Austrian and German students welcomed at Palmerston North airport

Most of the RIYE Committee are here with from left
first host Mum, Mandi Bates (Outbound Coordinator),
Lynne Phillips (Chair) and Karen Hird (Inbound Coordinator).

All six Rotary International Youth Exchange (RIYE) students for 2016-17 have now arrived in our Rotary District, with the arrival last week of students from Austria and Germany at Palmerston North airport.

Most of the RIYE Committee and many Rotarians from host clubs were there to welcome our new arrivals.

Jil arrived from Germany on Thursday and will be hosted by Milson Rotary in Palmerston North.  From Austria, Marielle and Alexandra arrived on Saturday. Marielle will be hosted by Clubs in the Whanganui Cluster and Alexandra by Feilding Rotarians.

DG Martin, Jil and Evan Kroll, President of Milson Rotary.

PDG Rodney Wong and Angela were coincidentally on the same flight from Auckland and were greeted by Rotarians as warmly as the students.

 We now have students in our District from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland.

Alexandra with her first New Zealand host family. 

We are grateful to the RIYE Committee, mentors, the families who will host our students and to the schools they will attend.  Not only the students, but also the host families, local schools, their students and Rotarians benefit from these exchanges.  

This is all part of Rotary providing young people with opportunities, expanding their horizons (and ours), showing them what they are capable of, improving inter-cultural understanding and working towards a more connected and peaceful world.

DGE Mitchell Brown counts the number of languages
that Marielle speaks. 

We also have great support from our District and Club youth protection people.  District Youth Protection Officer John O'Connell was formerly RIYE Chair for many years and wrote an article on youth protection in our July Newsletter at  http://rotary9940.org/stories/criteria-for-police-checks-for-rotary-clubs-and-members/

Retired lawyer John Grigg is our Liaison Officer for police checks.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is that we follow our policy requirements for youth protection.  There is more information on our website at http://www.rotary9940.org/Page/youth-protection

Whanganui Rotarians await Alexandra's arrival.

I am sure all of our students from Europe will have a most memorable year and establish connections with New Zealand and Rotary that will last a lifetime.