Good morning from Holiday Inn Express and Suites, Carpinterea!
Thank you for hosting our team's stay, Holiday Inn Express and Suites Carpinterea! We truly appreciate your hospitality.
Some guests at the hotel were delighted to have the opportunity to hold the torch.
We arrived at Hardy Elementary school in Santa Barbara.
A big thank you to Mayor Randy Rouse for coming to the school and offering us a Proclamation from the City of Santa Barbara! And also a big thank you to School Principal, Veronica Binkley, for welcoming us to the school.
We offered Mayor Rouse our Certificate of Appreciation and an artwork by Peace Run Founder, Sri Chinmoy.
We also gave Mayor Rouse a Peace Run t-shirt.
Thank you to all involved!
We showed a video and had the kids guess our countries, or, in Pujari's case, the world!
Many of the children had prepared beautiful artwork for us on the theme of peace.
Offering our Certificate of Appreciation and an artwork by Sri Chinmoy to Principal Binkley who received it on behalf the school.
Time for us all to run around the field!
It was incredibly inspiring to see the entire school join in the run with the Peace Torch!
After the Ceremony, Principal Binkley kindly gave a few of us a tour of the school.
Pransukh enjoyed running around the United States.
Heading towards Santa Maria the RV team drove the shorter route over the mountains. At one point there was a lot of fog.
Cachuma Lake.
The mens team took a more coastal route.
Pujari proudly running with serious flower power!
We started making our own flower flames seriously since lighting real flames is not allowed during our relay in California.
Making friends along the way.
Even the horses are very fond of our torch flame!
Harita ran the torch the final leg to the Santa Maria City Hall. She was filmed by Tony, a very enthusiastic reporter from Fox TV.
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We were invited to wait in the Council Chambers.
Santa Maria Mayor, Alice Patino, gave us a warm welcome!
Mayor Patino read a Proclamation bestowing today as Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run day!
Mayor Patino is in her third term as Mayor of Santa Maria.
We offered our Certificate of Appreciation.
Amazingly, she is the first woman Mayor of Santa Maria!
Thank you to Chelsea, Mayor Patinos Assistant, for organising our visit!
We were all happy to meet Tony and experience his enthusiasm and joy!
Getting some background team footage
A big thank you to Navneet and her staff at Mountain Mikes Pizza for offering our team a complimentary Mountain sized Pizza for dinner!
