Exchange Students Address Rotary
By Matt Joyner
                      
Rotary Youth Exchange Program students Luciano Quintanilla and Carol Santos Antunes spoke on Tuesday to Charlotte Rotary. The club has sponsored Luciano and Carol for the past school year in Charlotte and the students took the opportunity to thank the Club for their experiences in the past year and to reflect on what their participation in the Rotary Youth Exchange Program has meant in their lives.
 
Luther Moore introduced Luciano, a native of Santiago, Chile who has been a student at Myers Park High School for the past year. Luther noted that Luciano is "a magnificent dancer," and also recognized Luciano's three host families in attendance at the meeting: John and Lee Tabor and their daughter Allie (son John Paul was unable to attend), Christine and Don Blossfeld, John and Angie Byers and their son Welby and daughter Mary Charles. Chuck Cocke was also thanked for his role as an advisor to Luciano.
 
Luciano began his presentation with photos of his family in Chile: father Juan Carlos, a telecom electrical engineer, mother Marlys, a secretary, and older sister Valentina, a student pursuing an occupational therapy degree at the University of Chile. He said that he was interested in the Rotary exchange program because he thought it would open up the world for him by learning a new culture and improving his English. When he arrived in Charlotte, Luciano said that he spoke no English and it was "awful." In the course of the year Luciano said everything has changed, he has had some of the best experiences of his life here and he has "become more a man than a boy."
 
Luciano said that Myers Park High School is very different from his school in Chile in that his has less than 1,000 students (compared to MPHS' 3,500) and no elective classes. Also, Luciano has enjoyed participating in sports at school here, something Chilean schools don't offer. Luciano thanked his host families ("I love you guys") and Charlotte Rotary for providing him such a wonderful life experience outside of his comfort zone. At the end of his talk Luciano presented President Mac with a hand carved wooden totem from Chile's Pacific islands.
 
Ed Wadsworth introduced Carol Santos Antunes, a Charlotte Country Day School junior from Brazil. Ed recognized Lamar Thomas and Karen Steffens for their key roles in the Rotary Youth Exchange Program at both the club and district level and advisors, Regina Patton and Mary Ciminelli. Ed also recognized Carol's host families Clarence and Fay Carpenter, Claudio and Sophia Carpano, Vikram and Kokila Kaul and gave special thanks to Beryl Ierardi, CCDS director for international students.
 
To the tunes of Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, Carol told us about Brazil, its three regions, and her hometown of Bauru in the state of Sao Paolo. She lives there with her father, mother and two older brothers, both of whom have been Rotary Youth Exchange participants before her. Through them she became familiar with the program and decided that she too wanted to participate.
 
Carol has found CCDS to be "just amazing" in the activities and clubs she has available there, in contrast to her Brazilian school. She took part in the Rotary-sponsored Eastern Trip this Spring for exchange students to Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. and said it was "probably the best experience I've had here." She said she was "totally lost" when she first arrived in Charlotte, but as she got acclimated everything became easier and she has had a wonderful time. She joked that she has gained a lot of weight in the United States as is common with youth exchange students, and she blamed it all on her host families' wonderful cooking "and also biscuits from Bojangles." Carol thanked her host families and Charlotte Rotary saying, "you have no idea how much you have changed my life."
   
 
Head Table: Luther Moore, Luciano Quintanilla, Mac McCarley, Ed Wadsworth, Carol Antunes, Regina Patton, Mary Ciminelli;
Invocation: Jessica Brasington;
Visitors & Guests: Bob Knight; Song: Shay Merritt: Piano: Thomas Moore

• It was a banner day for introducing new members. Bill Bartee, president of Jesse Brown's Outdoors, was introduced by Tod Thorne. Contact Bill at bill@jessebrown.com; Carol Jordan was pleased to introduce two Queens associates: Todd Hartung, Queens University of Charlotte (Alumni) can be reached at hartungt@queens.edu and Bill Clyde, Queens University of Charlotte (Academic Affairs). Contact Bill at clydew@queens.edu; John Mahaffey is a former Rotarian in Rochester, NY and has relocated to Charlotte with Eastman Kodak. Contact John at jhmahaffey@mac.com. Welcome to all!
         
• John Tabor recognized several Rotarians for their contribution to The Rotary Foundation: Benton Bragg, Paul Harris Fellow; AJ Harriss (Herb's grandson), Paul Harris Fellow; Tigger Alexander and Russell Ranson moved to Level One. Congratulations and thank you for your support.

• Alan Adler was appointed to a three-year term of Mecklenburg County's Criminal Justice Citizen's Advisory Committee. He was nominated by District One Commissioner Karen Bentley and endorsed by Sheriff Chipp Bailey and CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe.

• MAY 7TH TOUR to the NC RESEARCH CAMPUS: Those signed up to attend the tour are to meet at Restaurant 49 at Noon. Directions: Take 485 N to I - 85 N. From I-85, take Exit 60 (Dale Earnhardt Boulevard Exit). Turn left onto Dale Earnhardt Boulevard and go back across I-85 toward Kannapolis. Go to the 6th traffic light and turn right on Main Street. Go through two stoplights; at the third stoplight turn left onto West First Street. Restaurant 46 is located at the corner of West First Street and West Avenue. The address is 101 West Avenue, Kannapolis, NC 28025. If you have any trouble or need additional directions, please call Restaurant 46 at 704-250-4646. From Restaurant 46, the North Carolina Research Campus is directly across the street. While there are only three buildings on campus, the buildings are large and there will be a fair amount of walking involved. Please wear comfortable shoes and clothing for the tour.

Carol Jordan has served as the International Service Avenue Chair and in that role has lead several successful projects. She headed a literacy project in Nepal, providing several thousand new books to the library of the Godavari School in Nepal. This project started during 2007-08 and was completed in October of 2008. Carol put together the RI Matching Grant Application for funds to provide insecticide treated bed nets to mothers and infants in Botswana in the fight against malaria. This grant is in partnership with the Rotary Club of Gaborone, and has collaboration from several other clubs in our District, including Charlotte South, Mecklenburg County South and Ballantyne. She single-handedly developed the Dictionary Project for matching funds as a District Simplified Grant project. The dictionaries will be delivered to 2076 third graders in the Northeast Learning Community of the CMS system. This will provide dictionaries to all 3rd graders in 16 high poverty elementary schools in Charlotte. Carol is a Paul Harris Fellow, has near perfect attendance, and is frequently recruiting for new members. Carol is truly a Distinguished Rotarian.