Eleven district 4-H club members held a bake sale at the Chapple flea market last weekend to help raise money for a nine-day exchange with their counterparts in Quebec this summer.
“Everybody is twinned and you stay at their house and then they stay at our house,” noted Joanne Neilson, who will be a chaperone on the trip along with Denise Donaldson.
“We’re hoping to raise about $1,200 [each] total with our fundraising efforts,” she added.
The local 4-H members, aged 13 to 17, already have been matched with Quebec club members, who they will stay with from July 9-18. Then their Quebec hosts will stay in homes here from Aug. 6-15.
The members will stay in two Quebec towns, Sawyerville and near Henryville, with a number of activities planned.
“I know they booked us for overnight camping and we are also doing a gorge walk,” said Neilson. “There’s also a big inter-club achievement night they want to take us to.”
Here, the Quebec visitors will visit the Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre as well as the Rainy River and Fort Frances museums and Fort St. Pierre at Pither’s Point.
They also may take an overnight camping trip at Rushing River Provincial Park, and will be enlisted to help out in the 4-H clubs’ annual cleanup of the Emo fairgrounds.
“They’re here just before the Emo Fair. Their fair just happens to fall on the same weekend so they have to be back,” said Neilson.
Plane fares for the exchange students are paid for by the 4-H Youth Exchanges Canada, which organized the group match-ups.
Club members here are still selling 50/50 tickets to help raise the money for food, activities, hotel rooms in Winnipeg, and other expenses, with the draw set for July 1.
Besides meeting other Canadian youths with similar interests, the district group will have the chance to practice their French. “I probably have the least amount of French in the entire group,” noted Neilson.
The district 4-H members, which include three boys and eight girls, already have been in touch with some of their “twins” via e-mail.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
