By Dale M. King
BOCA RATON – It’s not unusual for Rotarians from District 6930 to visit with Mayor Susan Whelchel and the City Council at one of their regular meetings.
Team leader for the Korean visitors is Doek In Lee. Team members are: Eun Mi Jang, Kyung Nyeo Cho, Youn Woo Lee, and Ki Sook Son with Mayor Susan Whelchel
This past Tuesday night, the Rotary Club of Boca Raton brought along five South Korean visitors — the women wearing long, red skirts typical of their native country – to the council meeting to mingle with city leaders as part of the Group Study Exchange, a universal Rotary peace mission between countries and Rotary districts. The effort is for young professionals, and it promotes international understanding, goodwill and peace.
Whelchel presented the group with a proclamation naming Tuesday as Group Study Exchange Day. “Each year,” the proclamation says, “Rotary District 6930 [which includes clubs from Boca Raton to Titusville] sends a small group of non-Rotarian citizens overseas while hosting a similar group here in South Florida for a month.”
“Rotary International’s Group Study Exchange program provides each participant with a broadened cultural perspective and new understanding of a nation’s history, language, commerce and government.”
Rotary Club of Boca Raton President Dave Freudenberg said the club sent four non-Rotarian American citizens to Korea along with a Rotary member as a team leader. In the exchange, four non-Rotarian South Koreans joined a Rotary team leader to visit the United States. This year, he said, the exchange was with Rotary District 3960 in Korea.
Since arriving in America April 3, the team has visited the Kennedy Space Center, attended meetings with other Rotary Clubs in District 6930, spent time at the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge Park, the Astronaut Hall of Fame, Piper Art Museum and The Flagler Museum, took a water taxi ride to Peanut Island, visited Lion Country Safari and Florida Power and Light.
This weekend, they will join Rotarians at the District Conference in Stuart, and will fly home May 3.
Team leader for the Korean visitors is Doek In Lee, 55, who is in the engineering and construction business. Team members are: Eun Mi Jang, 32, a middle school teacher; Kyung Nyeo Cho, 37, employed in city government in Korea; Youn Woo Lee, 30, a social worker and Ki Sook Son, 29, a foreign language teacher.