Summer Garden Farewell, Welcome Party, and 4th of July Celebration

On Saturday, July 1, 2017, over 55 AAFSW and AAFSW-FBS members and guests celebrated the end of a great AAFSW year together, at the beautiful home of Sheila and Tom Switzer! The weather was lovely and we all enjoyed sitting outside at the spectacular patio enjoying the enchanting summer aromas of the Switzer garden along with a cool sangria and some refreshing cucumber and lime water! Guests enjoyed a plethora of delicious savory and sweet dishes, all recipes from many exotic countries.

We all welcome many Foreign Service families back to the USA but we also bid farewell to many other Foreign Service families that are departing to exotic and interesting countries around the globe! Our dear friend and AAFSW Fun For Funds member, Maciej, who helped with AAFSW’s fundraising events is leaving for Canada along with Bob but they both promised to visit us often. Ana Luisa and Steve as well as Jose said that time flies by and they will soon be back! We wish them to have safe travels and many fantastic experiences!

Besides the great company, the joyful dancing, and the festive 4th of July atmosphere, the most amusing highlight of the evening was certainly everybody’s attempt to sing along with the karaoke machine that Seyoung and Thomas so generously donated to AAFSW in March 2017. Anabel helped put it to work by graciously donating to AAFSW the first 5 Karaoke CDs, which contain the 100 most beloved karaoke songs! This was a great experiment! We all thought we have great voices! We all danced and sang until way after midnight!

Thank you to our great hosts Tom and Sheila Switzer, our AAFSW Program Chair and AAFSW FBS State Liaison, for providing their home for such a great party and a delightful AAFSW celebration! AAFSW wishes a “Happy Summer 2017” to everybody!

Joanna Athanasopoulos Owen, PhD
AAFSW President