_______________________________________________________________________
30th ANNIVERSARY OF
FRIENDSHIP FORCE OF BATON ROUGE
Frances Bennett and Darwin Knochhenmus receive Wayne Smith Awards
FRIENDSHIP FORCE OF BATON ROUGE
Frances Bennett and Darwin Knochhenmus receive Wayne Smith Awards
Friendship Force of Baton Rouge celebrated its 30th year as a member of Friendship Force International on Sunday May 4, 2014. With an attendance of over 50 including 15 guests it was deemed a success. Long term member and one of the founding members, Darwin Knochenmus, received the Wayne Smith Award for outstanding service supporting the vision of Friendship Force of Baton Rouge. Frances Bennett, another long time member of Friendship Force, received the coveted Wayne Smith Award for her dedication and staunch support of the principles upon which Friendship Force was founded. These two individuals, much deserving of the awards, are the first two recipients of the Wayne Smith Award in Friendship Force of Baton Rouge's 30 year history. In recognition of our special day Mayor-President Melvin "Kip" Holden presented Friendship Force of Baton Rouge with a Key to the City of Baton Rouge as well as proclaiming May 4 as Friendship Force of Baton Rouge Day.
The celebration was held at the Women's Club in Baton Rouge and was attended by 37 members and 15 guests. A small jazz combo greeted the attendees along with two tables displaying photo albums of the club's exchange history and throughout the event a continuously running slide show depicting 25 years of club exchanges was showing. Dottie Stubbs, another founding member, attended and offered her observations of the club during the early years of the club's formation. Another pleasant surprise was the attendance of Pongsy Harnsongkram and her brother-in-law and his family to the celebration. Pongsy, as she likes to be called, invited our club to visit her club located in Bangkok, Thailand in 2009, which we did. In 2012 we reciprocated and invited her and her club to visit with us. Throughout the intervening years we have kept in touch.
The celebration ended with the singing of "Let There be Peace on Earth".
The celebration was held at the Women's Club in Baton Rouge and was attended by 37 members and 15 guests. A small jazz combo greeted the attendees along with two tables displaying photo albums of the club's exchange history and throughout the event a continuously running slide show depicting 25 years of club exchanges was showing. Dottie Stubbs, another founding member, attended and offered her observations of the club during the early years of the club's formation. Another pleasant surprise was the attendance of Pongsy Harnsongkram and her brother-in-law and his family to the celebration. Pongsy, as she likes to be called, invited our club to visit her club located in Bangkok, Thailand in 2009, which we did. In 2012 we reciprocated and invited her and her club to visit with us. Throughout the intervening years we have kept in touch.
The celebration ended with the singing of "Let There be Peace on Earth".