Gainesville —
An Australian visited Wednesday’s noon Rotary Club meeting in
Gainesville, as part of one of the club’s special international
programs.
Kate Powne has been in Texas for nearly a month as part of the club’s
Group Study Exchange (GSE) project, where two Rotary districts
worldwide trade a set of members.
During a discussion of her native Melbourne, she drew some comparisons
between Cooke County and her home.
“Australians and Texans are one and the same,” Powne said. “There’s a
lot of commonality between our cultures. We have a very similar
history — a very similar rugged and, actually, pretty harsh landscape
that contributes to our cultures being very similar.”
Rotary Club’s GSE media information explained the program involves
visits between four and six weeks, during which team members share
personal knowledge of their own country and experience the customs,
vocations, and lifestyles of another.
The basic purpose of a GSE is to promote international understanding
and goodwill through person-to-person contact. While abroad, team
members, who are generally young professionals between the ages of 25
and 40, stay in Rotarians’ homes and have the opportunity to meet
their professional counterparts. They will also give presentations to
Rotary clubs and other groups about their home country.
GSE organizer Darhyl Ramsey, who recently helped send representatives
from Denton and Grapevine to Australia as part of this current
exchange installment, said he and Powne agreed instantly that from
their observations, people local and from abroad have much in common.
“People are people everywhere and people have the same needs and the
same wants, regardless of what culture they’re from,” he said. “And
regardless of language, as well. There’s some cultural differences,
but everybody’s about the same thing, which is a good lifestyle, and
peace. And that sounds corny, but it comes out very, very clearly when
people sit down from divergent cultures.
“I think people realize that the same things are on everybody’s minds.”
For more information, visit www.rotary.org.
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Rotary visited by world exchange program member
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