What started as a single flame in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, has spread across land and sea to light the homes and churches of countless people. ¶ Earlier this month, leaders of a local Boy Scout troop drove halfway across the country to receive the flame, dubbed the International Peace Light. It arrived by plane from Europe. The troop leaders lit custom-made lanterns, capturing a portion of the flame to bring back to Minnesota. Although the Boy Scouts international organization has helped distribute the Peace Light during the holiday season for many of the 22 years it has been shared, it was the first time the Peace Light, which is intended to spread the message of peace, has ever reached Minnesota.
Boy Scout Troop 113 in Bayport arranged to escort the light from New York to Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Bayport, a town just south of Stillwater on the St. Croix River, where the light will be displayed until Christmas Day.
Thanks to the Scouts, the Peace Light also glows in cities as near as Madison, Wis., and as far as Mexico City.
"It's been a logistical challenge, but it's also good to see that people can work together and spread a symbol of peace like this, and hopefully it will bring some peace and joy at Christmas time," said Joe Reding, the troop's treasurer.
As he and Roger Knuteson, another troop official, drove back from New York carrying the flame, they stopped to distribute it wherever they could.
Everywhere they went, he said, people were excited and fascinated.
In all, the Scout leaders shared the flames in five cities -- Reedsville, Pa., Toledo, South Bend, Ind., Chicago and Madison.
The guy from Mexico City flew to Chicago to meet Reding and Knuteson, and then drove with his newly lit lantern all the way back to Mexico, Reding said.
