FLAMBOROUGH - As a youngster growing up on Australia’s Sunshine Coast, half a world away from Waterdown, Loryn Farmer loved to draw the maple leaf. Her fascination with Canada continued, so that 10 years later, when it came time to choose a destination for her Rotary Youth Exchange, she knew just where she wanted to go.
“When I was in Grade 2, so seven years of age, I did a project on Canada, and I can remember loving drawing the maple leaf, absolutely loved it,” Farmer, who is Waterdown for a visit this month, told FlamborughToday. “I was only seven years of age; when an opportunity came up, when I was 17, to go to a country, I thought going to Canada was pretty special.”
Farmer, along with the Waterdown Rotary Club’s current exchange student Agustina Sancho, joined members at their dinner meeting Monday evening. She marvelled at the changes to the small town she visited back in 1978.
“Waterdown is so huge now; back then it was about 2,000 or 3,000 people,” she noted.
But the ties she forged over 45 years ago remain strong. She is spending time this week with former Waterdown District High School (WDHS) student Laurie Whyte, and she reconnected with the other “Waterdown Sorority” sisters she met, including Sue Collins and Suki Held.
Farmer spent her exchange year with five different host families: the Eastwoods, the Watsons, the Marcheses, the Kitchens and the Cartwrights. She recalls the kindness of local Rotary members and residents; she got to see George Allen’s plane, and she became friends with Pat McNally, who later visited her in Australia.
Former WDHS teacher Bruce Papky stands out in her memories, and she reconnected with former WDHS guidance counsellor (and later principal) Bob Bruce at Monday's meeting. Farmer also recalls attending her first prom (wearing a dress made for her by "mom" Nora Watson), working with classmates on a banner for the town’s 100th anniversary celebrations, and tagging along on the WDHS senior band trip to Montreal.
“I remember coming back on the bus and looking out the window, listening to Billy Joel,” she said.
In addition to local activities and day trips, Farmer travelled with 200 other exchange students on a U.S. road trip and made a point of visiting the East Coast and the Rocky Mountains.
Despite a shockingly cold introduction - she left 33 degrees Celsius weather in Aroona in shorts and landed in minus-20 degrees in Toronto - she was struck by the many similarities Australia and Canada share. Among them, a vast, beautiful landscape, a kindred sense of humour and a love of nature.
Farmer says the year-long exchange trip was life-changing; instead becoming a physiotherapist as planned, she became a tourism professional.
“I think if you care about people and you’re curious about people and you want to learn about cultures, it makes sense to me,” she said. She got her degree in international business and marketing and went on to teach at universities, and managed an inbound tour company in Australia.
“Travelling helped me draw comparisons – similarities and differences all the time – and then part of my job was to speak at Rotary clubs to share about those differences and similarities,” she explained. “And similarly, when I got back to Australia, that was my job to go and share with Australia what I did in Canada.”
Farmer is excited about the opportunities that are opening up for Sancho. The teen arrived from Argentina at the end of August and has started classes at WDHS. She'll be joining other exchange students on a U.S. road trip, and will be hosted by three local families throughout her stay.
“My advice to her would be to get involved in community events. Whatever she does at school, the friendships she makes, are a special experience,” she said. “The experience of going up to cottages on lakes, canoeing, that kind of thing. I’ll never forget the smell of cottages, the beautiful timber, the fireplaces, frozen lakes, and it was my first ever time to see snow.”
Farmer will be heading back to Australia, where she has a daughter, 26, and a son, 20, at the end of the month. She’ll take with her some very positive impressions of Canada.
“I feel very blessed. Everyone was very kind and everyone is kind and polite and friendly,” she said. “That was my experience the whole way through – everybody. And it's a wonderful program, obviously, that Rotary – this club – is supporting. That's lovely to see that it continues on.”