TULIP LOVERS & POLAND LOVERS!!! First ever Back-to-Back Mini-Rotary Friendship Exchanges. District 6250 (Wisconsin) and the Rotary Club Uithuizen - het Hoogeland (the Netherlands). District 6250 (Wisconsin) and the Rotary Club of Poznan, Poland.
Open to All District 6250 Rotarians (preference to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin Dells and Fort Atkinson Rotarians due to an active Global Grant in Poznan).
Please read fully … contact Edwin Bos at edwin@bosdesignbuilders.com if interested. If you don’t receive a confirmation your interest has not been noted.
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What: This is the second Mini-Rotary Friendship Exchange (home stay) taking place between the Rotary Club Uithuizen – het Hoogeland and District 6250. The first was a big success! This to attend their annual “To the Tulips” walk, bike and car tour on April 19th. There will be no official return leg. The following event website translates to English: https://www.naardebollen.nl/.
The following weekend there will be another mini exchange taking place with the Rotary Club of Poznan, Poland. The Dutch and Polish mini exchanges can be combined or participated in individually.
When: District 6250 travel to the Netherlands as follows below. Participants are free to travel independently and spend time in the Netherlands or Europe either before or after the long weekend of the Mini-RFE.
- April 17th (Thursday) or Prior – Fly Chicago to Amsterdam.
- April 18th (Friday morning) – Train from Schiphol Airport to het Hoogeland in the Netherlands. Arrive in early afternoon.
- April 19th (Saturday) – To the Bulbs walk, bike and car tour event.
- April 20th (Sunday) – Time with Hosts
- April 21st (Monday) – Depart for Poznan, Amsterdam or elsewhere.
- April 24th (Thursday) – Start mini exchange weekend in Poznan, Poland.
The only absolute requirement for the mini-RFE is that you are in het Hoogeland region by a certain time on Friday April 18th and that you don’t leave prior to Monday April 21st. Same applies the following weekend in Poznan, Poland.
Where: het Hoogeland is in the Groningen Province of the Netherlands. In 2019, Rotary in this area hosted a full 6250 RFE and in 2024 it hosted the first Mini-Rotary “To the Tulips” exchange. Dutch Rotarians visited us in the fall of 2019. Clubs in this area were the international partners on the La Crosse Mobile Clinic Rotary Global Grant project. We are guaranteed to see friendly and familiar faces the minute we step off the train. Poznan, Poland is a large city between Berlin and Warsaw.
Several Rotarians from Poznan visited our District as part of a Friendship Exchange in 2022/23 and we have three District Clubs involved in a Global Grant in Poznan.
Who: Maximum group size TBD based on hosting capacity. Interested Rotarians, spouses and/or family members eligible. If oversubscribed / too much interest, we will use District 6250 RFE policy parameters to put the final group together. Note that the policy favors RFE novices as we want more people to experience the international in Rotary International!
How: Must be willing to let others organize your life and to go with the flow during the short RFE. Private travels within the Netherlands, Poland and Europe both before and after the RFE are your choice. Final District 6250 RFE group MAY meet in Wisconsin at least once prior to the trip to work out details.
Costs: Currently round-trip costs are in the $600’s (one-stop) and $1,000’s (direct) for Chicago – Amsterdam – Chicago. There will be train and other miscellaneous expenses. Hosting during the mini- exchange will be organized by local Rotarians.
Timing: We plan to have the final group identified by the end of January 2025.
Trip Leader 6250: Rotarian Edwin Bos who has extensive connections in both the Netherlands and in Poland.
Please let Edwin know if interested at edwin@bosdesignbuilders.com. Questions are welcome but please realize that not all details of the trip have been worked out. Firm interest appreciated. At the end of February participants will be asked for a $250 deposit which will be fully refunded upon return. Sorry to have to do this but we need to be certain that we (and our hosts) only have seriously interested Rotarians signed up. We also need to be certain that everyone participates in the full RFE.