Rotary Log (Friends Forever-amazing)

Posted by Richard Seery 
on Mar 11, 2014
 
 

Announcements

Club President David Underhill shared recent decisions by the Board to expend funds from the William Cash Committee to the Basic Needs Committee: 

          $5,000 to Friends Forever

          $5,300 to Hands On Committee for materials to upgrade the Pease Softball Field, a project coordinated by Ted Alex and Basil Richardson.  Volunteers are needed on Saturday, April 26th!  Ricci Lumber kindly donated the materials at their cost. 

          $1,200 to Seacoast Food Pantry.

Lou Fernald announced the next “Behind the Business” visitation at Cross Roads House Wednesday, March 12th at 5:15. 

Guest Speaker

 

Membership attendance reached an all-time high with a FRIENDS FOREVER (FF) venue featuring Ben Ben Ami, a 20 year old FF Israeli alumnus, Class of 2013.  Ben, lives in Haifa, Israel and became active in high school.  He plays the guitar and banjo and spends time being proactive by writing playbooks for FF workshops and fund raising – he wrote letters to the CEOs of all company advertisers after seeing the 2014 Super Bowl – requesting a donation to FF from savings attributable to cutting 1 minute announcements in half and sending $2M to the program!  Ed note: He did miss contacting Bob Kraft of the Patriots Team, so he was furnished contact information to follow that lead!

Ben captivated the audience with stories of RYLA exchange trips and travels in Israel, Turkey, London and the United States.  Recently awarded the Volunteer of the Year by the Israel Ministry of Education, Ben requested a years’ deferral into the Israeli Naval Academy for Officers so he might continue his extraordinary venture of international peacemaking activities.  

Portsmouth Rotary was the eight speaking engagement for Ben.  His message of hope and commitment to peace pervaded his remarks which respectfully earned a standing ovation from the audience.  

Scheduled to attend this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Roast of Bobbie and Cy Sweet on March 14th  , Ben will to head home to Israel.

 

For readers who are not familiar with the organization’s efforts, Bob Raiche (Deceased January 1, 2014) founded Friends Forever in 1986 which established an international focus of sharing ideas and experiences between youths of different faiths and ideologies who inherently mistrust as captives of their sectarian ways.  Initially organized in Northern Ireland between Catholic and Protestant youth leaders, youths were invited to New Hampshire and Maine families of Rotary members to co-exist for two weeks and  learn to become peacemakers.    Activities during 2013 included exchange students - 36 Jewish and Arab youth volunteer leaders from Israel and 60 others from Northern Ireland – along with arranging 6 international partnerships with various youth organizations and a Ugandan Outreach Program.     Go to:  http://www.friendsforeverusa.org

 

 
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