Over the weekend of May 6-8, the Rotary Club of Peachtree City hosted 24 Georgia Rotary Student Program students and 4 additional international students from the University of Georgia for a final weekend together before the students begin their last travels across the U.S. and then return to their home countries.
The students arrived on Friday to a dinner / pool party hosted at the beautiful home of PTC Rotarian Gordon Fleming and his wife Christine. After the fellowship on Friday night, the students split among host families with 10 students staying with the Flemings, 2 students staying with GRSP Trustee Cyndi Plunkett and 18 students with IPP/Asst.Gov. Steve Ivory.
On Saturday morning, the students split into teams on 8 golf carts that were donated by Rotarian Patti Kadkhodaian (Owner, Golf Rider) and Rotarian Chavdar Zdravkov (Owner, GolfCart Masters). With the help of Chavdar (Civics Project Coordinator) and Steven Newton (Community Service Chair), the students split time among 4 different projects and worked alongside Rotarians to clean up and paint these city properties that are sponsored by the Rotary Club. This was well-received and efforts were recognized by Mayor Kim Learnard on the city’s social media platforms.
To have a little fun throughout the day, the teams also had a scavenger hunt around the golf cart paths. Intense competition between the teams, but one team amazingly completed all 25 items.
The winning team had a little help from long-time PTC resident and Rotarian Tammy Soulakos and included Thomas Carlsten and Hanna Larsen from Norway, Sofie Bohl from Sweden and Csenge Tar from Hungary. The winning team won Mary Poppins District 6900 umbrellas and the 2nd place team received Chick-fil-a or Starbucks gift cards.
After a great lunch at Partners II Pizza, the team headed back to Steve Ivory’s home to spend the afternoon socializing and writing in each other’s personal books about the great year they have experienced through the GRSP program.
On Saturday evening, the Flemings hosted again and with the help of President Adam Glendye, had an awesome Georgia barbeque highlighted by banana pudding from Rotarian Paige Munk (district conference attendees will remember this from our Progressive dinner evening). The evening was spent swimming, singing karaoke, spending time by the bonfire and saying final goodbyes to each other.
It was a very unique and rewarding experience for the Rotarians and the GRSP students to have this one final weekend together. Thanks to all of the GRSP host families and clubs across the state who helped with the logistics for the weekend for these students. It was such a fun and memorable weekend.
Since 1946, Rotarians in Georgia, USA, have promoted world peace through understanding by offering ambassadorial scholarships to international students for one year cultural immersion and of study in Georgia colleges and universities.
Each year, students from all over the world make friends in the United States and other nations and learn about differing cultures and lifestyles. Georgia Rotarians believe “Peace is Possible” and through GRSP promote international goodwill through friendship and understanding.
Georgia Rotary Clubs sponsor students recommended by a Rotary Club in their home country.
