Submitted by: Blake Carlson, Youth Exchange Chair
 
The District youth exchange has several events during the year where the exchange students get together for a weekend.  The most recent event was held January 19-20, at the Deep Portage Learning Center located near Hackensack, Minnesota which is south of Leech Lake.  Deep Portage is a full service environmental education/outdoor recreation center located on a large tract of land.  The students and adult volunteers are housed and fed at the center beginning Friday night until Sunday morning.
 
One purpose for the weekend is to have sessions for our inbound students where we talk about how their exchange is going and help them with any problems they may be having.  Inbounds are students from other countries who are staying in our District for the year.  This year we have a total of thirteen inbounds who are from Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Taiwan and Thailand.
 
There are also sessions for Outbounds.  Outbounds are students from our District that will be going to other countries for their exchange year.  For the 2018-19 exchange year our District will have five Outbounds who are going to Brazil, Denmark, France, Spain and Sweden.  The sessions for Outbounds are to provide orientation for their upcoming exchange.  For these sessions we have Rebounds (Outbounds who have just returned from exchange) and Rotex (Outbounds who have been back from exchange for more than a year) who use their own experiences to help prepare the Outbounds for their upcoming exchange.
 
Deep Portage weekend is when Outbounds find out where they will be spending their exchange.  As you can expect this is a highly anticipated event for them.   Here our student is learning that she will be spending her exchange in France. 
 
While at Deep Portage the students take part in the Winter Rendezvous.  This is an event that Deep Portage puts on where the public comes to compete in various events.  These include northwoods curling, ice fishing, tomahawk toss, trap shoot to mention a few.  This year three exchange students came away with awards. 
 
After the Winter Rendezvous events are over and we have the center to ourselves again, the students have the choice of cross country skiing, snow shoeing, or a rock climbing wall.  As you can see the weekend is full with activities and as usual, fun was had by all.
 
The next exchange get together will be the District conference in April.  We hope you can make it there and if you do that you enjoy the talent show that the exchange students put on each year.
 
If your club is interested in hosting an Inbound exchange student or have any questions related to youth exchange, please contact Blake Carlson at blakeski@msn.com.