7/2/2010 - AFS Hosts, Students Form Lasting Bonds
In this article: An editor of the Mineral Daily News Tribune in Keyser, West Virginia talks about the value of having hosted AFS students in his community.
Written by: Liz Beavers
There are two things that I kind of regret from my high school days. I regret not joining the band and I regret not getting involved in AFS.
I had a good reason for not joining the band. To borrow a phrase from my mother, “I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.”
When I took a music appreciation class in the seventh grade, Nunzio Barbera, who was not only the classroom teacher but was also the director of the high school band at that time, had each of us try several instruments to see if we liked them.
I remember getting a few notes out of the sax and fewer still from the flute, but I couldn’t for the life of me get any noise at all from the trumpet. As a result, I was not considered band material.
The closest I have ever come to being considered a musician was playing the comb in a Sunday School Band.
Now any of you who know me even a little realize that I love music. Whereever I am, I’ll have some type of music playing if at all possible. My car radio is always on. A small radio in my office is almost always tuned in, and when I’m at home I either have the stereo on or one of the Sirius stations which we get through our satellite service.
I even almost cut short my camping trip last weekend because I couldn’t get my radio to work. Turns out I had the batteries in wrong.
Anyway, I guess I have taken Mr. Barbera’s class to heart – I can’t play music but I sure do appreciate it.
Another thing that I appreciated in high school – and continue to appreciate to this day – is getting to know the various AFS students who come to live and go to school here in the United States.
The first AFS student I really got to know was Grace Overbury, from South Africa, who stayed with the Harman family when Kelly and I were in the early years of high school. Grace was a wonderful, fun person who always took our ribbing about her accent with a good-natured sense of humor and I enjoyed getting to know her.
I even got to see her – and interview her for a story – a few years ago when she returned for a visit with her American family. She was still the lovely person that I remembered her to be.
But her story is similar to most exchange students who have spent a year of their lives here in the United States. They are accepted into their American family with open arms, and develop a relationship which far surpasses their stay.
I don’t have the statistics, but I’d be willing to bet that a large majority of the many AFS students we’ve had in this area since Harry Boggs started a local chapter in 1965 have either returned to visit their American families, or their American families have gone to see them.
There is perhaps no better example of how much AFS can mean to a family than the Mark and Stacey Boggs family. As you saw in our front page story Monday, the Boggs family has hosted three members of the Silva family from Chile, with each of the “adopted” children being able to graduate with three of the four Boggs children.
The experience has had such an impact on the two families that they are hoping a Silva relative will get involved in the program and come to America to graduate with the last Boggs sibling. In the meantime, Curtiss Boggs will be traveling to Chile to stay with his “other” family while experiencing the Chilean culture first-hand.
As I sat at the kitchen table with Gaby, Curtiss, and their mom Stacey one afternoon last week, I had to chuckle at the gentle ribbing the two “siblings” were giving each other. Isn’t that what brothers and sisters are supposed to do?
AFS is a program with deep ties of love, respect and learning. Many of the families who have hosted children from other countries have returned to host multiple times. That in itself is a sterling endorsement.
The program is currently seeking host families for the 2010-2011 school year. If you would like to experience what it’s like to open your home and your heart to a student from another country, call Stacey Boggs at 301-707-4095, or Darlene Frederick, the president of the AFS adult chapter, at 304-289-3720.
Then think about getting your kids to join the band.
Orginal article here
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