The eight students from Sarasota who are attending Perpignan's Catalan Youth Festival left on July 17 th . Their flight itinerary takes them from Sarasota to JFK in New York and then to Barcelona, Spain, where a bus provided by the City of Perpignan will pick them up and take them to Perpignan. Dominique Vilain, Director of Sister Cities for the City of Perpignan will travel to Barcelona to greet our delegation at the airport and escort them to Perpignan. Jim and Barbara Shirley are leading the delegation to Perpignan.

Through Jerry Shames, father of Alex Shames who is one of the students, we will be getting “daily reports” direct from the Youth Festival. Alex Shames is a student at Out of Door Academy, and is a musician. Jerry has arranged for Alex to call in each night to read the day's report from any of youths who would like to contribute.

Jerry has reported that he “will record the call and edit it for broadcast the next day”. He goes on to say “beginning on Friday night (July 18 th ) I expect to get the first report. I will combine that with the Saturday report to be then broadcast on my Sunday morning cooking show Thought for Food (9 AM - 11 AM). Then on Monday we will have the report each day on Curtain Up on the Suncoast (11 AM - 1 PM).I will also create a page on our web site to keep all the reports and any pictures that may be sent to us via email, or any other method.”

Jerry's show is broadcast on WTMY 1280 AM
The website is: www.wtmy.com
Jerry's email at the station is: jerry@wtmy.com

Shows:

Curtain Up on the Suncoast; Monday - Friday, 11 AM - 1 PM
Thought for Food; Sunday, 9 AM - 11 AM

I encourage you to tune in to stay abreast of the festival activities, and get the students' points of view.

At the completion of the tour, Mary Kelly, who is one of the student participants, will be writing a piece for Earle Kimel, Community News Editor of the Sarasota Herald Tribune. Mary is a student at Pine View, and is a writer.

Harry Dunn
Perpignan City Director
Sarasota Sister Cities Association