Online Presentations by some of our members
Especially during COVID some of our members presented online sessions about various topics that were important to them. You can still view the presentations below.
Presentations
Sadiki Educational Safari
Lydia Curtis spoke about Sadiki Educational Safari, the foundation that she started celebrating and empowering youth through the art, history, and culture of Africa.
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Wine Tasting: New Zealand Wines
FFNCA member Barbara Williams led us on a happy hour tasting of wines from New Zealand along with photos from her FFNCA Journey to New Zealand (homestays in Lake Taupo and Christ Church), featuring grapes and vineyards. The two wines are:
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2019 Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region.
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Fern Ridge Pinot Noir, also from the Marlborough region.
Global Journey to Brazil
FFNCA members participated in a Global Journey to Fortaleza and the Amazon in November 2019. Mari Clarke gave a slide presentation and led a discussion among FFNCA members who participated in the trip, along with the journey coordinator from Sao Paolo and two participants from Canada.
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2023 World Conference in Dubrovnik
Several FFNCA members participated in the 2023 World Conference in Dubrovnik. This conference was a wonderful experience with representatives from many countries. The presentation also discusses a one-day island clean up excursion (among many options available) and the 10-day Balkans post-conference tour organized by FFI after the conference.
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Choosing Life: a film journey from Hollywood to Hiroshima
Leslie Sussan’s presentation introduces the true story of Leslie’s father’s crew, who shot the only color film footage of the aftermath of the atomic bombings and its suppression by the U.S. Government for decades. Rather than arguing about past decisions, she focuses on the way the bombing and films affected survivors (known as hibakusha) and played out through generations of her own family. We can think together about what legacies we receive from our parents’ lives and how we pass the stories to our children.
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Documentary Film on Grundy, Virginia
Russell Belcher’s documentary film about his mountain home town of Grundy, in Southwest Virginia, which was demolished to make way for a flood control project in the Spring and Summer of 2006 and onward. There are poignant scenes of the town coming down and people talking about their lives as they watched the town being erased. The mountains and the river are central to the story about a part of the country most people know little about. There are also excerpts from the life story of Frank Newsome, an Old Regular Baptist minister from the county who won an NEA award for his acapella singing and sang in the Library of Congress in 2011.
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FF Greater Seattle Visits FFNCA
We enjoyed a Zoom visit with our friends from Seattle and Harrisburg. The Seattle club shared their photos from their journey with FFNCA and Harrisburg FF. It was a great to reconnect with friends from Seattle and from Harrisburg (from our Gettysburg outing in July) and share memories.
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Including People with Hearing Challenges
This workshop by Susan Wolf focuses on how we can welcome and include people with hearing loss. We all have friends and family who have difficulty hearing speakers and personal conversations. Some of us have hearing issues of our own. This workshop will help us take measures to ensure that our members and visiting Ambassadors who have hearing challenges are fully included in our activities.These measures will also be helpful in communicating with friends and families with hearing challenges.
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A Universal World View
Most FF members have broadened their horizons through open-minded and open-hearted contact with other cultures. FFNCA member, Margaret (Margie) Placentra Johnston discussed ways in which our Friendship Force mission and activities actually parallel spiritual development and can in fact help us move further along on the spiritual path. Margie has two award-winning books to her name.
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Sunshine Coast, Australia Journey
We celebrated International Peace Day during our journey to the Sunshine Coast in Australia in 2020. This presentation includes a video prepared by the Sunshine Coast Club as well as slides of the pre-journey travel to Brisbane, including the Koala Bear Sanctuary, and to the Great Barrier Reef.
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A Visit to Oman
Marsha Gold made a presentation on her travels in Oman earlier this year. In addition to photographs from the trip, the Marsha provided the historical and cultural details of the place she visited.
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Rumi Forum Overview
Ibrahim Anli, Executive Director of the Rumi Forum, provided an overview of the Rumi Forum and its work fostering intercultural understanding and interfaith dialogue. He also shared photos and information about Rumi Forum study trips to Turkey.
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Folklore Society Presentation
Amanda Muir, Secretary of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington (FSGW), provided background and shared video clips from the Orpheus Workshop Series that engages the audience in their own homes to learn new cultural styles with familiar instruments to develop existing skills and explore new artistic avenues. Cultural expressions covered in the Orpheus Workshops include instrumental music, dance, song, and art.
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Calgary, CA Visits Kiel, Germany
Some of our FFNCA members joined with FF Calgary to visit Kiel, Germany. This presentation shared some of the highlights of that journey as well as information about the clubs involved.
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Empowering Women to Build a More Equitable Future
Mari Clarke’s presentation on her work on a World Bank rural roads project in Vietnam described a project to engage ethnic minority women in road maintenance. She also include photos from the trip that she took in Northern Vietnam. This will give you images from many parts of Vietnam as well as a sense of what it is that Mari does on gender issues for road projects.
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International Peace Day Program
We celebrated International Peace Day by discussing what peace means to us in the context of the FFI mission of building peace one friendship at a time. David Fishman highlighted some of Rotary International’s past and present peace activities.
The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September, a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire.
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Photo Editing Workshop
On May 17, 2020, Duncan McBride presented a dynamic interactive workshop on photo editing— something we can all use whether we use our mobile phones or cameras.
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A Roving Eye...or two
Through the lens of Michael Kuchinsky.
This presentation takes a broad look at travel photography, and how it can be complemented by other forms or themes. Monochrome photography, street photography, naturescapes (land, sea, and sky) and changes to some perspective, and the importance of people. Each photo shown describes some of the aspects that I found appealing and shows how they are part of the narrative.
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Russia and Orthodox Easter
Paul Gesalman has visited Russia numerous times in the past ten years and has visited all but three of the former Soviet Republics. Those visits include leading two Friendship Force journeys to Russia and one to Azerbaijan. He spoke on life in those countries and how they were affected by the Soviet era. The religions of the region and particularly the importance of the Russian Orthodox Church and its celebration of Easter were a special focus of the presentation.
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Journey to Sri Lanka
FFNCA visited Sri Lanka in 2024. Mari Clarke gave the following presentation about their adventures.
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