Danube Canoers Play Host To Iron Curtain Students

FOUR of the nine Dartmouth students who canoed 1550 miles down the Danube through five Iron Curtain countries in the summer of 1964 were hosts to eight students from Eastern Europe this summer for a three-week canoe trip down the Hudson River, followed by three weeks of sightseeing.

The international group - six Americans, two Czechoslovakians, two Hungarians, two Yugoslavs, and two Bulgarians - traveled 340 miles from President Dickey's summer home on Lake Champlain to New York City in seven Indian canoes - painted Dartmouth green.

Plenty of time was allowed to assimilate thoroughly the spirit and tone of the life found along the way, trip leader Peter Dan Dimancescu '64 explained. The five girls and nine young men stopped at historic sites along the way, including Fort Ticonderoga, Saratoga, West Point, and Tarrytown.

The students noted that they had financed the trip and air passage for the foreign students by private contributions from individuals interested in promoting East-West friendship. The official sponsor was the College's Ledyard Canoe Club. The largest contributor was the American Conservation Foundation, interested in conservation of the Hudson River.

After a week of sightseeing in the New York area, the foreign students lived with American families, then came back together for a visit to Washington.