FROM DURHAM TO DURHAM - ED RAW HOSTS AMERICAN EXCHANGE STUDENTS.!!

ED RAW was absolutely delighted in July to be asked by Durham University to host 3 american students hailing from Duke University Durham North Carolina and we jumped at the chance to be offered this opportunity!!  A little apprehensive at first as other students were placed with well established organisations in County Durham, however, I felt our community team would rise to the challenge and provide the girls with a fantastic life experience.

 Sasha, Mandy and Stephanie were placed with us for a month working with us 4 days a week The  girls were assigned 2 specific tasks which would allow them to get a feel of what ED RAW was all about and what we were trying to achieve and also the opportunity to immerse themselves in the history of Durham and Easington in particular.. This was very well received by Sasha who is a history major!!

Two days of the week the girls were in charge of promotional material and obtaining raffle prizes for the first ED RAW community picnic.Their dedication and enthusiasm for this task was commented on by everyone and their commitment working as part of the team on the day saw the picnic host over 600 people and was an amazing success.

 The second task for the girls was to put together a history book of Easington a "then and now" to demonstrate Easington in its hey day, covering the miners strikes, how it affected the community and ending up today with ED RAW and what we hope to achieve. Again the girls threw themselves into this task having great support from local residents, welfare centre manager Ian Forster, local councillor David Boyes many ED RAW service users.

 It is a wonderful piece of work which can be viewed by anyone interested. It is written by 3 young ladies who had never even heard of Easington, however, I know they have taken a piece of us back to America with them. Their own personal tributes to our organisation and our team are very touching.

 A huge thank you must be sent to the volunteers, workers, and residents who assisted the girls whilst they were with us. Special thanks go to Andrea Kelly who headed the history book, Rob Ainscough and Clare Stenson who headed the community picnic team and Ian Forster for his involvement support and time he spent with the girls.

 A very touching tribute was paid to us by Stephanie, Mandy and Sasha on their farewell evening party and we have been asked if we would host next year....


So proud of everyone involved on this project, showing ED RAW embraces not just community involvement but global interaction!!!  We sent the girls home with greggs cheese pasties, ham and peas pudding sandwiches and most important  thorntons mini shortbreads which they were all besotted by!!!