A 550-MILE sponsored bike ride from Milton Abbot to raise money for the school?s peace window started this week.
The ride will include visits to all of the other peace windows in the country within a 100 hour period. It is being undertaken by a parent at Milton Abbot School, biking enthusiast Mike Hunting, to raise money towards the £1,000 still needed to install the window.
Two of the other peace windows are in schools ? one in Newton Ferrers in Devon and one in East Molesey in Surrey. Another has been installed at St Austell Fire Station. Princetown School has also just announced plans for a window.
The peace window was designed by Pamela Pace of the Flight of the Phoenix peace project based in Gunnislake and aims to link people throughout the world in a spirit of peace, by each day lighting a candle next to the window. The window has been made by a 93-year-old Benedictine monk.
Mike Hunting set off from Milton Abbot School at 10am on Monday, cycling overnight to East Molesey. He will returns to Newton Ferrers today (Thursday), then go to St Austell via Princetown, with the final leg to Milton Abbot passing through Gunnislake, where a peace window for a New York fire station is being held for dispatch.
Candles for peace will be lit at each point and the trip will end at Milton Abbot at 2pm on Friday, May 2.
The plans to install the stained glass panel in a window in the school hall have had a chequered history ? having initially been turned down by West Devon planning committee as being out of keeping with the listed building.
A hard-fought campaign followed the refusal which eventually resulted in the approval against the recommendations of planning officers at a planning committee meeting at the beginning of April.
More details of the school?s peace window can be found at http://www.miltonabbotpeacewindow.com">www.miltonabbotpeacewindow.com
l See picture page 6.