MARCIA SCHLICHTING OF WFWP NOMINATED AS "VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR" AT COLUMBUS INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Four ladies receiving Certificates of Appreciation for being outstanding volunteers in 2014
Each year the city of Columbus, Ohio sponsors an International Festival. This year's 59 such festival was on November 8-9. The featured attractions included an International Food Court, concession booths displaying products from a wide spectrum of nations, and a children's area with crafts and a bicycle safety riding course. Booths were provided for political associations, religious groups, social service organizations, nonprofits, and NGOs like WFWP. The event started out with a Naturalized Citizenship Oath Ceremony by the Honorable Judge Edmund Sargus Jr.
Columbus International Festival 2014
Throughout the day there were nonstop dance groups from across the globe on the main stage. The WAIT Team (Washington AIDS International Teens), performed this year with outstanding break-dancing moves and an informative HIV prevention skit. Some of the WFWP members' children performed as well.
For over 10 years WFWP Ohio has held a Bridge of Peace Ceremony at the festival when the venue was at the Veterans Memorial. This year the venue changed to the County Fair Grounds, which is close to Ohio State University and other college campuses. Instead of holding the Bridge of Peace Ceremony, we decided to invest our time re-evaluating and studying possible innovations to upgrade the Bridge Ceremony for future years. We also hope, through the ceremony, to inspire a greater "heartistic" connection from the audience. Recommendations on how to achieve this would be greatly appreciated.
The display table was artfully set up by our secretary Mrs. Marcia Schlichting, who was also recognized and awarded a certificate by the Festival organizers. She was one of four people to be selected as the most valuable volunteers of the year. The Festival head, Dr. Jindal, read this recommendation we submitted:
"WFWP would like to nominate our secretary, Marcia Schlichting, as volunteer of the year. She has offered her heart and time to help with organizing the WFWP benefit event for nine schools in Africa. Since 2001, WFWP USA has been financially supporting schools that were established and developed in Africa since 1994 by our parent organization, WFWP International. Through the years, WFWP USA has supported schools located in Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Uganda. WFWP USA district and state chapters have held benefits to raise funds to help maintain and expand these schools."
WFWP table at the CIF, run by Nataliya Grishina
Also mentioned was how Marcia espouses WFWP by "modeling" cooperation in a marriage. "Lothar Schlichting, Marcia's husband," the submission said, "is always on the sidelines volunteering to help out with many little details, and is a blessing to WFWP."
We hope that what was read gave the audience a good idea of what WFWP stands for.
Ms. Margaret Kim "manned" our display table at a crucial time when Marcia had to leave to accept the award. Ms. Miyuki Fujikake was at the table both days and stayed on afterward to clean up and make sure everything was packed to go home. Chairwoman Nataliya Grishina managed to squeeze some time from her busy weekend and was present both days. Many wonderful people came to the table and gave us their contact information to come to our programs and events.
It was wonderful to see how many young people were interested in our display of the Love IQ books and took copies to read. We also gave copies of "A Peace-loving Global Citizen" in English and in Spanish to anyone interested.
Having a booth at the International Festival was a great opportunity to reconnect with friends from previous Bridge of Peace events. In summary, even though it was a long and tiring weekend, we left in high spirits that WFWP is again connecting substantially to the community at large.