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Youth Cultural Exchange

From Eggrolls to Nicaragua and Beyond

Help Raise Funds for the Youth Cultural Exchange and REDUCE! REUSE! RECYCLE!

The Youth Cultural Exchange (YCE) families are having a CD/DVD Sale at church on April 22 and April 29, and we need donation of your old CDs and DVDs. Remember, one person's trash is another person's treasure! 

The funds raised at the sale will help to defray travel expenses to bring our nine YCE Nicaraguan siblings to Minnesota this July to complete this wonderful cultural exchange. Please put donations in the collection by the egg roll counter in the Social Hall throughout March and early April. Then on April 22 and 29 come to the sale to look for those musical gems and classic films to round out your collection--and support our UU kids and their Nicaraguan sibings at the same time! For more information contact: Karin Larson at KarinLarson @ msn.com

Background: The First Universalist Youth Cultural Exchange (YCE) program provides an early opportunity for our UU youth to gain a deep understanding of how to make a difference in the world by taking the first step of learning how to be friends with youth from another culture. Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of the program is the fact that YCE families work to bring the youth from the host countries to our country, making this truly an "exchange" of cultural understanding and friendship. By experiencing what it's like to be part of a language minority, they have greater empathy with immigrants in our own community. Finally, UU youth and their families build strong and lasting connections among themselves and with many people in the church during the course of the exchange and fundraising efforts, the most visible of which is selling eggrolls after church services!

YCE was started by member Barb Benner in 1993 and since that time the program has enabled over 60 youth from our church to have life-changing, cross-cultural experiences in Poland, Ecuador and Nicaragua. YCE worked in partnership with Project Minnesota Leon, a local people-to-people sister state organization, for the exchanges held in 2008-2009 and 2005-2006 and is working with the wonderful organizationagain for the current exchange.

The next YCE exchange will take place in 2014-2015. Recruitment for the new cohort of YCE youth and their families will begin in fall 2012 for youth who are in grades 6-8 during the 2012-2013 school year. The exchange years will be summer 2014 (YCE youth will go to Nicaragua) and summer 2015 (YCE families will host Nicaraguans in the Twin Cities). Families and youth must be able to make a full commitment to YCE program activities and fundraising from winter 2013 through fall 2015.

For more information contact: KarinLarson@msn.com