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November 6, 2024 21 members of FFWM gathered last night for our LEO in Kalamazoo at Erbelli's.
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October 6, 2024 34 members met at Walden Woods clubhouse for a potluck, to socialize, and to listen to a presentation given by Lisa Fisher and Nancy Draayer about their global bicycle journey to New Zealand. The food was varied and scrumptious!
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August 18, 2024 16 members gathered for a get-together at Marci & Roy's lake house.
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July 6, 2024 22 members met at the Walden Woods Clubhouse to play games. . . and eat!
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June 6, 2024 32 members gathered at Demi's in Kalamazoo for a June LEO!
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May 6, 2024 Twenty nine of us, including new members and guests gathered for a Cinco de Mayo potluck one day late on May 6th at the Walden Woods Clubhouse in Kalamazoo. After dinner member Cathy Dopp told us about her recent FFI individual hosting experience with a couple from the Western Tokyo club and also for a delightful day hosting experience spent with 4 or 5 women from the Seoul, Korea Club. She was very happy with her adventures and believes that more friends can be made around the world if FFI would expand their individual hosting experiences (perhaps with clubs offering these short individual homestays to their members) and offering ways for day hosting experiences.
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April 12, 2024 April LEO was at Rock N Thai Cafe in Holland. Twelve members and four guests attended. Everyone was invited to Loie and Dan’s for cookies and conversation after lunch.
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March 12, 2024 There were 26 or 27 of us there including one new member and twoguests. There were many Irish dishes for folks to dine on at thepotluck. After lunch folks enjoyed 3 sessions of round-robin type Irish“Team Trivia". Catherine Henze ended up with highest score!
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February 10, 2024 16 embers met to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year. 16 dined at Hunan Gardens and 9 attended a performance at Chenery Auditorium.
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January 12, 2024 The planned potluck was cancelled due to a winter storm.
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December 10, 2023 Twenty seven members attended our holiday party at Martell's in Kalamazoo. Prior to dinner many attended a jazz Christmas concert at the Dalton Center at WMU. Lisa Fisher reviewed the activities of the year and we toasted to our club!
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November 6, 2023 Three guests and 24 members enjoyed a potluck dinner of German and Belgian dishes as well as a presentation about the FFWM journey to Germany and Belium June 2023!
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October 6, 2023 Fourteen members met at Safron's Indian Restaurant in Kalamazoo. Three of our Holland members car pooled for the LEO!
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September 6, 2023 Twenty of us met at the Casa Real in Otsego for a LEO!
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August 6, 2023 Twenty of us gathered for a LEO for Korean food at Namsen Korean BBQ in Kalamazoo.
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July 18, 2023 Eleven members and 3 guests (2 from Iraq) enjoyed a picnic, kayaking and games in Allegan at Littlejohn Lake Park.
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July 6 Twenty members enjoyed a messy, delicious boiled seafood dinner at the Tangy Crab! |
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June 6 Nine members attended a concert at Fredrick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids after eating dinner in the cafeteria. |
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May 10, 2023 15 members gathered to watch a movie, "Mr. Jones". It tells the story of Gareth Jones, a journalist from Wales, who in 1933 travels to the Soviet Union and uncovers the truth about the Holodomor, the devastating famine in the Ukraine, in which millions died.
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May 6, 2023 25 members met at Viva Fajita, Kalamazoo. |
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April 12, 2023 Seven members met at the Curragh, a traditional Irish pub, in Holland.
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March 12, 2023 Ten members enjoyed a get together at the Blue Dolphin in Kalamazoo.
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February 4, 2023 A fifteen-member group attended the Lantern Festival Gala on February 4th, at Chenery Auditorium, in Kalamazoo, marking the first full moon of the new lunar year and the end of the Lunar New Year celebration. The attendance was standing room only and the gala was very entertaining. It provided us with an enjoyable look into Chinese culture and art, featuring traditional dragon costumes, a professional Chinese opera singer, spectacular long-sleeve dancing, Comstock elementary children dressed in bunny outfits to recognize the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, and a premier performance of The Moon Over the River on a Spring Night, written by Julian Kuerti (Conductor of the Kalamazoo Symphony) and performed by an ensemble from the orchestra. The Gala showed off incredible professional artistry and local community engagement and support.After the Gala, we had a lot of good conversation and food at Sichuan Cuisine. It was a very enjoyable and culturally-informative outing
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January 25, 2023 A Zoom presentation:
Memories of Our Journey to FF Baku and FF Bursa A group of 14 members of FFWM and Kalamazoo Russian Cultural Association gathered at Walden Woods Clubhouse to watch this Zoom presentation. There were 36 watching as the ambassadors shared their favorite memories of our journey to Baku and Bursa. |
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January 12, 2023 9 members met for lunch at Roam by Sanchez in Grand Rapids. Many of our members are now in warmer climates!
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December 2, 2022 24 members and 6 guests dined at Martell's in Kalamazoo in their private dining room for our annual membership meeting and holiday celebration. Jerry gave a year end review. Following a festive dinner we went to Miller Auditorium for a Christmas concert presented by the Kalamazoo Concert Band and the Kalamazoo Children's Chorus. It was a lovely evening!
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November 6, 2022 22 FFWM members dined at Comensoli's Italian Restaurant in Kalamazoo.
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September 15, 2022 36 FFWM members and 6 ambassadors from FF Lubeck, Germany attended a welcome lunch at Nancy Draayer's lake house. It was a beautiful afternoon!
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September 6, Tuesday 18 members met at Bab el Salaam for Middle Eastern food.
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August 23, Tuesday 17 members met at Oshtemo Township Park to eat and play disc golf. Those who didn't play hiked along for the walk.
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August 6, Saturday Let’s Eat Out was at Zooroona’s in Kalamazoo. Always nice to get together for a fantastic dinner and conversation.
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July 6, Wednesday 11 members met at Mithu Sri Lankan & Indian Cuisine, Grand Rapids for Sri Lanken dining.
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June 21, Sunday Over twenty of our club members gathered for a potluck and game day over the weekend at Walden Woods clubhouse. For the past couple years we’ve been playing games on Zoom, nice to be “live” for a change.
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May 14, Saturday at Tulip Time Festival in Holland. Members met at Deb Williamson's house for the parade.
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May 6 Friday at 6pm. 11 members met at Bosna Express in Grand Rapids for Eastern European food.
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April 12, Tuesday at noon. Ol Asian Bistro, 68 W. 8th St., Holland
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February 12, Saturday 12 FFWM members met at Casa Real in Otsego for the February LEO. Great food! A lot of conversation about travels...mostly to warmer weather.
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January 12, Wednesday at noon. 9 members met at Sheshco Mediterranean Grill in Grand Rapids
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December 6, 2021 at 6pm was our Christmas party at Martell's in Kalamazoo. We enjoyed excellent food and comradery in a beautiful setting. Icy roads reduced our numbers to 29 members. Jerry reviewed the past year's activities and outlined what to look forward to in 2022. It was a lovely affair!
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November 6, 2021 at 6pm Go Jo, 18 joined together at Go Jo's in Grand Rapids for a communal LEO! Great fun! |
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October 6, 2021 Wednesday LEO at Maui Poke in Kalamazoo. 26 FFWM members enjoyed food and friendship. |
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Friday, September 24, 2021 FFWM celebrated the 30th anniversary of our club. Our program began with a congratulatory message (via Zoom) from Jeremi Snook, FFI president. Jeanette Parkhurst, founding member of FFWM, told us about the origins of our club. We heard the story of a Syrian refugee family's journey from Homs to Kalamazoo and there were many questions for them to answer! Our FFWM choir sang "This Land Is Your Land" with lyrical adjustments made by Jerry & Louise Potratz! The food was prepared by our club members using the recipes of Marcia Ellis' mother. It was an evening of food and friendship!
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Monday, August 30, 2021 On Monday morning at 7am 8 FFWM members participated in a Music Festival From Japan To The World. They sang "This Land Is My Land" written by Woodie Guthrie and adapted for our club by Jerry and Louise Potratz.
The music and art from Japan were inspiring. We saw some of our friends who visited us in 2019 and those that hosted us in 2017. |
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Monday, August 30, 2021 Several FFWM members came together to make grape leaf rolls and baklava for our 30th anniversary celebration dinner in September.
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August 21, 2021 Saturday at 2:30 pm A Lake Escape! 17 FFWM members spent the afternoon kayaking, riding the pontoon, swimming, playing yard games and relaxing at Marci & Roy's lake house after having lunch and a brew at Final Gravity in Decatur. Dan Grinwis had the fastest wrist, Paul Franklin had the best water aim, and Peg Stanitzek shot the ball into the bucket!!! And we celebrated Lyn & Dave Hargreaves' 56th Anniversary!
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August 6, 2021 LEO at Stanz Cafe 17 FFWM members and 3 guests got together in Grand Haven for a lively good time! Some of us went early to attend the activities at the Coast Guard Festival. It was a beautiful day for walking! |
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July 6, 2021 at 6pm LEOs are back!!!
19 FFWM members and a guest met at Salvino's Italian Restaurant in Plainwell to mix and mingle and catch up! Everyone was very happy to be meeting in person!
19 FFWM members and a guest met at Salvino's Italian Restaurant in Plainwell to mix and mingle and catch up! Everyone was very happy to be meeting in person!
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June 9, 2021 7pm Game Night
18 FFWM members and 7 FFSWFL members played a very tough game of trial pursuit. There was a tie for the winning spot! Our game nights are getting more boisterous!! May 24, 2021 2pm 23 members had a picnic at Johnson Park in GR! We played games and socialized in person! Some of us took a short hike. The weather was perfect!
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April 27, 2021 Michigan Trivia 15 FFWM members showed off how much they knew about Michigan.
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March 24, 2021 7pm Where in the world?
Twenty five FFWM members (5 teams) participated in this game. The photos used were submitted by club members. Our groups had to identify the picture and figure out where in the world it was taken! A good time was had by all! |
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March 10th, 2021 7pm 23 members of FFWM held a discussion on North Korea. The non-fiction books suggested for reading were:
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February 24, 2021 7pm Pan & Stan's African Adventure part 1. 30 members and 11 guests (FF SW FL) were in attendance via Zoom to hear about Pam & Stan's journey, part 1. We went from a homestay in Nairobi, Kenya to Uganda, Rwanda, Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti in a big bus! More adventure is coming soon!
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February 3,2021 Q&A with Lyn Hargreave about FFI's changes and new initiatives. 7pm on Wednesday February 3. Look for Lyn's invitation in your email.
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January 27, 2021 Game Night Trivia! 7pm on Wednesday, January 27th. 24 members of our club and 9 of our friends from FFSWFL had a good time trying to answer trivia questions. . . again!
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December 21, 2020 Monday at 7pm 37 members of FFWM celebrated at our Virtual Holiday Party with cookies and hot cocoa. Lisa Fisher introduced us to Christmas in the Netherlands. Waltraut Knoll discussed Christmas in Austria. And Billl Hoover talked about Christmas celebrations in Japan. We played a game guessing the Christmas carol from emojis! We also enjoyed some poetry and Christmas music. It was a fabulous Zoom Christmas party!
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Novermber 11, 2020 Wednesday at 7pm FFWM Virtual Scavenger Hunt. And the winner is Marcia Ellis!
November 6, 2020 Friday at 7pm our third Trivia Night with friends from FF SWFL club. 27 participants and 2 grandchildren! The Flamingos won first place. There was a tie for second place between the Wise Guys and the West Michiganders who also tied with the tie-breaker question! It was an exciting game!
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October 14, 2020 Wednesday at 7pm, our second International Trivia Night with our friends from FF SW FL club. 27 participants. The Amigos was the winning team!
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September 30, 2020 Wednesday at 7pm via Zoom. 18 FFWM members and 7 FFSWFL members participated as Lisa Fisher, Nancy Draayer, and Marcia Ellis presented a travelogue on their April 2019 journey to Singapore and Indonesia with two Friendship Force clubs, Southwest Florida and Sarasota.
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September 29, 2020 Tuesday at 2pm. 22 members met at the shelter at Roosevelt Beach at Gun Lake/Yankee Springs recreation area. We played games & socialized, and brought our own food for lunch. About 4pm we took a nice hike!
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September 10, 2020 FFWM connected with friends from FF Hiroshima club.
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August 26, 2020 FFWM met with several of our FF SWFL friends played trivia . Congratulations to GTG, the winning team!!!
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July 23, 2020 FFWM members met with the FF Southwest Florida club for a zoom chat. The conversation was led by Floridians Sue and Rob Linehan. It was wonderful to reconnect with old friends! It was especially great to see Jane Curtin, FFWM member living in New York state, zooming in! See an article from Jane below.
May 26, 2020 On May 26 seven FFWM would-be ambassadors had a zoom party with 12 members of the Bursa club (Turkey). It was a great introduction for both clubs! Since the Covid-19 virus prevented us from making our journey to Turkey, we decided to prepare for the future time when we can complete this journey.
Thank you from FFI for contribution to the fund raiser due to disruption of all activity from covid-19 virus
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March 6, 2020 Friday at 12 noon, 23 members attended lunch at The Curragh (Irish Pub), 73 E 8th St, Holland
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February 6, 2020 Thursday, at 12 noon Chau Haus (German/Polish), Kalamazoo
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The Chinese Association of Greater Kalamazoo (CAGK) and the Confucious Institute are Proud to Announce the 2020 Chinese New Year Gala!
Saturday, January 25th 2020
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm · Chenery Auditorium · Kalamazoo, Michigan
Saturday, January 25th 2020
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm · Chenery Auditorium · Kalamazoo, Michigan
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January 6, 2020 Monday, at 12 noon 21 members met at San Chez (Spanish tapas), 38 Fulton St. West, Grand Rapids
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December 5, 2019 Christmas Party, Thursday, at 6pm 4 Roses Cafe, 663 N 10th St., Plainwell, MI
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November 6, 2019 Wednesday, at 6pm at Shwarma King (Middle Eastern). We ordered take out and ate at Lynn & Dave Hargreave's, 215 Sabin, Kalamazoo
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November 3, 2019 Sunday, at 3pm at the Dalton Center, WMU The University of Wisconsin Russian Folk Orchestra.
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October 16, 2019 FFWM hosted A Taste of Friendship Force. Walden Woods clubhouse. 6 to 8 pm. 46 guests attended!
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October 6, 2019 Sunday, 6pm at Wally's Bar and Grill, 128 Hoffman St., Saugatuck
With our guests from FF Soutwest Florida club. |
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August 6, 2019 Tuesday, at 6pm at Blue Dolphin (Greek), 502 S. Burdick St., Kalamazoo 23 people in attendance
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July 6, 2019 Saturday, at 6pm 18 people attended this LEO at Shiraz Grill (Persian), 2939 Breton Rd SE, Grand Rapids
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June 6, 2019 Thursday, at 6pm 21 people (8 were guests) attended at Chau Haus (German), 611 W XY Ave, Schoolcraft
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LEO
May 6, 2019 Monday, at 6pm 11 members attended at Three Happiness, 3330 Alpine Ave, Grand Rapids
May 6, 2019 Monday, at 6pm 11 members attended at Three Happiness, 3330 Alpine Ave, Grand Rapids
LEO
April 12, 2019 Friday, at 12 noon 11 members met at 40 Acres, 1059 Wealthy St. in Grand Rapids
April 12, 2019 Friday, at 12 noon 11 members met at 40 Acres, 1059 Wealthy St. in Grand Rapids
LEO
March 12, 2019 Tuesday, at 12 noon at Saffron (Indian), 1710 W. Main (Tiffany Plaza), Kalamazoo
March 12, 2019 Tuesday, at 12 noon at Saffron (Indian), 1710 W. Main (Tiffany Plaza), Kalamazoo
LEO
February 12, 2019 Tuesday, at 12 noon at 40 Acres (American Soul), 1059 Wealthy St. SE, Grand Rapids CANCELLED DUE TO UNSAFE ROADS.
February 12, 2019 Tuesday, at 12 noon at 40 Acres (American Soul), 1059 Wealthy St. SE, Grand Rapids CANCELLED DUE TO UNSAFE ROADS.
LEO
January 12, 2019 Saturday, at Zooroonas Mediterranean Grill, Kalamazoo
16 members attended.
January 12, 2019 Saturday, at Zooroonas Mediterranean Grill, Kalamazoo
16 members attended.
Article in Spark News January 2019
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Christmas Party
December 6, 2018 Thursday It's the Christmas party and annual membership meeting!!! Four Roses Cafe in Plainwell |
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LEO
November 6, 2018 Tuesday Chez Olga (Caribbean) 1441 Wealthy St. SE Grand Rapids 20 members and guests attended. |
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November 4, 2018 Sunday
A CELEBRATION OF RUSSIAN CULTURE 4-7pm at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art Authentic Russian food and music provided! 9 members attended 
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LEO October 6, 2018 Saturday KYOTO Japanese Steak House, Kalamazoo 14 members attended |
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LEO
26 members attended on September 6, 2018 Thursday Everest Restaurant (Napali), Grand Rapids |
LEO
28 members attended on August 6, 2018 Monday Mangia Mangia (Italian), Kalamazoo
28 members attended on August 6, 2018 Monday Mangia Mangia (Italian), Kalamazoo
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May 8, 2018 Taste of the World by Colleagues International
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April 15, 2018 Dinner at Comensoli's after going to see Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods Isle at the Parish/Civic Theatre
December 2017 Party Pics
March 29, 2017 FFI 40th Anniversary Celebration
July 2017 Southern Exposure Herb Farm
Pics from other events
