Pincher Creek Rotary Club hosts 17 exchange students for two days

Rotary exchange students at Frank Slide
Dan Crawford photo

Chris Davis

Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village (KBPV) in Pincher Creek served as the hub for two days of activity at the beginning of May by 17 Rotary Club exchange students from all over the world, including our own Iris Wang.  Iris is a Taiwanese exchange student who has been living in the Crawford household, and before that she stayed with the Holoboff and Woodard families here in Pincher Creek.  Click here for more about Iris.

Rotarians and exchange students at KBPV
C. Davis photos except where otherwise indicated

 

Mevce Acar 

"Our district has 19 kids and we invited them to Pincher Creek to show them some hospitality, and that there is a lot more than the cities,"  explained Rotarian Dan Crawford. "17 of them were able to attend. The District Rotary Group in Calgary were happy to let us do it.  We're trying to do some neat things that they'd never get to do anywhere else in the world."

The exchange students came from Switzerland, France, Norway, Japan, Spain, Croatia, Turkey, Brazil, Taiwan, Belgium, Mexico, Germany, Venezuela, Austria, Hungary, Finland, Thailand, and Denmark.  They have been made to feel at home by Rotary clubs in Calgary, Medicine Hat, High River, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Cochrane, Stettler, Raymond, Canmore, Olds, and Pincher Creek.

A traditional Pincher Creek welcome

During their two days in southern Alberta the group had a weenie roast with hot dogs, visited Frank Slide, KBPV, Pincher Creek Hutterite Colony, Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, they went on hay rides, and traveled to Lethbridge for the Rotary District Conference.

At Frank Slide
Iris Wang photo

Lise Lykke from Denmark 

The students bunked overnight in KBPV's Beere Hall and held a big BBQ celebration in the museum's community garden area to cap the event on May 2. The weather was a bit bleak, being cold with a bitter wind, but most in attendance didn't let that detract from the very social occasion.

After dinner Rotary Club members and the exchange students took turns introducing themselves, offering brief glimpses into their personalities and experiences.  A selection from those introductions:

Yun-Jie (Iris) Wang of Pincher Creek/Taiwan 

• Laura Massicard from France: "I have found you need people, and people need you.  I like Canada."
• Gianni Farago from France: "I learned that I love students like myself that are strong and adventurous."
• Lise Lykke from Denmark: "I have experienced so many amazing things since I got here.  The funny thing is it doesn't have to be a huge thing like going skiing to be a good experience.  Bringing me home for dinner, little things mean a lot.  This was a huge experience.

Baptiste Vanderbeurght show off his tattoo

• Baptiste Vanderbeurght from Belgium: "You have a big country, with a lot of opportunities, and places to go, that's really unique."  Baptiste was exhorted by the rest of the group to remove his shirt, which he did to reveal a Canadian maple leaf tattooed on his left chest.

Mariana Costa 




Julia Mathiazzi 


• Mariana Costa from Brazil: "Everybody in Brazil is a big fan of soccer, but I prefer hockey!"
• Valentina Guillen: "I'm from Venezuela.  There, it's 35 degees, every single day."  She shivered a bit and then explained that through Rotary she went to Mexico to build houses for the poor.  "It was the best thing ever.  It happened bcause of Rotary.  They paid for me, they took me there, and that's the best."
• Anni Kamarainen from Finland:  "One thing I love about Canada is the mountains."
• Julia Mathiazzi: Through Rotary she helped raise $130,000 with 38 groups for sucide prevention.  "When I left Brazil, my best friend commited suicide just a month before I left. Raising this money was the coolest thing I did here."
• Naoko Miyazawa from Japan likes to go to Timmies.

Dan Crawford photo

Mihael Zupanic 


• Fredrik Haugland: "First of all, Canada is colder than Norway.  People change in a year.  I want to thank all these people for making me change."  
• Mihael Zupanic from Croatia: "The best part of my exchange is all the people.  I have friends all over the world now.  I got to live in the mountains.  I got the best place (Canmore). 
• Janos Takata from Hungary: "The coolest thing I have probably done in Canada is probably meeting these guys.  This has changed how I think about the world." He discovered he really like snowboarding. 
• Jan Cadosch from Switzerland: "I enjoy being here, it is different.  Since I stayed in Raymond, I have figured out what the words 'wind chill' means." 
• Yun-Jie (Iris) Wang from Taiwan: "You all know me.  I think I love people in Canada.  I have met so many nice people here.   I love my host family, and all the Rotarians of Pincher Creek.  They took me to so many places."  
• Lane Crawford from Pincher Creek, soon to be a traveling Rotarian: "I've lived here all my life...(drowned out by wind)."

Lane and Dan Crawford

KBPV donated their space to the group, Pincher Creek Co-op donated steaks, First Student donated a bus and a driver, Frank Slide donated free passes, and the Town of Pincher Creek donated free swim passes so the group could have showers in the morning.  Rotary Club members donated their time and plenty of food for the BBQ.

Sizzlin' Tom Holoboff