Braving hot, humid conditions, a group of international long-distance runners stopped in Chatham briefly July 27 to deliver their message of peace.
The Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run arrived at the Chatham-Kent YMCA and spoke to a number of the Y’s camp kids.
The message? Peace begins inside you, said runner Arpan Deangelo, from New York City.
“World peace starts with the individual, if we work on ourselves,” he said. “Runners can run long distances delivering the universal message, ‘Peace begins with me.’ The relay torch is a symbol of passing on that message.”
Runners on the North American leg of the journey are from as far away as Hungary, France, Ukraine, Bali, Iran, Czech Republic and even Australia. Canadian and American distance runners are also part of the group.
Deangelo said the runners began their trek from his hometown in mid-April, and they’ll return there in mid-August.
From New York, they headed south as far as Orlando, Fla. before turning west, hitting places such as Jackson, Miss.; St. Louis; Santa Fe, N.M.; and San Diego. From there they headed north into Canada, travelling east to Winnipeg before dipping back into the U.S. and returning to Canada through Windsor.
The runners will spend a total of 10 days in Canada.
The Sri Chinmoy run, named after its late founder began in 1987. It has expanded to include 140 countries.
