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Friendship Force contemporary witnesses
in Varel
Christine (68) and Don (72) Bell, members of Friendship
Force Newcastle and Friendship Force Northumbria (UK) are visiting
with Hildburg and Eckard Sadzio of Friendship Force Varel (Germany)
from September 6th to 13th 2010.
Friendship Force members for 33 years – almost half of their
life - Christine and Don are witnesses of the start of Friendship
Force in 1977. “From these early days we are the only remaining
still active members of a British Friendship Force club,” Christine
said, “and we have hosted each year.”
President Jimmy Carter, on a visit to Newcastle on May 7th 1977
where he was made an “honorary freeman” of that city,
launched the Friendship Force in UK.
A PanAm 747 empty charter plane called “Clipper Friendship”
was ordered from Brussels to Newcastle and took 381 Friendship Force
Ambassadors from Newcastle to Atlanta, a plane filled with nobody
else than Friendship Force ambassadors.
At 6.30 a.m. on July 4th 1977 the plane departed from Newcastle,
had to be refuelled in Shannon (Ireland) because the runway of Newcastle
airport was too short for a full loaded 747 plane. The pilot almost
was shocked by the answer after he had asked “How many big
planes have ever landed at this small airport?” The answer
was: “You are the first!”
Wayne Smith, visionary and founder of the Friendship Force, always
used to answer in case of problems: “Be flexible!” These
words are still appropriate today, when organising and conducting
exchanges.
“Peace, Friendship and Goodwill” was the Friendship Force
motto at the beginning.
Don and Christine Bell (right) have visited Hildburg and Eckard
Sadzio
In Atlanta the British ambassadors were directly
led into the celebrations of "Independence day" July 4th
having first met their hosting families. What a mess must that have
been when 381 British ambassadors (couples, singles, men and women)
had to be matched with at least the same number of US citizens who
had agreed to host. But this was just normal in these early times
of Friendship Force. The ambassadors sometimes did not even get
to know their flights destination until all fees had been paid.
A real adventure! But this changed in the following years.
The cost for this early day charter flight including twice five
days home hosting was 149 British pounds. Going back to the story:
The same plane which brought 381 Newcastle citizens to Atlanta directly
was reloaded with 381 US citizens from Atlanta who were brought
to Newcastle. It is because of these reciprocal visits that a Friendship
Force tour nowadays is called an “exchange”.
The organizing committee had 7 weeks to recruit homes and beds for
the plane load of US ambassadors. So, more than 1000 people had
been involved in these early day exchanges. The Newcastle Friendship
Force club however had about 1400 members at that time.
Today Friendship Force International is a worldwide operating organisation
with more than 370 chartered clubs in almost 60 countries.
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