{"id":1658,"date":"2025-10-26T22:49:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T22:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/?page_id=1658"},"modified":"2025-11-06T18:53:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T18:53:15","slug":"kick-off-gala-at-farmington-14-october-2025","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/kick-off-gala-at-farmington-14-october-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Kick-Off Gala at Farmington &#8211; 14 October 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section id=\"\" class=\"esu-basic-full-width\">\n\n    <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"wrapper\">\n\n            \n            \n            \n                            <div class=\"content\">\n                    <h2 style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #000080\">Kick-Off Gala at Farmington &#8211; 14 October 2025<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\">(Clicking on an individual photograph will display a larger version of that photo)<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1721 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/11\/WilliamsFamilyatGala20252025-10-22-IGA-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"8256\" height=\"5504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/11\/WilliamsFamilyatGala20252025-10-22-IGA-4.jpeg 8256w, https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/11\/WilliamsFamilyatGala20252025-10-22-IGA-4-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/11\/WilliamsFamilyatGala20252025-10-22-IGA-4-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/11\/WilliamsFamilyatGala20252025-10-22-IGA-4-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/11\/WilliamsFamilyatGala20252025-10-22-IGA-4-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 8256px) 100vw, 8256px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_1_placeholder\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Branch President and Keynote Speaker, Dr. Phil Williams, took the opportunity to share a passion, an odyssey of more than a half a century in the Eastern Mediterranean, including, over the course of many years, seven years&nbsp; living in Turkey, in a talk titled, &#8220;How Turkey Fascinates and Challenges All Comers.&#8221; He and his wife Marilyn first landed there in the 1970s for Doctoral Research, then as an Investment Banker, this time with children, and finally, having returned to academia, as an Adjunct Professor at Koc University in Istanbul. Armed with a PowerPoint slide presentation, he discussed ancient Asia Minor and the many wonders of Turkey today, followed by his personal and family engagement in Turkey, finishing with a discussion of current events in that part of the world and America&#8217;s foreign relations with NATO-member Turkey. By all accounts, it was a spectacular evening which spoke to the dynamism of the Charlottesville Branch. &nbsp;Check it all out by clicking on the exciting video below.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Below the video of the event, please find a gallery of photos from the event.<\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            \n            \n\n            \n        <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n<section id=\"\" class=\"esu-basic-full-width\">\n\n    <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"wrapper\">\n\n            \n            \n            \n                            <div class=\"content\">\n                    <h2 style=\"text-align: center\">Please enjoy the following full length video of the Gala<\/h2>\n                <\/div>\n            \n            \n\n            \n        <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ESU\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1131779666?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<section id=\"\" class=\"esu-basic-full-width\">\n\n    <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"wrapper\">\n\n            \n            \n            \n                            <div class=\"content\">\n                    <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_2_placeholder\n                <\/div>\n            \n            \n\n            \n        <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1658","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kick-Off Gala at Farmington - 14 October 2025 - Charlottesville<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/kick-off-gala-at-farmington-14-october-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kick-Off Gala at Farmington - 14 October 2025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/kick-off-gala-at-farmington-14-october-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Charlottesville\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-06T18:53:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/kick-off-gala-at-farmington-14-october-2025\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/kick-off-gala-at-farmington-14-october-2025\/\",\"name\":\"Kick-Off Gala at Farmington - 14 October 2025 - Charlottesville\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-26T22:49:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-06T18:53:15+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/kick-off-gala-at-farmington-14-october-2025\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/kick-off-gala-at-farmington-14-october-2025\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/kick-off-gala-at-farmington-14-october-2025\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/charlottesville\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kick-Off Gala at Farmington &#8211; 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