`philadelphia': ~`city Of Brotherly Love'~

Alice Stacey 
Jan. 17, 1994 
Alice Stacey, 94, A Resident Of Dorrance Manor, Kingston, Died Monday In 
Nesbitt Memorial Hospital, Kingston.

Wednesday, January 19, 1994 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 3A QUICK WORDS: WILKES OFFICIAL HOPES
TO LINK AREA WITH BRAZILIAN THEME PARK 





Wilkes official hopes to link area with Brazilian theme park &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Tourism, hopefully from &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Northeastern Pa., is goal of the Odebrecht CorpWILKES-BARRE -- A giant
petrochemical corporation is building an ecological theme park on Brazil's
east coast. Company executives and local officials are hoping for a large
tourist draw. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And if Mahmoud H. Fahmy has his way, some of the park's first visitors will
be from Northeastern Pennsylvania. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Fahmy, who just returned from a trip to Brazil funded by the Odebrecht
Corp., wants to establish a link between the Wyoming Valley and the east
Brazilian state of Bahia. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The Odebrecht Corp., the largest private company in Brazil, is a
multinational firm that earns about $6 billion annually from its construction,
engineering, oil and chemical holdings. It also engages in mining and
forestry. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Fahmy, special assistant for external affairs to the president of Wilkes
University, said he hoped to establish interest by the company in Northeastern
Pennsylvania. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Fahmy said the company plans to send about a dozen Brazilians to take
courses in English at Keystone Junior College in Lackawanna County, possibly
this summer. Plans are in the works to send English language instructors to
Bahia to teach the language to hotel clerks, waiters and other people who may
come in contact with tourists. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Bahia officials in the state capital of Salvador, an Atlantic port of 1.5
million people about 800 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro, expect an influx
of tourists when the theme park is completed in 1997. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The corporation expects to spend between $2 billion and $4 billion on
construction of the park. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Fahmy spent three weeks there as a guest of the company. He was joined for
the last eight days by about a dozen other people from Northeastern
Pennsylvania. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 As Fahmy explains it, Brazil and Bahia state are especially hungry for U.S.
tourists. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "For 25 years, they haven't seen Americans," Fahmy said. "Argentines,
Germans, French, Italians, but not too many Americans." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Fahmy said he and other delegation members said they also were interested
in establishing investment links between Northeastern Pennsylvania and Bahia. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "We would like to attract U.S. investors in backing tourist projects in
Bahia," he said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Among its other goals, the group plans to sponsor interns from U.S.
colleges and send them to Bahia to work in such fields as marine biology,
environmental science, finance and management. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The delegation members also visited Rio de Janeiro and Manaus, a city on
the Amazon River about 200 miles south of the equator. The group experienced a
snowy and chilly arrival at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport
after having spent eight days in the 90-degree tropical weather. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 An Odebrecht camera crew followed the delegation on its journey and
WVIA-TV, Channel 44, plans to air an hourlong program on the trip once the
videotape has been edited, Fahmy said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Other delegation members were: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 William Kelly, president of WVIA. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 State Sen. Charles D. Lemmond Jr., R-Kingston. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Robert Mooney, president, Keystone Junior College. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Harold Rosenn, a Wilkes-Barre lawyer. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Patrick J. Solano, of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Resources. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Andrew Sordoni, president and chief executive officer, Sordoni Enterprises. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Barry Tenenbaum, president, Tenenbaum's Travel Service Inc. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Howard Grossman, executive director, Economic Development Council of
Northeastern Pennsylvania. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Thomas Van Arsdale, president and chief executive officer, Franklin First
Savings Bank. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 James Gittens, editorial editor, Citizens' Voice.

Wilkes Official Hopes To Link Area With Brazilian Theme Park Tourism, Hopefully From Northeastern Pa., Is Goal Of The Odebrecht Corp.