Mother and son exchange students show thanks
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HOWLAND -- Like mother, like son.
When Sara Correa Fattori was the Howland Rotary Club's first sponsored exchange student in 1978 from Sao Paulo, Brazil, they never imagined that more than 40 years later her son, Flavio, also would become one of Rotary's sponsored exchange students.
Flavio Fattori, 16, just completed his year in Howland sponsored by the Rotary. He stayed with Ben and Lisa Rhoads.
"My mom always told me this was an amazing experience for her. She learned to speak English and now she speaks five languages, including Portuguese," Flavio said.
His mother, Sara, returned to Howland this month to pick him up and was welcomed back by several of the people who remembered her from when she was an exchange student in Howland.
Cindee Mines, newly named president of the Howland Rotary, said it was a great experience to have the mother and son together at a farewell picnic for Flavio hrecently at Howland Township Park.
"They are a wonderful family and very interesting to speak with. Flavio's mom and dad and his twin brother who is also an exchange student going to Taiwan were able to be at the picnic," she said.
More than 50 Rotary members and friends attended the picnic.
Ken Abell of the Rotary said the club did not have an exchange student for several years because of the pandemic.
"We felt this was unique having our first and more recent exchange students together," he said.
"Imagine if I had not come here in 1978 and been the first exchange student of Howland Rotary Club. Imagine if I had not had such a wonderful host family here in Howland. The Rotary helps our young men and women prepare for their futures by giving them hope. It is important to support them. I have three teenagers at home and I want to show them that I had a future and it turned out just right because of my time in Howland. I have a professional career and family life," Sara said.
Sara said she appreciates her parents supporting her to come to Howland and being the first in her family to be a foreign exchange student. She said her brothers and a sister also were Rotary exchange students and later her son.
When Sara was a student in Howland in the late 1970s she stayed with three host families, including the Bruce and Beverly McPherson family, Homer and Shirlee Miles family and John and Joyce Rowlands. She has been able to keep in touch with some of the families she stayed with when she was here.
"The comments she made were very special in how the Rotary Club helped her," Mines said.
Ken MacPherson said he remembers when he was young that Sara stayed with his family as an exchange student.
"She went to high school with my sister. My sister Jane was an outbound exchange student who went to Brazil and lived with Sara's family there. Sara came to Ohio to see my mom in 2017 before she died. They came here in the winter and Sara and her family had never walked on a frozen pond before because it doesn't snow in Brazil so we let them experience walking on water," he said.
This was the third time Sara has returned to Howland.
MacPherson said when Sara saw Flavio, she noticed he had changed and was very outgoing and more confident.
Ben Rhoads said his own daughter was a foreign exchange student and went to Brussels, Belgium.
Mines said Rotary members noted how Flavio when he first came to Howland in the summer of 2022 was very quiet and shy but this summer he is very outgoing and loves to speak of his experience in Ohio.
Abell said the Rotary gave a card and gift to Flavio and his family gave the Rotary recognition from the Rotary Club in Brazil.
When he returns to Brazil, Flavio will be a high school junior.
Howland Board of Education member Julie Altawil was among those who attended the gathering.