls Club of Charlotte after finding out that the women's car could not make it here.
It was a small but friendly and enthusiastic group of children and friendly counselors.
Himadri from Hungary addresses the group while two children enjoy holding the banner and torch.
Kesha Welch, Director of the club, accepts our Certificate of Appreciation and colorful poster.
Fred, one of the counselors, leads the children in a peace run around the auditorium.
They ran quite a few laps before getting tired.
As always we pass the torch to each person so they can offer their prayers and wishes for peace.
We feel that each person is important to add to the goodwill of the whole world and we try to carry that with us as we carry the torch to as many people as possible.
