The trip is part of the Youth Exchange program between Fort Dodge and Gjakova, Kosovo, that started in 2016.

Fort Dodge Senior High guidance counselor Jolene Hays and TAG instructor John McBride will be leading the group of teens on the trip this summer.

The trip is going to cost around $20,000, so the group has been fundraising and searching for sponsors to help with the costs.

“We do not want to not take someone if they can’t afford it,” Hays said. “The idea is that we are taking students who would not otherwise have this opportunity.”

-Submitted photo
Four Fort Dodge students, along with other students from the TOKA international camp, pose at the Newborn sign in Pristina, Kosovo.

“Our goal is to completely fundraise to where students don’t have to contribute anything,” McBride added.

On Saturday, they will host Spring into Kosovo from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in downtown Fort Dodge on the City Square. The event will feature around 20 vendors, a “fun zone” with various activities, live music, a poker walk and a silent auction. There will also be BINGO at ShinyTop and a bags tournament at Eagles’ Landing.

On Friday, there’s going to be mini-golf at River Hops Brewing that will also benefit the Kosovo trip.

If the weather is bad, some of the activities will be moved inside to the Iowa Central Dance Team’s facility at 501 Central Ave., located on the City Square.

“The whole premise behind (the youth exchange) is to build our community’s future,” Hays said. “We know that a lot of people in this community never leave this community. We know that travel and acceptance of other cultures and just understanding in general will help build our community.”

Kosovo is a relatively young nation, both in terms of its independence and its populace. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in February 2008. And as a result of casualties and civilian displacement during the year-long Kosovo War from 1998 to 1999, half of Kosovo’s population today is under the age of 25, Hays said.

“They really had to embrace that we have to build our youth; our youth have to be empowered,” Hays said.

When the students arrive in Kosovo in July, they’ll first spend about a week at the Camp TOKA International Leadership Camp in the nation’s capital, Pristina. The goal of this exchange is for students from different countries to be able to come together and share their cultures and experiences.

“Events like these give our kids the opportunity to bridge those gaps and connect,” Hays said.

This year, the trip will include four seniors from Fort Dodge Senior High and three juniors from St. Edmond Catholic School.

The seven students were chosen for the youth exchange two years ago, but were unable to host their Kosovar counterparts or travel to the country because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so this is something these students have been waiting on for a long time.

After the camp, the group will then travel to Gjakova to stay with their host families.

“It’s very rich in history,” Hays said. “There’s a lot of similarities to Fort Dodge.”

While in Gjakova, the students will work on a service project as well, to help the students become better leaders and contributors to their communities, Hays said.

The host families are of the Kosovar students who are the other half of this exchange. Unfortunately, COVID-19 canceled their trip to Fort Dodge in 2020.

“We’ve met a few of them through Zoom,” McBride said. “We’re doing a project with the students from Kosovo, so we’ve met over Zoom several times.”

The students from both sides of the exchange are working on a “parallel” project from opposite sides of the globe — designing and building recycling bins.

“We wanted something we can do here and they could do here that benefits both our schools,” McBride said.

A couple of the Kosovar students came up with a design, and the groups have decided to make the bins completely out of repurposed materials.

“Jolene and I have now been trying to gather materials to start building them,” McBride said.

Through this project, the students have learned from each other that their schools have different recycling needs. At Fort Dodge Senior High, the focus on recycling is more on plastic bottles and soda cans. In Kosovo, they don’t use plastic water bottles, but have single-use plastic cups students will use throughout the day that can be recycled.

Many of the students Hays has taken on the Kosovo trips over the years have never been out of the country before.

Some businesses in Fort Dodge have already contributed to the group’s fundraising.

“We’ve had an outpouring of support, which I think just goes to show our community’s pretty darn cool in supporting our youth,” Hays said.

Any business, group or individual interested in contributing to the trip can also reach out to McBride and Hays at Fort Dodge Senior High, 515-955-1770.

IF YOU GO

What: Spring into Kosovo

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday

Where: Downtown Fort Dodge on the City Square