Message from Council Leader

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1 December WC FF CALENDAR 12/1 Community Service Kid s Aide, Team #2 12/8 Community Service Kid s Aide, Team #3 12/8 End Of Year Potluck Holiday Dinner 6:15pm, Comm Hosp Election of 2012 Leadership Council 12/15 Community Service Kid s Aide, Team #4 Message from Council Leader Greetings! This is my final message as your Council Coordinator. I ve enjoyed serving in this position for the past 3 years and value the dedication from the Leadership Council and members. I ve watched our club grow, change things, but also left some things the same. My hope is for our club to continue Revitalizing, increasing membership, focusing on the Baby Boomers, and continuing to plan activities that stimulate and generate an enthusiasm that will keep us viable for years! Thank you for the opportunity to serve as our club s liaison & spokesperson with FFI and other international organizations. My experience has improved my knowledge of FFI; and I ve made many friends from clubs in the US and around the world. I wish you and your family a Joyous Holiday Season. In Friendship, Sue Palmer Special Holiday Dinner Potluck Dinner with Door Prizes! Election of 2012 Leadership Council Thursday, December 8, 6:15 PM at Community Hospital s Conference Room. Shirley Schultz will be calling you for your selection of a Side Dish, Salad, or Desert. The meat dish will be provided by the club.

2 Western Colorado Chapter s Leadership Council Council Coordinator Sue Palmer spalmer2402@msn.com Secretary/Historian Cindy Beckage desertwmn101@yahoo.com Treasurer Verna Bunn vbunn@bresnan.net Exchange Coordinator Phil Smith smithgjco@earthlink.net Membership Coordinator Bobby Rickerd igotewebabe@bresnan.net Publicity/Newsletter Coordinator Linda Smith smithgjco@earthlink.net Newsletter Assist Alyse Wade aswade@bresnan.net Webmaster Vacancy Notes From Your Leadership Council: December s FFI meeting will consist of two events: (1) Annual Holiday Party that will be a potluck this year, and (2) Election of Leadership Council for the year The following members have placed their The following positions are vacant name in nomination for Leadership Council: and Volunteers are urgently needed: Sue Moyer Treasure Leadership Coordinator Bobby Rickerd Membership Coordinator Exchange Coordinator Sue Palmer Publicity, Membership Assistant Secretary Verna Bunn Newsletter Coordinator Webmaster Alyse Wade Newsletter Assistant Friendship Force of Western Colorado is a member-participation club The Council continues its recruitment efforts for the club s new leadership vacancies for As a FFI member, each of us is asked to identify a position that best suits our interests and abilities. Please contact Sue Palmer, current Council Coordinator, to discuss how you might best serve the WCFF in the coming year. Outgoing Leadership Council members will train and assist as requested. Let Us Know. Are there social or sports outings, or special programs that you would enjoy in lieu of the regular Monthly FFI meeting for 2012? The Leadership Council would love to know of your ideas for planning our 2012 Calendar of Events. Dues are Past Due. Verna Bunn, Treasurer, asks that all members who ve not yet paid their annual dues please send their dues to: WC FFI, PO Box 3665, GJ, CO Note that dues for this fiscal year (July 1, 2011-June 30, 2012) have increased to $30.00/person and $50.00/family. Exchange Director s Workshop Saturday, January 24 th, Learn how to conduct a successful Exchange in this half day workshop that will include lunch and all materials. Contact Phil, or smithgjco@earthlink.net for this relaxing and FUN learning opportunity. New For Sale Section This Issue. All WCFF members may advertise items for sale for free in the monthly WCFF Newsletter. Please submit your request to the Newsletter Coordinator by the 25 th of the prior month that you wish your item to appear. See Page 7 this issue for that section.

3 COMMUNITY HAPPENINGS Check out GJHS Holiday Extravaganza. Call JoAnn Roemer for information. FFI folks have been enjoying this fun way to begin the holiday season for years. Grand Junction Parade of Lights, Saturday, December 3 rd, Main Street. This year s theme is Wild West Christmas. Dress Warm! Grand Mesa Chorus Sweet Adelines Twas the Night Family Christmas Concert will be held Sunday, December 4 th with performances at 2:00 and at 7:00 PM at the Moss Performance Center, Colorado Mesa University. Tickets Prices are: Adults $10, Seniors $8, Child $5. High Desert Opera presents Christmas Classic Concert, Sunday, December 4, 7:00 PM at the First United Methodist Church. Check highdesertopera.org for details. Grand Junction Symphony with The Texas Tenors will perform Saturday, December 17 th, 7:30 PM at the GJHS Auditorium. Ticket Information or gjsymphony.org. High Desert Opera presents Camelot Saturday, December 31 and January 7 at 7:00 PM at the Avalon Theatre. Ticket Prices: $39, $29, $19. Tickets available at Ropers Music or on line at highdesertopera.org There will be no Armchair Travelers presentation in December. Ruth Moss Poppy Woody Carolyn Lampshire Ned Bunn Cindy Beckage Doris Arcieri Bobby Rickerd Dec 3 rd Dec 17 th Dec 19 th Dec 19 th Dec 20 th Dec 24 th Dec 27 th MY TRAVELS Submitted by Carol Basti I ve been many places, but I ve never been in Cahoots. Apparently you can t go there alone. I ve also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there. I have however been in Sane. They don t have an airport, you have to be driven there. I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump and I m not into physical activity. I have also been in Doubt. It s a sad place and I try not to visit there too often. I ve been in Flexible, but only when it was important to stand firm. Sometimes I m in Capable, and I visit there more as I m getting older One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense. It really gets the adrenalin flowing. Sometimes I think I am in Vincible, but life shows me I am not!

4 MEMBERS ON THE MOVE My ten day trip to Ireland with the Chamber of Commerce began in Dublin where a bus took us to the Adare Manor 5-star Hotel where we stayed for a week. This villa had outstanding commendations with everything we needed even breakfast. We toured Adare where we explored the beautiful wooden and lush countryside setting. This included the Holy Trinity Abbey, Desmond Castle and the Heritage Center where we learned about the town's history. Marguerite Collard in Ireland Next we visited the Cliffs of Moher and Galway. The Cliffs are 200 yards high at the highest point and span for 6 miles along the Atlantic Ocean. It is truly a must see in Ireland. Our bus then took us to The Twelve Pins and the Maum Turk Mountains in Connemara. We departed there for Galway where we enjoyed a panoramic tour, and time to explore the shops, cafes and pubs on Quay Street. We went to the small town of Cashel then on to historic Kilkenny. In medieval times this was a prosperous trading center and the narrow streets still follow the ancient routes. We visited the Kilkenny Castle which was built in the 13th century, home of the powerful Butler family for almost 600 years. In the evening we enjoyed an outstanding medieval dinner with great entertainment at the Kilkenny Castle. Next day we re on to the Dingle Peninsula on the way to the Blasket Island Center. In the Dingle area is the setting where the film "Ryan's Daughter" was filmed. If you are old enough you will remember this outstanding film. We visit the Blarney Castle, where you could kiss the Blarney Stone, but I didn't kiss it. We were given time to visit the Blarney Woolen Mills and bought some wonderful woolens to bring home for Christmas gifts. Back in Dublin we had the remainder of the day on our own. Some of us chose to do the Dublin City "Hop-on- Hop-off Bus Tour." There were 23 stops on this tour including Guiness Storehouse, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Book of Kells, Christ Church, Writers Museum and many more. Of course we had to try out the local pubs which had fantastic food as well. We had to get to bed early as we had to be up early the following morning to fly home. Ireland is a beautiful country to visit and a must to do for everyone. It is no wonder that it is called "The Emerald Island," it is so green. The people are also very friendly. In friendship, Marguerite

5 OUTGOING TO NIAGRA, CANADA & MILWALKEE, WISCONSIN June 24 to July 2, 2012 Niagara, July 2 to July 8, 2012 Milwaukee CO-EDs: Sue Palmer, Bobbie Rickerd Good News! We have all ambassador committed to go on this exchange. If you re still interested please call either Sue or Bobbie to get your name on the waiting list. The ED s in Canada and Milwaukee are busy planning our activities and as soon as we get more details we ll notify you. The Niagara Falls Friendship Force Canadians are planning lots of interesting activities, as well as, a Niagara Park Tour and Bridal Veil Falls. On July 1, we ll end the week by celebrating Canadians Independence Celebration. July 2 we ll arrive at the fascinating city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Greater Milwaukee FF is promising a fun-filled week! We ll be enjoying the week with Charlotte North Carolina FF Club for a BANG-UP All American 4 th of July Celebration! INBOUND WORLD THEMED EVENT DISCOVER USA SERIES September 16-22, 2012 CO-EDs Needed Sue Palmer, Co-Ed Our club has been selected as a Trailblazer by hosting this special Themed Exchange inviting the world to western Colorado. We qualify in the Trailblazer Project by designing and implementing the Western Colorado Adventure Experience Exchange with Northern Colorado participants. This special theme promotes our club and attracts new members. The dates are planned for September 16 through 22, I m looking for your help to serve on the Planning Committee to share ideas and tasks for this exciting exchange. We will need to begin pre-planning now for this very large and exciting Exchange. Interested members please call Sue Palmer or or e- mail: spalmer2402@msn.com OUTBOUND 2013 EXCHANGE CO-EDs Needed The Leadership Council members held an impromptu meeting to review our Exchange options for 2013 and chose the following in order to meet Atlanta s deadline: 1. A two week home stay in any two Latin America countries, 2. A two week home stay in England and another nearby country, 3. A two week home stay in Nepal and another nearby country. These choices were based on (1) following the FFI Mission goals and (2) choosing locations that we had not visited before or at least in a very long time. There are many factors that influence the proposals Atlanta puts together including (1) how successfully we fill our exchange assignments and (2) our support of FFI s mission objectives, both having high priority. In these two areas we have fared well first by having had two successful outbound exchanges to Australia and to Eastern Europe, and also by creating the Western Colorado Adventure Experience Themed Event and preparing to host one of the handful of 2012 Discover USA Series. We will see the results next March when Atlanta announces the Exchange matches.

6 HOLIDAY MEMORIES AND TRADITIONS By Alyse Wade We ve seen the weather turn cooler each day with the promise of snow in the valley. Snow has already been seen on the Mesa and the Bookcliffs. Thanksgiving has passed along with all of the yummy leftovers and Black Friday lasted all weekend with frenzied shoppers crowding the Mall. It is now the time of year to plan for a joyous holiday season. Decorations are already appearing sporadically around the city as many took advantage of the Thanksgiving holidays to pull boxes out of the garage. Fresh Christmas trees are for sale and Hallmark TV has been showing Christmas movies for weeks. It is a time for children and family traditions. Following, some members have graciously shared with me their special Christmas memories. Enjoy. Linda Smith has shared a special gift from her grandfather. I have very fond memories of Christmas in my very large, and frugal, farm family. Grandpa whittled little toys all year long, one for each of his 15 grandchildren. At Christmas time he and Grandma would create a beautifully decorated grab box with the tissue-wrapped carved toys inside. We cousins would take turns by age, youngest first, getting our very special handmade toy. This created much excitement and competiveness among us even to this day I cherish my pieces of his artwork, and I still remember in great detail the ones that I d hoped for but someone else got. Alyse remembers, Like Linda I had a grandparent who gave a unique present to her grandchildren for Christmas. A couple of days before Christmas, my Grandmother would roll out cookie dough, and the grandkids would use her numerous cookie cutters to make trees, snowmen, stars and other symbols of the holiday season. There was a lot of laughter and since broken cookies could be sampled some accidents happened. While we were sampling cookies Grandma was making her special cookie for each one of us. She cut out individual faces and decorated them in our likenesses. There were brown hair and brown-eyed boys and girls, blond and blue-eyed boys, and one little red haired girl. Grandma was a natural artist and we had no trouble identifying our cookie. Our exquisite little faces appeared next to our plate on Christmas day. Phil reminds us that Christmas memories are not just for children. After one very difficult and trying year, we woke up on Christmas morning and took our dogs for a walk in a beautiful fresh snow under the bright red Colorado National Monument cliffs backed by a bright blue sky. When we returned, waiting for us on our stoop was a surprise package from Sister-in-law Kim and family. They had sent us a fast-frozen New England Lobster Dinner accompanied by a very fine wine. The dinner consisted of corn, potatoes, and live fast-frozen Maine lobsters. We put the kettle on to heat per instructions and the lobsters came to life scratching the inside of the kettle! Once we got past all of that excitement, it was truly a most magical and memorable Christmas day and feast. Take time to sit down and relax during this busy sometimes hectic season. Maybe you can also give someone a memorable holiday. It is the season for goodwill, charity, and generosity. In Friendship, Alyse Happy Holidays to You and Your Loved Ones

7 PERSEVERANCE By Kent M. Keith, EdD Sometimes people are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. The biggest men & women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men & women with the smallest minds. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. People really need help but may attack you if you help them. Give the world your best and you ll get kicked in the teeth. Do good anyway. Be honest and frank anyway. Think big anyway. Fight for the underdogs anyway. Build it anyway. Help people anyway. Give the world your best anyway. FOR SALE 2007 Gulfstream Diesel Motor Home with 3 Slides. Less than 10,000 Miles, Excellent Condition. Includes Washer, Dryer, Generator, Side by Side Refrigerator, Convection Microwave, 2 Color TVs, Satellite Radio, Surround Sound, Lots of Extras. Call or Woman s 21-Speed Jamis Mountain Bicycle. Bought $550 includes Helmet, Attached Water Bottle, and Punchure-Proof Infused Tires. Excellent Condition with under 5 total miles ridden. Asking $275. Call or Man s 21-Speed Jamis Mountain Bicycle. Bought in $550 includes Helmet, Attached Water Bottle, and Punchure- Proof Infused Tires. Excellent Condition with under 5 total miles ridden. Asking $275. Call or High-Clearance Trailer Hitch Bike Rack - $50. Call or Your Ad Here!

8 Friendship Force Pledge As a member of the Friendship Force I recognize that I can make a difference, I recognize that I have a mission; that mission is to be a friend to the people of the world. As I embark upon this adventure, I know that others will be watching me. I know that through my example to my own fellow citizens and the people of other nations, The cause of friendship, love, and peace will be furthered. I can make a difference Friendship Force International Western Colorado Chapter P.O. Box 3665 Grand Junction, CO 81502