News Release

Friday 24 October 2014

Locals encouraged to welcome Peace Run torch relay to Rotorua

Rotorua District Council is encouraging local people to be part of a global torch relay next week to help promote world peace.

The Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run will arrive in Rotorua on Thursday (30 October) to a welcome ceremony at Eat Streat from10.30am.

Rotorua Primary School students will perform a powhiri to welcome torch runners to the city, while local woman Susannah So from the Rotorua Multicultural Society is to be presented with a Peace Run Community Contribution Award acknowledging her part in initiatives promoting community diversity.

Deputy mayor Dave Donaldson will be handed the torch at the Eat Streat ceremony before starting it on its next leg towards Taupo, as the Peace Run continues its journey across the country.

Mr Donaldson said he was delighted to be part of an event that celebrates peace and acknowledges organisations and people who contribute to peace at every level.

“New Zealanders are extremely fortunate to live and raise families in such a peaceful country. That sense of stability is an essential ingredient in helping make New Zealand and resort destinations like Rotorua become flourishing economies.

“However we can’t take peace for granted. Followers of the international news are well aware of forces at work across the world to destabilise the peaceful lives of others in order to serve their own greed.”

The Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run was founded in 1987 by the late peace visionary Sri Chinmoy, who dedicated his life to advancing world friendship and oneness. Sri Chinmoy was a strong advocate for the role of sports as a powerful instrument for promoting global harmony.

Along the Peace Run route people in thousands of communities across the planet join in and carry the torch a few steps or a few kilometres, in a global wave of friendship and goodwill.

The Rotorua leg of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run will be acknowledged by a public ceremony at Eat Streat from 10.30am to 12pm on Thursday (30 October).

[ENDS]

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