Youth chosen for ambassador trip

Jake Mattfeldt is a kid who likes to hunt and fish with his dad and his grandfather and drive around on a four-wheeler. He plays hockey with the Ice Dawgs and is a member of Key Club.

But lately he has added another interest: he wants to go to Europe. He doesn't know anyone who has traveled to Europe, but he was invited to go as a student ambassador with the People to People program, and he's pretty excited about it.

He checked the program online and decided it "looked pretty cool," so he signed up. To be accepted for the 10-day trip, he had to submit three letters of recommendation, take some tests, have an interview, and go to a meeting in Great Falls.

Now he is reading up on France, England, Belgium and the Netherlands, the countries that he will be visiting. The group might have home stays with local people. The object of the trip, he said, is to learn about other countries and cultures.

Jake, a 17-year-old junior at Glasgow High School, will earn elective credit for social studies with this trip.

The People to People program was started during the Cold War by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who saw the need for citizens to help resolve the differences between countries by becoming friends with each other - peace through understanding. He held a White House conference in 1956 to help people from different nations come together for cultural exchange, and one of the programs that resulted was the student ambassador program. Other programs were dedicated to music, sports, letter writing, care of the disabled and a floating hospital.

Jake has to raise quite a bit of money to go on this trip, to cover the flight, room and board and insurance. To make the $6,000, he is raffling half a pig, which will be butchered and wrapped in the late spring by Robert Plouffe of Saco. He also will be raffling a quilt that a People to People family made. The drawing will be on Feb. 7. Tickets are available at Mattfeldt Electric, Farm Equipment Sales, Flicks or by calling 228-2304. He has opened an account for this trip at First Community Bank in Hinsdale.

If necessary, he might even sell flamingos, the ones that appear on your front lawn overnight and can be evicted, for a price.