Presenting Rotary Youth Exchange Student Leonard Dohn

Leonard Dohn the 16 year old Rotary Youth Exchange student hosted by the Bowmanville Rotary Club came to talk to us about his family, his country and himself.  Although Leonard has been sponsored by the Bowmanville Rotary club, the Visser family (Courtice Rotary and the Interact Club of Clarington) will be hosting Leonard from April-August 2013.

Leonard hails from Plauen Germany which is near Saxony whose capital is Dresden.  Plauen is 1/3 the size of Ontario, 357 square KM’s with a population of 83,000,000.  They run a Federal structure with 16 states.

His hometown of Plauen is the capital of Vogtland and they adopted municipal law in 1224, with 65,000 inhabitants and it was very heavily destroyed in WW2.  They are known for their lace called Plauener Spitze.  Leonard showed us some samples of the lace which was beautiful.

Leonard’s family consists of his father Uwe Bauer, a pharmacist who owns his own Pharmacy and an engaged Rotarian who is also a Paul Harris Fellow, his mother Kathrin Dohn, a pharmacist assistant who works whit his dad, his brother Julian, who Leonard describes as his best friend and playmate and the family cat Shaja (pronounced Shy-ya and meaning the Scared).  When Shaja was a kitten she would hide under the stairs and jump out at them trying to scare them so her name has meaning to him.

There are 2 Rotary clubs in Leonard’s community, the Rotary Club of Plauen was founded in 1979, has 45 members and participates in many local community projects in Plauen mostly. 

The newest club, the Rotary Club of Vogtland was founded in 2000, has 29 members and primarily participates in worldwide projects with a particular focus on Lebanon and Nepal.  They are also Leonard’s home club who sponsored him to come to Canada which was by the way his first choice. 

Leonard also talked about his school Friedensschule Plauen, which has about 300 students who attend there each year.  He described it to be as big as Clarington Central Secondary School in Bowmanville, where Leonard will be attending while here on exchange which has an enrollment of 1400 students.  He is very excited about all the students there and attending school here.

Leonard loves biking, discovering new things, hanging out with friends, splash diving, and both 5m and 10m Platform diving.  He especially enjoys family things like walking, skiing, snowboarding and entertaining.  He often attends Rotary meetings with his father in the evening at home.

He is thrilled to be here and was excited to tell us about his family and home and we are thrilled to have you here with us for a year Leonard.  Welcome to Canada and Clarington!