Volunteer Week for US High School Students (April 2008)

A group of Seattle teenager volunteers tour Ragusa Ibla

When Juliet, a high school exchange student hosted by Hands-On Sicily, invited her sister and friends to visit from Seattle for spring break, Hands-On Sicily set up a series of engaging volunteer activities. The teenagers designed, printed and distributed a promotional postcard in English for the A.C. Milan summer soccer camp, participated as native English speakers in a business language class, set up pen pals for the local linguistics high school, and picked out which Modica chocolate factory would be most appealing to foreign guests. There was plenty of time for swimming, too!

Claire and Laura Lee go for a swim, March 2008

A highlight of Spring Break for the Seattle teens was their jump into the Mediterranean Sea. Easter is simply too early for Sicilians, many of whom still don their winter coats in March. The group stayed in the piazza, by now quite familiar to Laura Lee (Juliet’s sister), who has been to Marina di Ragusa often—bringing new friends with her each time.

Ciccio Barone, head of sports for the city of Ragusa, takes the teens to tour the soccer fields. (Kyan’s father is a professional soccer coach in Seattle, by the way.)

Gianni and Sally meet Paolo at Milanello

How did A.C. Milan get involved with Marina di Ragusa? Gianni Marotta, Sicilian native who lives in Milan, made the link. [link to tournament] Gianni and Hands-On Sicily founder, Sally Veillette, are pictured here with soccer legend Paolo Maldini at Milanello to organize an international youth soccer tournament (2007). The next year, Gianni brought A.C. Milan back—this time for a summer soccer camp for kids.

The teen volunteers wrote this postcard to promote the A.C. Milan summer soccer camp to English speaking youth

Juliet and "Zia" Sally

Juliet was in Sicily for the entire school year. Here is a script that she wrote for a youtube video.

Article in Pungilione 10-04-2008

Sally speaks to Sicily about how its natural gifts—its warmth, human instinct and perspective—are missing in American. Organizing “relational tourism” (where one touches the “real” Sicily) will keep the Americans coming back for more—and contributing to Sicily’s growth