Yesterday we met Nancy and her grandchildren who are visiting from Portland, Maine. Today we bumped into more of her family - her son Tom, husband Walter, and grandson Owen (for the second time.) They were on their way to go canoeing when they saw our runner and stopped at the car and held the torch. Thank-you also for your very kind donation.

This morning, just before hitting the road we took a little stroll on Sri Chinmoy St near Marianne's wonderful home.

At Madison County Children's Camp they were well prepared for our visit. Its a beautiful site with acres of land and a lake for swimming and cayaking.

The children had only arrived the day before but they were already well briefed about our visit and had spent the morning making big posters to welcome us. We were told that they were looking forward to it as the highlight of their day. They were already lined up along the driveway when we arrived ahead of the runners with the vehicles, and by the time the team ran in they were cheering and singing our World Harmony Run song at top volume, so that the runners came in with huge smiles on their faces.

The staff were extremely thoughtful and moved the whole group into the shade for our presentation so that we could cool down a bit.

Almost all the children ran with the torch (and there were about 40 of them). We were very impressed with their oneness and team spirit as they took short turns at being torch-bearer so that there would be time for everyone to have a turn.

After three times running round the field everyone made a big circle and passed the torch from hand to hand, children and adults all adding their harmony wishes to the flame.

The children and staff all lined the driveway again to cheer out first our runners and then our support vehicles. Thank-you to all in the camp for a great meeting, to Camp Director Jim Burton for having us visit, and to Lisa Marris for greeting us and hosting everything so well.

We arrived in Sharon Springs, an extremely pretty town which dates back to 1797 and where many buildings have been granted recognition as an historical district.

We made our way to the town pool on washburn Avenue, joined by many locals along the way, not knowing quite what to expect when we got there. There were also people lining the streets to high five the runners as they passed and cheer them on.

What we found was a fantastic reception from the local population. They had turned out in numbers to welcome us.

Amongst them were Mayor Omar Cousineau and a local Representative.

We were hosted by Jeanne Irwin of the Sharon Springs Recreation Commission. She arranged the meeting and also very kindly provided iced water and fruit and cookies.

The crowd was made up of a big range of ages, but we played our usual "guess our country" game anyway. Sometimes the adults get more involved in the game than the kids!

In the morning the children's group had made a painting of the globe with "hello" written in many different languages around the edge, and it was hanging on display on the wall.

We had a long and insightful discussion with two Veterans for Peace. It was such a unique perspective on the peace process and war itself. They were very inspiring and really appreciated the need for harmony in the world.

Thank-you Sharon Springs! You gave us fresh energy and inspiration as we head into the last week of our long journey.

We were joined again today by our good friends Ashok and Mayura. It was very nice to have representatives of India on the team!

Two more inspiring friendly faces held the torch and wished us well.

The blessings kept coming to day. We started the day with no idea where we were staying for the night. Then we got a call from Jeromy, our accommodations coordinator, saying he had found a campground that would take us for half-price. Nice we are all set. However, the clouds started rolling in and it looked like rain for sure. An hour later, a greater blessing fell, and we got the call that the Crown Plaza in Albany (oh yah!) would be honored to offer four rooms for the night. Booyah!

– Kokila and Atulya

Distance: 95 miles

Team Members:
Atulya Berube (San Diego), Drsalu Gruenstaeudel (Austria), Vladimir Salnacov (Moldova), Mark Collinson (England), Kokila Chamberlain (England), Surya Smolennikova (Russia), Kshetragna Ulanova (Russia), Dima Grygorievski (Ukraine), Sukhada Korshunova (Russia), Nisanga (Bosnia)

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

Gallery: See more images!