Friendship Force helps break down barriers

When I first heard about the Friendship Force I envisioned people in tights and capes saving the world.

The real Friendship Force doesn't wear capes or tights, that I know of, but they may contribute to saving the world, or at least their piece of it.

Australian couple Kevin and Marjorie Page of Perth spent last week with Linda Hiebert Sekiguchi and Bruce E. Mitchener in Minden.

Linda and Bruce are members of the Reno-Tahoe club, where Bruce is the vice president.

Kevin is a retired Royal Australian Air Force navigator who started out in C-47s.

Although both he and Marjorie are natives of Perth where her father worked for the bank, they met in Melbourne where they were wed 46 years ago.

They are members of the Perth club of Friendship Force International, which numbers 70 people. They are among a group of 16 visiting western Nevada.

Kevin said he found the weather in Carson Valley similar to that in Perth.

"Our winters are generally pleasantly warm," he said. "But we do not have mountains."

He said communicating was complicated by the different vocabularies.

"Many words you use here in the USA are very different," he said.

Most interesting thing they discovered while here in the United States?

The dollar stores.

"We love the $1 stores," Marjorie said.

The Pages have been to South America, Germany and the eastern United States with the Friendship Force.

They wrapped up their trip here with a visit to Emerald Bay and then attended a farewell function in Reno before heading off to Winnipeg.

The Friendship Force was created by a Baptist minister from Atlanta who felt the best way to encourage world peace was for people to live together.

"We're getting to meet people who live in a place, which is much better than being a tourist where all you meet is the hotel staff." Kevin said. "Traveling with the Friendship Force is a wonderful way to learn about the world."

n n n

Maybe it's too nice to have a luau, yet. In any case, the Elks won't be having their's until Oct. 21.

Gary Wendt called me to say they've decided to postpone the event while Elks go-to guy Dave Trueblood recovers from surgery.

The luau will be 5:30 p.m. and will feature a roasted pig. The Elks Lodge is located at 1276 Pit Road and it costs $30. For information or reservations, call Dave or Jackie at 782-3416.

n n n

Former R-C crime reporter Lisa Wixon's opinion entitled "Cuba for Dummies" was published by the Washington Post about Cuba.

The author of "Dirty Blonde and Half Cuban" has lived in Cuba and is the daughter of former Eddy St. Agency owner Tom Wixon. Tom was also publisher of The R-C 20 years ago.

Lisa's article was published Aug. 6 and can still be found if you Google her name. I had to let the Washington Post browser sit by itself for a while until it stopped bouncing around.

n n n

Douglas High School graduate Christa Keele got a front page story in the Daily Universe, the student newspaper of Brigham Young University.

Christa wrote about a 24-hour flag vigil to commemorate Sept. 11 and on Monday had a story about Korean War veterans remembering their time of service.

At the Universe, Christa is working for another former Carson Valley resident, former Nevada Appeal City Editor Robb Hicken. Robb lived in Johnson Lane and worked both at the Appeal and the Tahoe Daily Tribune before he moved to Utah in the late 1990s.

n Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Reach him at khildebrand@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 215.