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SILVER AND GOLD AREA
Northern California and Nevada
www.afs-silverandgold.org
Dear
Friends of AFS,
This is another of the periodic updates on what is happening in the Silver and Gold
(northern
California and Nevada) Area of AFS. The recipients are volunteers identified
through AFS and this year's host
families. If you do not wish to receive these updates,
please let me know and I’ll take you off the list.
If you are receiving more than one copy
it's because you have several family members on my list, all
with the same e-mail address
so please share this with everyone who uses your e-mail.
The
AFSers are Coming!
Arrivals
August 10-12
Orientation
August 13
This year’s students start arriving
starting August 10, 2005. We are hosting 34 students
from Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Denmark,
Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Switzerland, Thailand
and
Turkey. They will be living with families from Elko and Spring Creek, Nevada to Truckee
to Rio
Vista. We are particularly excited to be participating in the YES program – a
program that brings students
from Muslim countries here. They are placed in clusters
with at least three students in close proximity to
each other and a Cluster Coordinator so
they can have some particular activities in addition to the regular AFS programs.
Our
“cluster” is in the Davis area.
Once again, wonderful families in Winters, California
will be hosting our arriving students
until August 13, when they spend the day at their first orientation and are
then taken
home by their host families.
Can You Help?
We need volunteers to help with transportation
from the Sacramento Airport to Winters as
the students arrive starting on Wednesday. If you are available to
provide shuttle service,
please let me know. (We aren’t looking for anyone in Nevada to respond to this
request.)
It’s a great way to meet some of the students as they arrive.
We, also, need volunteers
to help with the orientation on August 13. We need people to
help with the paperwork, assist with the formal
orientation program and generally be
available to provide assistance as needed. This is a wonderful opportunity
to get to know
the students. If you are able to participate in events throughout the year, you can share
in the students’ growth over time.
Let me know if you can help with the Arrival Shuttle or Orientation.
Silver and Gold Students Go Abroad
This year more than 50 students from our area are or about to be abroad
for a year, a
semester or a summer. We have students in Argentina, Australia, Chile, Czech Republic,
France,
Japan, Hungary, Italy, Spain as well as others. And, three students received
scholarships. Two students
received Awards for Excellence merit scholarships: a student
from Nevada Union was one of ten students receiving
a full scholarship; a student from
Winters was one of ten students receiving a $ 2,500 scholarship. A student
from Yuba
City was awarded a Cargill Corporation Global Exchange Scholarship of $ 4,500.
Events throughout
the Year
The students have several orientations during the year. Plus, various groups within our
Silver
and Gold area have events to which we’re all invited. Please visit our area
Calendar at our website,
http://www.afs-silverandgold.org, for all the activities. For those
events for which we don’t yet have
this year’s dates, we have listed the event and the
month in which it occurs. We have links to the coordinators
for each so you can request
more information or volunteer to help.
Pictures, Pictures and More Pictures
We
have links to pictures in two locations on the website. At www.afs-silverandgold.org on
the home page, click
on “Picture Album” located at the bottom. This takes you to a
website that gives us fast-loading
photos with space for LOTS of photos, and we have
LOTS of photos. You can also get to the pictures by using
the "Picture Album" link on the
Calendar page.
Let me know if you have any suggestions or thoughts for this
periodic newsletter.
Joan
Joan
W. Cavanagh
Volunteer & Orientation Coordinator
Silver and Gold
joan.cavanagh@afs-silverandgold.org
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