What is Friendship Force?
Friendship Force is a non-profit international organization that promotes cultural understanding through personal contact. The Friendship Force of Knoxville utilizes travel as a means to meet people from different cultures and places rather than emphasizing the place itself. By being a guest in other people's homes and by inviting them to be a guest in our homes, we believe we can break barriers that divide us.
Change the way you see the world!
- Make friends around the world
- Stay in homes of people around the world
- Host in your home people from around the world
- Foster International good will
- Enhance cross-cultural understanding
For More Information About Friendship Force International, please visit their website at https://friendshipforce.org/
Note from the President
Friendship Force Knoxville enjoyed a successful year thanks to the engagement of you -- our members.
We began the year with Zoom programs on the outbound Fall 2021 San Antonio journey, travels to Egypt by FFK members Susana Navarro-Valenti and Susan Dakak, and a Moroccan adventure by Rusha and Bert Sams.
In April we hosted ambassadors from the Des Moines Friendship Force Club. FFK had journeyed to Des Moines back in August 2019.
We gathered together for a May lunch at Suttree Landing Park in South Knoxville overlooking the Tennessee River.
In June we joined the Western North Carolina club for an outing to the Shelton House in Waynesville, North Carolina.
FFK ambassadors flew to the Pacific Northwest in July where the Lower Columbia FF club hosted us.
In August we got together on the patio of the Union Place Bar and Grill for lunch to hear about the Lower Columbia journey.
Our September program was all about Uzbekistan in preparation for the October Open World visit by Uzbek judicial delegates.
Last month we hosted the Uzbek delegates and held a Welcome Dinner. FFK ambassadors traveled to Australia on the long-awaited outbound journey.
I hope to see you all on Nov. 22 via Zoom when we vote on the 2023 officers.
And we’re still not finished. Many of us will be at the Smith Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, on Nov. 29. And then there’s the Dec. 4 Holiday Party! I hope to see many of you at both events.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Jayne Raparelli, President
Jayne Raparelli, President