Please note: The article below appeared in the November 2025 issue of the Burg, a community publication in Harrisburg, PA

Worldwide Web: Friendship Force promotes global goodwill through travel, exchanges

October 30, 2025 | by Phyllis Zimmerman

Katherine McFarland was walking around a lake and sipping coconut water from its husk when she felt friendship take root with her host in Rio de Janeiro.

This was the first of McFarland’s journeys with the Friendship Force of Greater Harrisburg, but far from the last. Since then, she’s taken “eight or 10” journeys during her “nearly 20 years” with FFGH, experiencing Cuba, Morocco, Brazil and most recently, a five-day stay with a Friendship Force host in Long Island, N.Y. She next plans to travel to Italy with six Greater Harrisburg club members.

“I joined Friendship Force because I’m a traveler,” said McFarland, 73, of Carlisle. “I really believe in spreading goodwill. There’s something very special about breaking bread with people that brings them together.”

Friendship Force International, from which the Greater Harrisburg chapter derives, is a nonprofit, global exchange organization with a stated mission “to promote peace and goodwill by bringing people together through educational programs, informational journeys,” according to the group’s website.

Through such journeys, the organization “sows the seeds of friendship across the physical and cultural barriers that divide us.” Today, FFI has nearly 300 local charters across the globe, with the Greater Harrisburg club boasting 85 members.

Greater Harrisburg was one of the first FFI charters established after the worldwide organization was created in 1977. To date, FFGH remains the only one in Pennsylvania.

Harrisburg exchanges have included journeys to most continents (South America, Europe, Africa and Asia), as well as domestic travels between various U.S. states. Harrisburg has also played host to ambassadors from Germany, Italy, Colombia, Japan, The Netherlands, Israel, India, Moldova, Thailand, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, New Zealand, Australia, England and Canada. In 2003, FFGH participated in a special peace-making trip to Jordan.

“Harrisburg is a great attraction for our visitors,” said FFGH member Ron Turo. “West of Newville, a very large Mennonite and Amish population is there that visitors like to see. The only covered bridge left in Cumberland County is in Hopewell Township.”

Turo, 70, of Mount Holly Springs, joined FFGH in 2020. Members are responsible for paying their own travel expenses, but Turo said that journeys with the organization “are much less expensive” than traveling on his own because he doesn’t have to pay for lodging. Instead, members stay with FFI host families when visiting locations.

“You get so much more immersion in their culture when you stay in a host home instead of a hotel,” he said. “The bottom line is that Friendship Force stands for the proposition that, when you meet people from other countries and live with them for a while, it leads to getting to know each other better and promotes understanding, which leads to peace.”

Turo’s journeys include leading chapter trips to Armenia-Georgia, Japan and Mongolia. He’s also visited Australia and plans to travel to San Antonio, Texas, in mid-October.

FFGH members also serve as hosts to organization members visiting from other regions. Turo said that, so far, he’s hosted couples from Washington state and Alberta, Canada.

“I take them to Harrisburg, Gettysburg and Kings Gap (State Park),” he said. “I try to show them the best in bucolic central Pennsylvania. We’ve had nothing but positive comments from our visitors.”

Despite the world’s wide variety of cultures, McFarland and Turo agree that, in general, people from across the globe share common traits. McFarland said it’s “promoting good will and understanding.”

“There’s kind of a global understanding that we have more in common than not in common with each other,” she said.

“They want peace; they want to feel comfortable with other people,” Turo noted. “They want their families to feel comfortable and safe. I think it’s important to respect other people’s cultures. People are very proud to show us their culture and country, and we’re proud to show them ours.”