Six-year-old Katie Baker made a silent wish for world peace as she held a torch high above her head.

When she was finished, she passed the torch to the child standing beside her in a large circle of more than 300 children outside of Ballard Elementary School Wednesday morning.

That child made the same wish before passing the torch to the next child.

By the time the ceremony was finished, more than 300 kids had wished for peace.

Did all those silent wishes change the world?

Representatives with the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run are hoping so.

“This flame represents the flame of peace that each one of us has inside our hearts,” said Salil Wilson, an Austrailian citizen participating in the Peace Run. “There is far more that unites us as one human family than divides us.

“Peace and harmony starts in each one of our hearts.”

Participants in the Peace Run, a global torch relay that symbolizes humanity’s universal aspiration for a more peaceful world, stopped at the Niles school to interact with children in the city’s Summer My Way summer camp for about an hour Wednesday morning.

The North American segment of the Peace Run began April 11 at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in New York City and will end there Aug. 15, after covering a 10,000-mile route through the 48 contiguous states.

Wilson said individual runners average about eight to 10 miles a day to keep the collective group traveling between 80 and 100 miles each day.

By the time they reached Niles, runners had logged more than 7,000 miles.

The runners represented almost a dozen different countries, including France, Ukraine, Brazil, Poland and Canada.

The Peace Run is a major international relay run aimed at uniting the world through friendship, understanding and sports. Following a tradition that began in 1987, every other year the Harmony Run is held in 100 nations, covering a global distance of 60,000 miles; the largest running event ever held. This will be the 13th time that runners have crossed into the State of Michigan.

The inspirer behind the Oneness-Home Peace Run was the late peace visionary Sri Chinmoy, who saw in sports a powerful instrument for promoting global harmony. Volunteers all over the world are carrying on this vision by taking the torch to communities on six continents.

The Oneness-Home Peace Run is a non-profit organization not associated with any political cause. There is no fee charged for participation, and no funds are being raised.

Visit the Oneness-Home Peace Run website at peacerun.org to see information on the events taking place in various countries, a daily log of relay runners with photos, videos and activities for school children based on the theme of World Harmony/Word Peace, an online gallery of selected artworks by school children, a short presentation video, and more.