Over 100 people joined together at Fort Mason’s Great Meadow on Monday, August 1st to celebrate J Day, a nationwide celebration of J-1 international exchange. Under the slogan “Eat. Play. Give.”, attendees enjoyed good food, played fun games and brought canned goods with them to donate to the San Francisco Food Bank.
CHI participants from Work & Travel, Internship/Training and Au Pair were invited, and over 15 countries were represented, including Romania, Poland, Jordan, Thailand, China, Serbia, Malaysia, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Georgia and Brazil. Guests also included host employers and fellow American coworkers and friends.
Special guest Derick Brown, Chief Deputy Director of Neighborhood Services, attended as a representative of the San Francisco’s Mayor’s office, and gave a short speech welcoming our J-1 participants to the San Francisco Bay Area on behalf of Mayor Lee as well as awarding CHI with a Certificate of Honor from the City of San Francisco. The city is very impressed with the J-1 program and proud to be a popular host community. We also had representatives from local SF volunteer organizations offering sign ups and information for different opportunities for students to give back to the local community.
The sunny afternoon was filled with fun games such as trivia contests about San Francisco, the U.S. and American culture, and U.S. geography, as well as a pie eating contest and an intense soccer game. There was also a “Fun-a-Thon” which included team events like a 3-legged race, a corn hold game, potato sack hopping and ball balancing.
We also organized photo contests in the weeks before the event for shutterbugs to capture San Francisco landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars and the Transamerica Pyramid. Winners of the games and photo contests won great prizes such as a Asus Chromebook, gift certificates to local restaurants, gift cards, and souvenirs.
CHI couldn’t have put this event together without the help of our amazing sponsors, including Westamerica Bank, Ubisoft, Navitas Naturals, Ghirardelli, and CEB Insurance Inc.
The event wound down as the sun began to set and the Golden Gate Bridge sparkled over the beautiful bay. Those who were lucky enough to be there went home with new friends and a great CHI goodie bag! What a wonderful way to celebrate our amazing J-1 exchange visitors!
