The Trail of Dreams World Peace Walk Cooperation Circle completed its 13 Moon Walk for Peace on Friday, November 11 in Atlanta, George. This 13-month journey to “awaken the heart of America” took them around the United States, through sixty of the poorest and most marginalized communities in the country, where they planted peace poles, joined in community service projects, and led community walks for peace.
“The idea for the 13 Moon Walk 4 Peace came when we returned from our three-and-a-half year global walk for peace,” said walk Visionkeeper Audri Scott Williams. “On our journey from New York back to Atlanta, Georgia, we were struck by the pockets of poverty and disenfranchised communities that appeared to be under the radar, invisible to the general population.
“We realized our work was not done, in many ways it was just beginning. We decided, before we even made it back home to Atlanta, that we would do a walk in the USA to be a catalyst for healing the heart of our communities here at home.”
The group entered each community with open hearts and open minds, offering whatever was wanted and needed.
“One memorable time was the planting of a peace pole in a small plot of land in the corner of a parking lot in Watts in South Central Los Angeles,” recalled peace walker Mary Margaret Woods. “We transformed the weeded plot into a peace garden, assisted by the children in the after-school program there, who planted flowers, vegetables, and herbs, and became the garden monitors. As the garden grew, it brought the community together to share in the beauty and harvest of this sanctuary of peace.”
The group planted 37 handmade peace poles around the country, with the intention of creating the first official U.S. Peace Trail.
The 13 Moon Walk started with a team of 13 people on October 10, 2010 in Atlanta; four were able to complete the journey, including Audri, Mary and two others. Audri’s elderly mother, known affectionately as “Mama Natalie,” also travelled with the group.
For the final leg, the walkers invited the Atlanta community to join them on a walk from city outskirts to the famous Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, where they joined with others around the world in a global prayer for peace at 11:11 am.
The journey closed with an 11-11-11 Peacemakers Honoree Ceremony at Atlanta’s Morehouse College to “honor peacemakers from around the country who exemplify the ‘servant/leader’ working to heal and strengthen our beloved communities across America.” Civil rights movement veteran Dr. Amilia Platts Boynton Robinson was the ceremony’s presiding elder, and photographs from URI’s 100Kalema photography exhibition were on display.
