We love the children's creativity.

Two of our three running teams ran into the New Augusta Elementary School where about 100 children and staff members greeted us outside with homemade paper torches, doves, and a music band playing our World Harmony Run theme song .

After a lap around the field with the torch, we made our presentation to the children and they played our song as we sang it with them.

They asked some very insightful questions about our run and then all the children ran about 400 meters with the torch escorted by the police to the center of New Augusta.

We are grateful to Principal Honey Goodin and all the staff members who made this delightful experience possible. Some of the children even sent us harmonemails both before and after this experience.

Making our way to Hattiesburg, we ran to the George Hawkins Elementary School where we were warmly greeted by about 50 young children and some teachers including Principal Margie Willis.

The children sang two songs for us, the first was their school theme song and the second one was a very touching rendition of ‘What a wonderful World.’

This was followed by the release of about 30 red, white and blue balloons to send harmony to other towns in the area.

We then sang our theme song with the children and had a short run with some of them on the front lawn.

The children are always so eager to run with the Torch and to experience firsthand what it is like to run for Harmony.

The local Channel 7 television crew came out to cover this event as we came through Hattiesburg.

They followed us to the University of Southern Mississippi where we were met by Coach Wayne Williams and some of the track team.

We had a short jog to the Hub, a central location for the students on this beautiful campus. We were delighted to have Deb Osteen, the cross country running coach to join us along with Brittany Wood and Will Garrett, runners on the team. It was a very busy time for everyone on the campus so we could not spend much time there, but we are so grateful that they took the time to spend with us today.

Our lunches were provided by Quizno’s of Hattiesburg due to the kindness and generosity of Paul Rogers. Their footlongs were delicious and more than enough to satisfy the hungry runners.

After a hot and busy run on highway 49, we all were happy to end up at the Hampton Inn of Jackson, Mississippi. They offered us four rooms in their very clean and elegant hotel.

For dinner we were again the recipients of very generous folks from Jackson. Jesse Hughes of the Outback Restaurant offered us enough food to run on for days. It was very tasty and was served by a few very courteous waiters, Marla and Zach. We are grateful to them all, especially Jesse and Ted for their kindness and generosity.

Even though we have only been in Mississippi for one day, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity and spirit of harmony from almost everyone we meet.

Team Harmony USA

---

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

< USA 3 May

USA 5 May >