25 years ago today the first ever Peace Run kicked off in New York City with live coverage on the NBC Today Show on television.
In a book about the run’s history, Shambhu Neil Vineberg, the Peace Run’s then executive director shares:
Grammy Award-winning record producer Narada Michael Walden composed a theme song, “Oneness-Home Peace Run,” that captured the spirit of the initiative and was featured on TV broadcasts about the Peace Run. By opening day, word about the Run had spread far and wide. We had strong support from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the UN Secretary-General, celebrities Carl Lewis, Clarence Clemons and Narada Michael Walden, and thousands of elected officials who had welcomed Sri Chinmoy’s vision for the Run. That year runners covered 27,000 miles in 44 nations. We were featured in a nationally broadcast PBS-TV special in the US, on a one-hour MTV special, and in countless newspaper articles.
I shared in the American portion of the run that inaugural year in two ways. I flew out to join the American core team running a relay across all 50 states when it went from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Durango, Colorado. I have awesome memories of that experience – running through beautiful locations – seeing a rainbow as soon as we got to the Grand Canyon – early morning meditations at Monument Valley, sleeping in a teepee at a campground, running with the mountains in the distance in Colorado…
Then when the core team passed through Boston, I was there for all the festivities and ceremonies as well.
Happy Birthday Peace Run and World Harmony Run (its new name from 2005 to date)! 25 years later and still going strong! Learn about Harmony Run events in progress now all across the globe at Worldharmonyrun.org.
RSS Subscribe