July 23rd Road Trip to Greenfire. Rockford Rotary travelled to Greenfire Restaurant for the July 23rd meeting. We were invited by Shendet Ismajlaj the owner who treated us to a delicious buffet lunch. He did so in recognition of our efforts to help his native Kosovo with a couple of projects through RI and District 6420. Our main program was about the Youth Exchange Program. Timeo Gijbels who was our inbound Exchange student a couple of years ago was visiting his host family and gave us an update on what is happening in his life. Isa de Melo Reis who is finishing up her year as an exchange student gave a presentation on her last two trips to the East Coast and to Hawaii since her presentation a few weeks ago. Isa will be returning to Brazil at the end of the month. She will be changing schools in Brazil because her new school will give her credit for her year in the US. When she completes high school, she would like to return to Rockford and go to Rock Valley College and then plans to go to Columbia University in New York. Her East Coast trip included stops in New York (New York Style Pizza), Philadelphia (Philly Cheeze Steaks), Myrtle Beach, Coco Beach, and Orlando for trips to Universal Studios and Disney World. She accompanied her host Mom, Samantha Hochmann, to Hawaii for a repatriation ceremony for some artifacts that were given to Robert Tinker over 150 years ago. Besides the repatriation ceremony, the highlight was a trip was a trip to the USS Arizona Memorial. So, in the course of a few weeks, Isa visited the 911 Memorial in New York and the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii. Quite an adventure for our young lady. In addition to our buffet, Shendet had a birthday cake for Samantha whose birthday was the day of the meeting. We had 35 people at the meeting. Nothing like a free lunch at Greenfire to increase our attendance. Thank you to Shendet for the meal and accommodations, to Smanatha for being Isa's host Mom, and to Isa for a very interesting year as our Exchange Student. If all goes well, we should be seeing her in a couple of years. "Host Mom" Samantha and our host Shendet. A good turnout. Timeo Gijbels Isa and her "Coat of Many Pins" and decorations.
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