(In the photo above: Joanne Winters, left, and Kathy Ereth accepted a donation of $400 from Doug Loden, president of the Weyburn Rotary Club on Thursday afternoon. Since the lockdowns began for COVID-19, the Rotary Club has been holding their meetings by Zoom each week, and members donate the amounts they would have paid for their lunches towards helping the Salvation Army’s food bank. The bank is in need of some food supplies, such as cereal and pasta, and will be putting together back packs of school supplies in August to help out families.)
Paulette Connery was head of the youth exchange program for the district that Weyburn belongs to since 1991, and was joined by three former exchange students for the Zoom meeting.
Hugo Levillayer from France was in Weyburn for his year, Guillaume of France was in Assiniboia and Ana Beatriz Raduan of Brazil spent her year in Regina.
Hugo spoke to the meeting from his parents’ home in Paris, but noted he was in Toulouse during the period of lockdown for COVID-19. He indicated he is studying by video-conferencing right now.
Ana, who was in Canada at the same as Hugo, is also studying to get into university to study architecture.
“The process is different here. I have to study for an exam, and that’s what I’m doing right now,” she said.
Guillame is in a town north of Paris and is also studying, and noted he’s been in his house during the quarantine time. “We have to wear a mask everywhere that’s not our house,” he added.
Connery recalled that on her first day to join Rotary in 1991 in Regina, she was told that she would be a counsellor for a student, who she learned was coming from Japan the next day.
“That was my introduction to the youth exchange program, and I’ve never regretted it since,” she said.
There was a bit of a panic when she met the student and realized she didn’t know very much English, but her host family had a daughter who had just been to Japan the year before, so they had everything ready for the student, including signs on everything to help her learn English.
“I learned more from them than from Rotary about what you should or shouldn’t do,” said Connery, noting that in 2001 she became the out-bound coordinator for the youth exchange program.
One of the highlights for her was in being able to meet people from all over the world, including one year when she went to Brazil to meet that year’s exchange students before they left for their destination countries.
Connery noted that Weyburn has long been involved in the program, even supporting students from other towns when Weyburn wasn’t sending one out. The long association was confirmed by Rotary member Brenda King, who pointed out Weyburn had their first exchange student come in 1974.
“We’re still in touch with her. She’s an older woman now, from Australia,” said King.
“The youth exchange program offers international peace, good will and understanding,” said Connery, listing some of the many benefits the program has.
She was aware of the struggles the Weyburn club had with their student this past year, but said good relationships with program leaders helped everyone get through that, and added, “The good times are the ones you remember the most, such as getting birthday wishes, or students giving notice that they’re having a baby or are getting married. That’s very exciting getting an invitation to a wedding.”
During her time as the district chair of youth exchange, there have been many changes, such as stricter rules and the requirement for police record checks for anyone associated with the youths.
“Weyburn is one club that never balked at that,” said Connery.
The youth exchange program was shut down around March when the lockdowns began because of COVID-19, and Connery said they are now looking at restarting with short-term student exchanges possibly by October, and long-term exchanges by January, depending on whether districts can show that they can safely host a student there.
The Rotary district is also working on a strategic plan as to how the program will proceed now, she added.
There have been the odd occasion when a student had to be sent home before the end of the program, and Connery shared a note from one student whose year was ended early.
“The student said that at the time I thought you were rude and mean, but now I understand why it happened,” said Connery.
Being involved in the youth exchange program also helped her through a dark time of her life after her husband passed away in 2011.
“From 1991 to 2020, I got more out of the program that I ever gave to it, as far as I’m concerned,” she said, adding she will be an advisor for the program from this point on.
“We’re looking at doing some virtual exchanges, so it’s not a break from youth exchanges forever, but for now,” she added.
Asked how the numbers of exchange students have been for this district compared to others, she said this year it was down to 11, but the highest number they’ve had was 43 long-term and 22 short-term students.
“Most districts are finding their numbers in Canada are dwindling a bit, while in Brazil the numbers are still on the rise. Overall for Rotary International, the numers were down this past year,” said Connery.
She noted that in Europe, it depends on the country, noting that in Germany, for example, they were searching for places to host their students, and most of them wanted to come to Canada, not the United States.
Weyburn’s club president, Doug Loden, who for several years was the youth counsellor for the students who came to Weyburn and who organized the Western Canada trip for all of the exchange students in the district, shared a couple of stories about the students who were on the Zoom meeting.
He recalled taking Hugo to an exchange student gathering in Russell, Man., and on the way there was stopped for speeding. Unknown to him, Hugo took a photo of the RCMP officer and sent it on ahead to Paulette at the meeting. When Doug came in with Hugo, she waved her hands around like she was the police, and everyone had a good laugh.
He also noted that Guillame had invented a pair of glasses that could help a person who was dyslexic, as he was dyslexic himself, and he told the meeting that there is an entrepreneurial program that will help him develop and market this in France.
