Friendship Force of the National Capital Area (Washington DC Area) is planning several interesting events for the new year.

We encourage you to join us in celebrating the 40th anniversary of Friendship Force. We will be having a luncheon event on April 8th where we will have a speaker and present information about Friendship Force in an informal atmosphere. Information will go out on our Yahoo group email about this event and be posted on our website, but for now, just keep this date in mind. This will be a great chance to introduce your friends to Friendship Force, so think of who you might invite to join you at this event.

Our exchange schedule for the year is busy. We start with out outbound exchange, to Izmir and Cankaya, Turkey in late April. Information about this exchange is available in the Friendship Force catalog. We hosted Izmir in 2016, so we are looking forward to reconnecting with our friends there.

In May, we will visit Richmond, Virginia on a weekend domestic exchange. The dates are May 19-21, but that is the only information available at the moment.

In the fall, we will be hosting an exchange from Hamburg, Germany. We expect this to be in September. The group will also be visiting a club in Michigan, so we are currently working on coordinating dates with both clubs. There will be many opportunities to participate in this exchange, including home hosting, day hosting, assisting with planning and running activities, etc.

Our “ethnic dinner” committee has set their first event for February 12, at SER in Arlington. If you did not see the email about this event, check the calendar on this site for information.

A new feature this year will be some activities for members based on where you live. We realize that sometimes the traffic around here can be overwhelming, so we are going to try to get folks together in their local communities and in smaller groups.

Let us know what you are interested in doing with Friendship Force and what questions or comments you have.

We are looking forward to a fun and interesting year, and I am pleased to be your president (again). We have an enthusiastic and talented board of directors and are hoping to see you at many of the activities throughout the year.

Claire Gesalman, President