Meeting friends at Rotary Youth Exchange Pre-Convention in Houston

It was so great to meet all good friends from all over the world at the 2022 Youth Exchange Officers Preconvention again after two years of the pandemic freeze and online meetings only. So much laughter, hugs, and the best of memories (with new to be acquired and cherished this week)

I have been leading this program in Lithuania during 2014-2019 with exactly 125 long-term exchange students, that we took care of as if they were our own kids, leaving and coming for a year of extraordinary experience abroad via Rotary Youth Exchange Lithuania by Rotary Lithuania D1462. USA and Taiwan were the top destinations, with Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Italy, and France catching up.

My term culminated in Valencia back in September 2019, bringing home to Lithuania two major victories:

• winning the top-1 place worldwide in terms of relative students vs Rotarians number, and

• winning the rights for Lithuania to host the jubilee 70th conference EEMA 2023 Vilnius on the same year as Vilnius, Lithuania will be celebrating its 700th anniversary (symbolic and very magic date adjustment by one year due to covid)

I do hope that eventually the promises made by the district will be kept by the district, we will not get lost in the annual rotation, and next year we’ll be hosting our dear friends in Vilnius for EEMA (Europe, East Mediterranean & Africa Youth Exchange organization). Our team is committed and ready to deliver an exceptional experience of quality and Lithuanian hospitality with the support of Vilnius city, its mayor, municipality, and the incoming travel promotion agency.

We also had a lovely dinner, kindly hosted by Steve Gerdes, President of NAYEN (North American Youth Exchange organization), at the House of Blues Houston with the fantastic company of Paul and Melody St. Jones from the Los Angeles RC & Hollywood RC, and Rob Uhl from Australia. Melody will take over from Steve as the President of NAYEN. With her volcanic energy and sense of humor, things will be just great. No wonders - tonight we also celebrated her distinguished Service Above Self Award from the Rotary International.

Also, it was super interesting to learn that she has founded Video Tape Library, a stock footage image library, the largest in the world, with over a million images compiled from over 250 cameramen from around the globe. Fun fact: Her library was used in beta testing for a fledgling website called “YouTube.”

And then, the other day - I just can’t believe what kind of unbelievable experiences we are having in Houston. In the hall of 11,000 people in the room, there is only one chair available next to me. And here comes a guy, takes a seat, and we chat, and I learn he is David Vail. David is a retired USA Air Forces veteran, who was doing special things in Europe, and who was district Rotary Youth Exchange Chair, who’ve sent Patrick Murphy to #lithuania when I was chairing the Rotary Youth Exchange Lithuania program at Rotary Lithuania D1462. What a coincidence!

These were days full of wonderful hours with old and new friends. Thank you all for a great time, all stories, and a good laugh. Hope to see you all in Vilnius sometime soon.