The summer season comes to a close
As the summer season comes to a close, the Cape Region prepares to say, “do svidaniya” to its scores of international exchange students staying in the area.
Representatives from the Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches (LRAC), Delaware Department of Transportation, and Beebe Medical Center met on Tuesday, Sept. 11, to discuss the International Student Outreach Program and its performance this year.
The first item discussed was the free meals provided to foreign students by LRAC. The Rev. Frank Deming of Westminster Presbyterian Church said 2,098 dinners were served on Wednesday nights this summer to students from Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus and the most well-represented country, Russia.
Also part of the meal program was breakfasts at St. Peter’s and All Saints Episcopal Church, which combined to serve 2,300 meals this summer. Deming said the churches almost doubled the number of meals served in 2006. However, Deming said the program may reduce the number of offerings in 2008 but will keep the total comparable to this year’s amount.
Another aspect of the program were summer bus trips to cities such as New York and Washington D.C., provided to the students by Carolina Trailways. Gareth Tonnessen of New Covenant Presbyterian Church said the trips were very successful and he hopes to expand them next year.
Bike safety was also discussed at the meeting. In exit surveys, students said their No. 1 concern was crossing Route 1. For the third straight year, there were at least 10 bicycle accidents involving international students. However, Alene Honecker of Beebe Medical Center said, the total number of patients has decreased, although she said that could not be confirmed, and the severity of injuries was reduced.
Finally, the board discussed the possibility of establishing an information and referral center for international students.
The representatives concluded the meeting by addressing the future, where the biggest question was whether or not to expand from being a volunteer organization relying on fundraising to a more formal group that could apply for state grants. However, most of the representatives were against formalization because it would create a bureaucracy that would bog down the decision -making process and the need to set overhead.
Still, task forces were formed to look into the process of formalization, whether funding for the program should come from fundraising or state grants and the information center. The task forces will report back to the other representatives at the next meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 12.
source: capegazette.com
