{"id":1792,"date":"2009-06-06T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-06T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2009\/06\/06\/if-only-they-could-eat-them"},"modified":"2009-06-06T20:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-06T20:30:00","slug":"if-only-they-could-eat-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=1792","title":{"rendered":"If only they could eat them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Miniature boots are big in Israel. How do I know that?<\/p>\n

Early in our Group Study Exchange visit, we attended a speech contest sponsored by a group of Rotary Clubs in the Be’er Sheva area. Five high school students gave five-minute speeches on any topic of their choosing. The winner of that regional competition was Nir Lifsitz, an engaging teenager who told me later that he intends to visit Texas.<\/p>\n

Nir was one of several contestants this weekend at the Rotary District 2490 Conference in Jerusalem. About 30 minutes before the start of the finals, Nir and I got reacquainted. He and a buddy — who was there to cheer Nir on — asked me for some Amarillo Chamber of Commerce lapel pins, which have the name “Amarillo” spelled out with the double Ls in the shape of boots. I gave him the pins.<\/p>\n

Five minutes later, at 20 or 30 students — boys and girls — descended on me with outstretched hands. They, too, wanted pins. I handed them out like, well, candy. It was as if the kids had materialized out of thin air.<\/p>\n

The seemed seemed truly delighted to get the pins.<\/p>\n

Score one for the Chamber of Commerce. Its signature emblem has spread to the Middle East.<\/p>\n

How did Nir fare at the conference speech contest finals? He finished fourth, but said afterward that only a few points separated him from the first-place finisher.<\/p>\n

But I was pulling for Nir, along with the rest of his cheering section — many of whom I hope are now wearing their Amarillo “boot pins” proudly.<\/p>\n\n

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Miniature boots are big in Israel. How do I know that? Early in our Group Study Exchange visit, we attended a speech contest sponsored by a group of Rotary Clubs in the Be’er Sheva area. Five high school students gave five-minute speeches on any topic of their choosing. The winner of that regional competition was … Continue reading If only they could eat them<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}