Our first event in the Orlando area was in Altamonte Springs at the Boys and Girls Club of Central Florida.
Kaneenika tries to get the children to guess her small country in Central Europe that begins with the letter 'S'. It's not Sweden, Switzerland or Slovenia. Can you guess?
The children become very interested and engaged as we approach them in a challenging and fun way.
We also give them an opportunity to join in some of our fun events such as doing the actions to our World Harmony Run song.
Our skits are usually a big hit as the children get a chance to judge our actions as peaceful and harmonious or not. This one obviously was not.
We also act out peaceful and harmonious skits also.
We presented the Club with a colorful painting representing Peace and Harmony by the Founder of the Peace Run, Sri Chinmoy
Our local coordinator, Santiva Morrison, offers a Certificate of Appreciation to Stephanie Agugo, Service Director of this Boys and Girls Club. We are so happy and grateful when wonderful leaders such as Stephanie allow us to share these important moments with the children and staff.
We then brought the Peace Torch outdoors and passed it around the giant map of the world, allowing the children to offer their thoughts and prayers for world peace.
The children then had fun searching for countries on the 7 continents.
The children receive Peace Run cards with colorful peace paintings and our website so they could follow the Peace Run around the world and in their own communities.
The children also had a chance to run with the Torch around the playground.
We are very grateful to all the children and staff for sharing this peaceful and fun event with us.
In the afternoon we carried the Peace Torch on the streets of Lake Mary, a beautiful and peaceful suburb town of Orlando.
We ran to the city park by City Hall where we were greeted by Mayor David Mealor and other Seminole County School Board members.
After a warm welcome and inspirational words by the Mayor we began a Peace Walk from the Peace Tree which was planted here in April 2012.
Mayor Mealor leads us in a Peace Walk to the White Peacock Interactive Center for Preventative Medicine nearby.
Mayor Mealor genuinely enjoys participating in the Peace Walks as he has done many times in the past everytime the Peace Run visits Lake Mary.
Santiva Morrison is our local Peace Run coordinator from Lake Mary who has worked very hard over the years to offer opportunities for her town and community to participate in many of our peace events.
Some of the other important community members who so kindly participated in the Peace Walk and function were Sheila Kramer , Editor of Lake Life Magazine, Tina Calderon, Vice Chair of Seminole County Public School Board of Education, Abby Sanchez, Chairwoman and Debbie and Jim Clarke of the White Peacock Interactive Center, our kind hosts for the evening.
Mayor Mealor presents Santiva a Proclamation declaring March 9 as Peace Run Day in Lake Mary. We also received a very nice letter from U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. In it he sates,..."I celebrate with you as you rededicate yourselves to the ideals of peace and world harmony. Thank you for all that you do and I wish you much continued success in this vitally important work."
A letter from James Coffin, the Executive Director of the Interfaith Council of Central Florida, was also read out during the Peace Run ceremony. He ended the very eloquent letter with these kind words:
"As the Executive Director of the Interfaith Council of Central Florida, I feel honored to have this opportunity to thank the many volunteers who work selflessly and tirelessly to keep his vision alive and his legacy honored. I challenge each participant, whatever the nature of your participation, to continue —both literally and figuratively—to carry the torch of world peace that Sri Chinmoy unflaggingly worked to light wherever he went."
The Peace Run Torch-Bearer Award is presented to Commissioner Lucarelli for her outstanding service to the community.
Although we may be better runners than singers, we always offer some of Sri Chinmoy's inspiring Peace Run songs to our hosts.
Offering tokens of our gratitude with colorful Peace paintings by Sri Chinmoy, Founder of the Peace Run and a Certificate of Appreciation that all of the runners sign.
Lake Mary is like a shining star of Peace in this large Orlando area of Central Florida.
Debbie and Jim Clarke, Directors of the White Peacock Interactive Center for Preventative Medicine share the Peace Torch by the Peace Tree which was planted here in 2010, surviving some very big storms We are grateful to them for being guardians of peace and health all these years.
