Culture Items Received From Marrakech:
DMHS International Club organized and conducted a school assembly in December to receive items representing the culture of Marrakech.
During the summer, DMHS students sent several items and pictures to the Ibn Al Banna Al Mourrkouchi School in Marrakech. They sent items such as a baseball, an iPod, pictures of the school and descriptions of Scottsdale.
This fall, two Scottsdale Sister Cities Association (SSCA) board members, Khalid Madih and Edie Brouhard visited the school teacher, Tiana Houssana, in Marrakech and brought to Scottsdale some items representing Marrakech. The International Club conducted the assembly for the official receipt of the items by students at DMHS. About 200 students attended. Samad Benzrioual, also an SSCA Board Member who lived in Morocco, described the items which included a water man who walks through the marketplace selling drinking water, much like people sell drinks at American baseball games. He also reported that camels are not prevalent in Marrakech, and are only seen in the desert. Edie Bouchand described the school and teacher in Marrakech. She reported that the Marrakech school hopes to establish a formal friendship agreement with DMHS.
2008-2009 CURRENT ACTIVITIES:
The fall 2008 meetings included one to acquaint DMHS with year-long youth exchange opportunities and another meeting to discuss the October 2009 exchange trip to Interlaken, Switzerland. On Thursday, October 2, Claudina Garcia Villalobos of Mexico spoke to the club about schools and life in her home country, France and Italy. Claudina is a Culinary Arts student at Scottsdale Community College.
In December the club organized a student assembly to receive culture items from students in Marrakech.
The club welcomed Maxime Goffinet from the French speaking part of Belgium who is a senior this year. Returning to DMHS this year is Riana Del Vecchio who spent her junior year in Italy. Welcome back Riana.
The officers of the club are:
Danielle Desjardins, president and member of the Marrakech sister city committee.
Bridget Williams, vice president and representative on the Scottsdale Sister Cities Junior Board
Christine Garcia, secretary
Victoria Miluch, treasurer
The faculty advisor is Kevin Sheh, English teacher.
This year, the club will also be working towards completing several international community service projects. The first campaign was Project Change: they made and sold braided-yarn bracelets to raise money for countries around the world. The club believes, “We can change their world.”
2007 – 2008 YEAR:
In the spring of 2008 the club collected items that represent their high school and Scottsdale to be sent to a high school in Marrakech, Morocco. John Liffiton, member of the Scottsdale Sister Cities Board took these items to Marrakech on his trip there in early June. The teacher in Marrakech report that she is very excited about receiving them and looking forward preparing a package that contains some items which represent the Moroccan culture, mainly Marrakech. She hopes these exchanges will result in the students of the two schools having a better communication with each other next year.
The founding officers were Dan Christenson, president; Ramsey Joseph, vice president; Danielle Desjardins, secretary.