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Posts Tagged ‘Americas Regional Meeting’

5 Minutes with Isaac and Serge Fahed

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
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Isaac and Serge traveled from Beirut to attend PTPI’s 2009 America’s Regional Meeting in Las Vegas on September 3-5.  Before the conference, they traveled throughout California on a PTPI Homestay Excursion, visiting a few of PTPI’s Chapters in the state.

Issac and Serge Fahad pose with Amb. Charles Hostler, former Ambassador to Bahrain and former resident of Lebanon, and his wife Chin Yeh

Issac and Serge Fahad pose with Amb. Charles and Chin Yeh Hostler. Amb. Hostler, former U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain, lived for a total of nine years in Lebanon and considers it his favorite country (out of the 160 he has visited).

1. Thank you for coming all this way to represent your chapter, PTPI’s Beirut, Lebanon Chapter at the 2009 Americas Regional Meeting.  How are you enjoying yourselves?

Serge: Las Vegas is very beautiful.  It’s great to see because it’s a famous city – the city that never sleeps.

Isaac: We haven’t seen much of Las Vegas yet.  We plan to though.  We’ve been very busy so far.  We are enjoying ourselves very much.

2. What is the latest humanitarian project your chapter worked on in Beirut?

Isaac: We did a project for Global Youth Service Day (GYSD).  We went to a home for elderly persons and spent the whole day with them.  We served breakfast through dinner and brought them gifts.  Every chapter member was touched by this experience because they needed such care.  The seniors at the center told us that they felt as if their grandchildren were next to them and they had tears in their eyes.

3. Jill Helsel told us that you were really looking forward to meeting other members of our PTPI family.  Has it been a good experience so far?  What have you enjoyed the most?

Serge: Everyone is so nice.  It is such a fantastic experience to meet everyone.

4.  Jill also shared your homestay schedule–Hollywood, Universal Studios, Old Town Sacramento, the California State Fair, San Francisco, wine tasting (to name a few) and a full week with some of our wonderful members in California—sounds like it must have been a fantastic week!  Tell us about it.

Serge: Yes, we came to participate in the 2009 homestay excursion. We’ve been to LA (Los Angeles) and were hosted by a very nice family there and had a great time with them.  It was a wonderful cultural exchange and then we moved to Stockton (California). In Stockton we were also hosted by a very lovely family; we had a very good time and then went to San Francisco and spent lots of time there with our host family having breakfasts, lunches, dinners and exchanging conversation about Lebanon and the United States.

5.  Isaac, you serve as your chapter’s Public Relations Officer and I understand that you work in marketing in Beirut.  You must be a natural!  Do you have any advice for fellow PTPI Public Relations Officers?

Isaac: Absolutely.  I would say that it’s important to approach the media and build connections on all levels.  Any time you can, promote your chapter and represent yourself as PTPI.  You never know where this will lead you, so be sure to network and exchange business cards, emails and meet people.  In Lebanon, due to my job I meet many people and I am always looking to introduce them to People to People International.  So many people don’t know about the organization here so we want to change that and help the chapter and PTPI grow.

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Lending a Hand at Opportunity Village

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
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Educational.  Cultural.  Humanitarian.  Three words that sum up PTPI activities.  At PTPI’s 2009 Americas Regional Meeting in Las Vegas, delegates showed their dedication to humanitarian projects by spending a morning volunteering at Opportunity Village.  They also presented the organization with a monetary contribution.  Special thanks to longtime PTPI family member (and Board member) Anita Manuel for her especially generous donation.

Global volunteers at Opportunity Village

Global volunteers at Opportunity Village

Opportunity Village was founded in 1954 by a small group of families who wanted to improve the lives of their children with intellectual disibilities.  Did you know that people with intellectual disabilities are the largest disability group in the world and 33% of people with intellectual disibilities become disabled after birth due to accident or illness?

Over the years, Opportunity Village has become Nevada’s largest not-for-profit community rehabilitation program.  They serve more than 3,000 people each year.  Opportunity Village helps those with disabilites develop job skills that allow them to live a more normal life, help cover expenses and expand their life experiences.  Thanks to Opportunity Village, hundreds of people with disabilities are learning vocational skills and being placed in jobs throughout the community.

PTPI members split into groups

PTPI members split into groups and were assigned to various tasks. Some were outside, cleaning and repairing lights on the carousel that is part of the Magical Forest. During the holiday season, people come from all over to see the lights and displays inside the Magical Forest, Opportunity Village's largest fundraiser. Other members spent time assisting Opportunity Village clients at their jobs, and another group simply sat and held the hands of clients whose disabilites require a great deal of care.

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5 Minutes with Adela Hadarean

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
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More than 150 PTPI members from all over the world gathered in Las Vegas during the weekend of September 3-5, 2009 for the Americas Regional Meeting, including Adela.  Adela participates in PTPI’s School and Classroom Program with her students in Romania, and was honored for her community service project during the 2009 awards ceremony.

1. Adela, you came all the way from Romania—we are so glad you could be here!  Tell us how you came to be involved with PTPI.

I actually found an advertisement on the internet for PTPI’s School & Classroom program, so I applied and here I am!  My classroom has now been in the program for two years and I am going on my third.  My first year I was matched with Greece, Lithuania and Oklahoma in the United States. Last year I was matched with (U.S. countries) Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. I will get to continue my matches with Pennsylvania and Oklahoma for this coming year.  I love my exchanges and my classroom does too.  We do all sorts of things such as exchanging photos, letters, coins, and even sweets. We had a sweets-tasting contest where they voted on the best candy.  They were surprised about the taste of some of the candies.

I’m curious: Which one won?

Coconut candy!

2. Congratulations on being honored with PTPI’s Community Service Project Award!  Paige told me that you developed a fantastic community service project for your class.  How did you come up with the idea for the project?  What did the project involve?

Mary Eisenhower presents Adela and Laura with PTPI's Community Service Project Award

Mary Eisenhower presents Adela and Laura with PTPI's Community Service Project Award

Thank you so much.  I must tell you that the award goes to my school, Cristesti Secondary School.  It was an all school project and involved everyone.  We organized several projects such as going to a school for children with disabilities. Like the one we went to for this conference, Opportunity Village.  We’ve been doing this for two years, every month.  We visit with the people and do songs and plays.  We love going there.  I believe it’s important for our students to see others in a different way.  You can’t be the same after these experiences.

Another project we do is for Earth Day each year in April.  We organize a community clean up and all work together, even the mayor comes, to plant trees and clean up around the school.

Our third major project is helping to recognize retired teachers in the village.  We help give presents around Christmas-time, along with the principal and the mayor, to let the teachers know we care.

3. Who traveled with you to Las Vegas?  Will you visit anywhere else in the US while you are here?

My co-teacher, Laura Matyas, traveled with me.  We are so excited because after this conference we will travel to Oklahoma to visit our classroom match.  We will be there through the 13th of September.  We can’t wait to meet them in person! We know we will be very happy afterwards.

4. Have you met any new PTPI friends since you arrived?

We have met so many wonderful people.  It feels like a family.  They are all very kind; very nice.  And I like so much that we are people working together for PTPI all over the world.

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