Williamson: Rotary Youth Exchange alive and well

When my niece, Chloe, found out this spring that she had landed a summer internship with the Food Bank of South Africa, the first person we contacted was Sally Roberts, who spent 1988 in Portales as a Rotary Youth Exchange student from that country.

link Betty Williamson

Chloe’s internship was in Cape Town and Sally lives in Johannesburg (cities that we subsequently learned are 784 miles apart), but compared to the almost 8,000 miles that Chloe traveled from the United States, that seemed like small potatoes.

Although we’ve not seen Sally in person since she made a return visit to this area in 1993, she jumped on board this project as a voluntary international advisor and safety net.

Last weekend was the icing on the cake: an hour-long Skype session with the two of them together in Sally’s living room in Johannesburg.

Sally said she has “such wonderful memories” of the year she spent in Portales. She had completed secondary school in Johannesburg before her exchange, so while she was here she was an honorary member of the PHS class of 1988; Wayne and Joanna Baker were her host parents.

Sally remembers being loaned “the most beautiful peach-colored ball gown” to wind Maypole, going to prom, receiving a symbolic diploma at graduation — “a proud moment” — and being enthusiastically “dumped” by her classmates in the first snow she had ever seen.

“I thought I’d arrived in the middle of nowhere,” Sally said with a laugh. “I didn’t know New Mexico … I didn’t even know where it was. The experience was unique, absolutely unique.”

Happily, the long established Rotary Youth Exchange is alive and healthy. In District 5520 (which encompasses all of New Mexico and a portion of Texas), 15 international “inbounds” are arriving this month from all over the globe, according to Bianca Cheney, a Roswell Rotarian and member of the District Youth Exchange committee.

Twelve “outbounds” are also leaving to begin a year abroad.

Interested students or potential host families are encouraged to contact their local Rotary clubs or visit rye5520.org for more information.

If you get involved, be warned: These friendships can last a lifetime. Twenty-seven years after we met, Sally generously opened her doors to “the daughter and granddaughter of a family who embraced me.

“That’s the spirit of these exchange programs,” Sally said. “They can go on and on, and 25 or more years down the road they can intersect again.”

Betty Williamson only cried a little bit during the visit, but they were happy tears. You may reach her at [email protected].