Host families sought for visiting French students
They call McDonald’s “MacDo” (pronounced “dough”). They can’t get enough of the TV sitcom “Friends.” Football is a very big deal. They don’t do ketchup, but they want nothing more than to try an authentic American hamburger.
On July 8, World Exchange will be welcoming 87 French students, ages 15 to 17, to our area of New Jersey. They are looking forward to basking in all that is American: barbecues, baseball games, corn on the cob, pancakes with maple syrup. They want to show you pictures of their best friend and share what they’re studying in school (we’ll be welcoming a future musician, a vet, a judge, a landscape gardener, and even an astrophysicist!) They want to tell jokes, talk politics, and teach you how to say, “Sorry, I don’t like mayonnaise” and “Where is the nearest bathroom?” in French.
Sept. 11, 2001, has not deterred these teens one bit from wanting to experience a slice of what it is to be American. They are ready to hop on a plane and end up in the homes of complete strangers in order to better understand what we’re about.
Now we are looking to complete the other half of the equation. We need you to take a risk and open your home just for 19 days. We promise it will be like nothing you have ever tried before. You’ll very possibly create memories so funny and unforgettable that you’ll be traveling to France to visit your student just in order to make more.
As Benot Lemaux put it, “I will never forget me the times I had with my host family! The biking, watching ‘The Simpsons’ in English, Susie in ‘Guys and Dolls,’ John’s victory at baseball, Stew asking me all the time, ‘Where is my beret?’ I hope they write me and come visit with me in Montparnasse one coming day!”
Please, please, please don’t shut your door on this. It’s simply too much of a good time to miss out.
If you are interested in finding out the true meaning of “joie de vivre,” (the joy of life), call Rose in Manchester at (732) 408-9658 or the World Exchange main office at (800) 444-3924, or e-mail [email protected]. World Exchange is a nonprofit international/intercultural student exchange organization.
Rose Trafton Foor
Manchester
regional coordinator for World Exchange
Resident commends Holmdel mayor for tax stabilization
As a Holmdel resident, I am well aware taxes are one of the foremost concerns on residents’ minds.
As certain costs increase, property taxes inevitably increase as well. Population growth has strained the budgets of many municipalities, and older residents have been particularly burdened with the hardship of rising tax rates. Therefore, I would like to congratulate the Holmdel Township Committee for its recently adopted budget. The fiscally conservative 2005 Holmdel municipal budget and the downward trend in municipal tax rate increases shows that the Democratic majority — Mayor Larry Fink, Deputy Mayor Janet Berk, and Committeeman Tony Orsini — has been mindful of residents’ needs and concerns.
In 2002, the last year of a Republican-controlled Township Committee, the tax rate increase was 5.74 cents. The first year the Democrats took control, in 2003, the rate of increase fell to 3.4¢ and the following year it fell to 2.3 cents. This year the Democratic majority has brought the rate of increase down even further to l.9 cents. By contrast, nearby communities are facing double digit increases. Hazlet, for example, has proposed a 16.5-cent increase.
The Democratic majority is demonstrating careful fiscal responsibility by scrutinizing and managing expenses, planning ahead with a six-year capital budget plan, and saving taxpayer dollars through collaboration with the Board of Education on grant-funded projects and shared services. I commend Mayor Fink, Deputy Mayor Berk and Committeeman Orsini for stabilizing our municipal property taxes and leading Holmdel in the right direction.
John J. Palitto
Holmdel