And We're Off! Race(s) for World Peace (part 2)

While we were busy squaring away our event in during dark morning hours in Washington, DC, our 1st Race for World Peace was busy 'going global.'

Illinois & France's Race Exchange

The Palatine (IL) Sister Cities program hosted it's own mini-walk locally. Members of Palatine Sister Cities braved the cold and the rain to take a an architectural tour in downtown Palatine. The walk, created by Marg Duer, gave historical information about past owners of homes. At the end of the tour, the group enjoyed an inside tour of a home over 100 years old, which took 20+ years to renovate by the current owners. The walk concluded at Palatine’s farmers market, with hot coffee, fresh baguettes and French butter.

Earlier that day, Palatine’s sister city in France (Fontenay-le-Comte) took a walk in their own downtown, where the buildings are much, much older but shared a similar day of cold weather.

With the economy in its present state, it is difficult for Palatine and Fontenay to schedule an exchange, so this sister city partnership opted to “share something together” through the mutual event without being on the same continent.

(Thanks to Sue Minott for her reporting on these events.)

Fort Worth, Texas
(As reported from one of the Fort Worth participants)

It’s very dark, and very cold at 6am in Ft. Worth in October. That was check-in time for Team Texas at our satellite Sister Cities Race for World Peace. The race course wound along the Trinity River in a park in downtown Ft. Worth - we ran by a sign for geese crossing, underneath a beautiful canopy of trees and past a statue of Mark Twain reading in the park – a far cry from the city course in Washington, but that’s the way we roll in Texas!

We had lots of energy (for being as early as it was, and for the lack of caffeine prior to the race) and managed to get the crowd involved, so much so that along the course, and the turn we had runners as well as several of the course marshals chanting “Go Sister Cities! Go World Peace!” It was a great experience, and it was fun to participate, even remotely, with the amazing efforts that took place in Washington DC!

Cluj, Romania
A small but hearty group of citizen diplomats (of all ages!) in the third largest city in Romania took to the streets and mountains in their efforts to spread the word of world peace.

Thank you to each of the local sister cities programs that organized a satellite race/walk in conjunction with Sister Cities International. Bravo!

Add your hometown to our list of host cities for 2010 - email us and we'll tell you how easy it is.


Many thanks to our major sponsors of the event: Collective Media, The Hill, and BP, as well as all of in-kind donors,

And We're Off! 1st Race & Festival for World Peace (part 1)

I'm out of breath and so is the staff. Two weeks ago, we hosted the Sister Cities Leadership meetings in DC and last weekend, the Race. Gladly I can say, both were a rousing success.

Anytime you host a first time event it is - how can one say this politely - a learning experience. The staff "learned" quite a bit about how to navigate the DC city government to get all of the appropriate event permits. We learned how to correctly hold an 8oz cup of water for runners whirling by a water station. We even learned that there are such people as grouchy balloon artists. But most importantly - we had a lot of fun getting to our finish line, which was Race Day.
The festival stage set-up started at the pre-dawn hour of 3am. The Pennsylvania Avenue transformation started. By 7am, the staff had the registration and information tents ready and sponsor banners were lightly flapping in the breeze.
As 9am approached the police appeared en masse, the roads closed, and the course marshalls were in place. With over 500 runners/walkers registered from 17 states and DC, folks hurried to find their place for the start. At this moment, all the open-ended questions I had thought about for nine months ran through my head: would the runners like the course, will people show up for the festival, are the first festival performers here, do we have enough port-a-johns, will the rain hold-off to name a few. As I stood about 50 yards down from the Start Line, it was definitely a thrill to have the participants rush by as the event got underway.
I should note that despite the 90% chance of rain forecast the evening before, we happily enjoyed overcast skies and 65 degree temperatures for the whole event (with the exception of a brief 5-minute shower at the start of the festival.)

Just 15 minutes later, it was all over - sort of. At least for the quickest male athlete, Demesse Tefera was the first winner of the Race for World Peace with a time of 15:10. The top female runner appeared shortly thereafter. Hirut Mandefro took the top female prize with a time of 17:04. Supporting family members and friends created a human channel of cheers and applause that stretched from the Finish Line about 100 yards out.
Over the next hour we encouraged, hooted, and prodded our participants on to the Finish Line. (Official timings.) On to the awards ceremony and the festival!

Many thanks to our major sponsors of the event: Collective Media, The Hill, and BP, as well as all of in-kind donors,

(Stay tuned to this space for a series of perspectives on the race, our festival, and the four virtual races that happened in the U.S. abroad.)

Here It Is: Race & Festival for World Peace

Finally the Race & Festival is upon us. We've got about 500 folks who have registered to run/walk in the morning. (We are currently haggling with the weather genie to hold off the rain.) It'll be a terrific event to celebrate UN Day.

The Festival is ready to roll. We've got artists from India, China, Bolivia and much more. Check out the event map and Festival's artist line up. The whole event is emceed by Pamela Sorensen of Pamela's Punch fame. Figure out your day - here is the schedule:

9am Race Begins
9:30am Festival Begins
10am Awards Ceremony
10:45am Festival Resumes
2pm Festival Concludes

Swing by - we are two blocks from the GWU metro on Pennsylvania at 21st street.

Case Closed: Booker Cashes in on O'Brien

Newark Mayor Cory Booker closed the books on his feud with the Tonight Show's Conan O'Brien last Friday. You can watch the segment and read about O'Brien's donation to a Newark nonprofit as a symbol of lasting peace between the two figures. It was fun while it lasted.

City of Newark vs. Conan

Well, this Friday we'll get resolution to the on-going feud between The Tonight Show's Conan O'Brien and Newark (NJ) mayor Cory Booker. You may recall Booker invoked "the brotherhood" of the sister cities network (so to speak) when O'Brien banned Booker from the Burbank airport and Booker retaliated by banning him from the Newark airport, New Jersey, and ultimately, all of Newark's sister cities.

Mayor Booker appears this Friday on The Tonight Show, so tune-in to NBC for the resolution of this diplomatic crisis.

Sec. Sec. Clinton to Conan & Cory: Give Diplomacy a Chance

Our chief diplomat, Sec. Hillary Clinton, chimed in this evening on the The Tonight Show's Conan O'Brien/Cory Booker feud. It may not be the Dayton Peace Accords, but it feels like the end is near. Brokered peace is possible. Extend that olive branch, Conan.

Booker to Conan: Give Peace a Chance

The discussions between Conan O'Brien & Cory Booker (Mayor of Newark, NJ) continues. Bad video, but really Conan, can't we just get along?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVZKETJ4i_o&NR=1

Conan O'Brien - You've Got Trouble!

NBC's Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien is known for taking on 'important issues' over his career, but he may have stepped a bit too far this time. Conan has been taking on the city of Newark, NJ and Newark Mayor Cory Booker has a few things to say about that and he's invoked the sister cities network. Enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZSSBUWJm0o&feature=player_embedded

Conan, you've got some problems now. You think New Jersey mayors roll together? You wanna be banned from 2,000 sister cities around the globe? Watch yourself.