NEWSLETTER

DECEMBER

2007

HOSTING/SENDING NEWS

Hosting continues to be a year-roundproposition, so we ask you all to“speak AFS” and talk about yourpersonal experiences to help othersunderstand the importance of peace,person by person. Now more thanever, we need to be building bridges. Ihad the pleasure of attending the ThaiVolunteer Conference in Bangkok, asa delegate from the Northwest. It wasan amazing experience and I have myown host family, now. I am verygrateful to you all for giving me thisopportunity. I hope I have the chanceto share my photos and wonderfulstories sometime soon. For thecurrent hosting crunch, we need tomove quickly to identify at leastwelcome families for the studentsbefore Christmas. Won’t you considerhosting or asking a friend to host, eventemporarily?Regarding Thailand: Everything anystudent ever said about “life-changingexperiences” is right! My host family,Sopon, Cherry and Kuang (my “sister’sname means deer) Penpinun weresuch a welcoming and wonderfulfamily. We cried when we said good-bye, after only one week! The Thaistaff and volunteers were amazing.Thai hospitality is quite incredible andthe recognition process for thevolunteers is something to beemulated! We were able to dance andsing with the man who composed theAFS Song—‘Walk Together, TalkTogether’--slightly different versionthan we’re used to, (more jazzy) In aroom of 500+ volunteers singing andholding hands—it was a movingexperience. Here is a photo of ournew AFS-USA president MargaretCrotty singing with Thai dignitaries. Itwas awesome and it infuses me withnew enthusiasm. Let’s work on theseplacements and spread the word. AFSThailand could send us twice as manystudents as they do (they have 10applicants for every spot they award)and they could host twice as manyAmericans—they have families waitingin the wings! Quite an amazingoperation!West Side Students: Soccer andfootball have ended, swim team hasbegun. We have many studentsinvolved in Key club, drama,international club, (see Beaverton HighSchool photo on Diversity AssemblyDay) and language clubs. Joiningclubs is one of the best ways to get toknow other students. Try it, you’ll likeit!AFS has been invited to field a team ofexchange students to compete in theannual World Quest KnowledgeCompetition the end of February. Thisis a great opportunity for AFSexchange students to demonstratetheir global knowledge! World QuestGlobal Knowledge Competition issponsored by the World AffairsCouncil. Check out the website and ifyou are interested, give me a call. Wewould like to have four competitorsand four “understudies” to coach andchallenge during our practices. Wehave coaches willing to work with thestudents to prepare for the GlobalChallenge.http://www.worldoregon.org/more/education/events.phpWorldQuest is an exciting internationalcompetition for high school students,that takes place at Lewis & Clark inFebruary each year. This friendly teamcompetition for knowledge about worldaffairs was initiated by the WorldAffairs Councils of America in 2003.The ten rounds of questions alsoinclude a regional cultural immersionduring the dinner hour. The winners ofthe competition travel to Washington,D.C. for the national event in April.

Sally

Ann,

Interim

Hosting

Coordinator

Sally Ann Wells – AFS Thailand 2007

COLUMBIA

PACIFIC

AREA TEAM

NEWS

THE

CHAIR

REPORT

– Bonnie

Richardson

‐

Kott

We Will Miss Regional Director, Barbara Bernstein

We recently learned that our AFS Western Regional Director, Barbara Bernstein, has stepped down from her position and we are allvery sad to see her go. Barbara, the volunteers of the Columbia Pacific Area Team will miss you!

60 Year Anniversary

This year marks the 60

anniversary for AFS and we celebrated with our own cozy event at McMenamins Edgefield on November 18.We had a great time chatting with folks. It was really fantastic to hear some of the stories of our earliest AFS returnees who traveledabroad by taking a cross country train to the east coast and then hopping on a boat (yes, a boat!) for several weeks on their way toEurope. AFS Returnee and super volunteer Christy Mueller put together the 60 year celebration and she did a fantastic job. Thank youChristy! If there are any returnees out there who would like to reconnect with AFS, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us atreturnees@afscp.com.

Help Us Find Host Families

As a volunteer for AFS, I think it permeates everything my family does. For Halloween this year, we handed out chocolates and bubblegum and …AFS hosting postcards. For each little bumblebee and Jedi knight and pirate, we told them, “Happy Halloween and look intohosting an exchange student!” Some of them responded with a curious look and some of the older high school kids responded with a“cool” and a smile. With the grapefruits we purchased through our Annual AFS fundraiser, we plan to give some of our grapefruits toour neighbors and friends for the holidays with a little AFS flier. I know that sometimes it is hard for most of us to out right ask people tohost an exchange student, but there are ways to get the information about AFS out to the people we know. We are expecting severalstudents to arrive for the semester program in January 2008 and we are looking for host families for those students. Wouldn’t it be niceif we had a pool of families just waiting to host one of these students? Perhaps the little bumblebee’s parents will see that AFSpostcard and wonder what it would be like to invite a student from Malaysia to come live in their home, just like that family down thestreet did last year….

Bonnie Richardson, Columbia Pacific Area Team Chair

AFS/USA

NEWS

The

International

Living

Room

During a recent address at the World Peace Forum in New York City, J. Brian Atwood, Chairperson of the AFS International Board ofTrustees, gave some inspiring words on the subject of peace. "The best way to acquire (peace) is to see the world through the eyes ofothers...Go forward and offer your personal testimony; advocate for peace through understanding. And, if they call you an idealist, smileserenely and accept the praise. What the world needs is a good deal more idealism in the cause of peace!"Consider opening your home to an Exchange Student as one tangible way you and your family can to contribute to peace andunderstanding in the world. AFS is currently interviewing families who are interested in hosting beginning January 2008.

COLUMBIA

PACIFIC

AREA

TEAM

NEWS

Treasurers

Report

As volunteers, we all give to AFS in many forms – mostly through our time helping students. We recognize that many volunteers drivelong distances when they work for AFS and with the rising gas prices, we know this is becoming increasingly more expensive. Weencourage you to keep track of your mileage and other non-reimbursed expenses because you may be able to write these off on yourtax returns (bearing in mind I’m not a tax consultant and can’t give advice so please consult your tax preparer/accountant on this one).For some of the things volunteers do, our local Area Team and local chapters will reimburse those volunteers. For expenses that youwould like to request reimbursement for, please visit the volunteer section of the web site,www.afscp.com, download the expensereport, and mail it to me at the address on the bottom of the form. Thanks so much for all you do!

James Spears, Columbia Pacific Area Team Treasurer

Hina

‐

India

THANK YOU…

Diane and Les Zoller have been selling grapefruit for the LakeOswego chapter for years. Their daughter is an AFS returnee.Last year, Les stated that his goal for 2007 would be 100 boxes.To date, they have sold and delivered over 105 boxes to fellowemployees, church members, and friends. Les also gifts boxesto some of his clients. Thank you both for your continuedsupport for our programs and for producing more than 1/3 of oursales. Thank you also to the many community members whohave been buying grapefruit for years.

Lorie James

SEARCHING FORRETURNEES

Returnees are a tremendous resourcefor AFS. Each individual returnee canbe an advisor, an advocate, and anambassador for global peace.Returnees inherit a bindingrelationship to the AFS family by virtueof participation. They embody the AFSlegacy, and help keep alive itstradition for future generations.Returnees are the center, the beatingheart of AFS, linked to theorganization for life.Reconnect today! Please stayconnected and involved. We needyou! AFS is a volunteer-drivenorganization and there are many waysthat you can make a great differencewithout committing a lot of time – youcan mentor high school students,make presentations in yourcommunity or write an article for yourhigh school or local paper. Weencourage you to share your storiesand to get involved. Please email

returnees@afscp.com

and ourreturnee coordinator LynetteLedgerwood will contact you ASAP.

“Message”

The world is one,For all of us.We should be proud,To be the part of it.We should work,To see the world for one.All standing hand in hand,All we need is the determination.Then we shall overcome it,Then there would not beThe name of “WAR”And we will live in the world of “PEACE”.