For local group, friendship knows no border

World peace, though sought by nearly everyone, is an elusive goal. However, there is one group that has a simple formula that they think is worth trying.

“It’s peace through friendship,” said Claudia Erkert, a Huntington, New York resident as she sat in the Vestavia Hills Lodge, finishing her southern potluck dinner.

Claudia and her husband Richard are members of the Long Island branch of Friendship Force, an international organization aimed at bringing people together from across the globe.

“The premise of the club is, we’re [all] in the world, [and] we’re more alike than we are different,” Claudia Erkert said.

To bring out the ways people are more similar than different, Friendship Force clubs all over the world organize “journeys,” usually hosting one or two incoming groups each year, and going on one domestic and one international trip.

The Birmingham Friendship Force club is organized out of Vestavia, and over the years has hosted groups from as far away as Australia, and most recently took an international trip to Costa Rica.

“It’s just kind of a hidden secret,” said Ann Taylor, membership chair for the Birmingham club. “I wish I had known about it 30years before.”

With travel being a tenet of the program, Huntsville Friendship Force director Rob Kilpatrick said the age range of groups tends to skew toward retirees, because that is the group with the time and money to travel.

“It’s not meant to be [only people who are retired] but it’s kind of evolved that way over the last couple of generations,” he said. 

He added: “It’s a paradigm that we as an international organization are trying to break, because that’s not what we’re about.” 

The Huntsville group brought the visiting Long Island group to Birmingham in October, in order to show them the history of the Civil Rights movement. The Birmingham club welcomed them to their home base in Vestavia for an evening of food, fellowship and dancing.

And while many think of the organization as one based on travel, Kilpatrick said it’s the hosting side of things where those who are younger or less financially flexible canget involved.

Kilpatrick’s theory can be seen in practice in the Birmingham club with Angela andMartin Weinberg.

The couple joined about four years ago, Angela Weinberg said, and despite being two of the youngest members of the club, have enjoyed it immensely.

“They’re a fun bunch,” she said. “You get to learn a lot from them.”

Weinberg said the pair hasn’t been able to go on any of the outgoing journeys just yet, but even through monthly meetings and helping with hosting and events, they’ve been able to reap the rewards.

“We don’t have enough love in this world,” she said, “and I think this is a genuine group.”

Members of the Birmingham, Huntsville and even the Long Island groups encouraged those interested in Friendship Force to drop in on a meeting to learn about the value and simplicity of connecting with others both locally,and abroad.

“Come to a meeting,” Weinberg said. “Come see us first hand, and see how we are, because once you come through that door, you’llnever leave.”