Sister Cities Stitch Together Washington and Cameroon
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A typical sewing circle at First African Methodist Episcopal (FAME) Church in Seattle, Washington, draws a crowd that spans culture, race, gender, and generational divides. Folks come from all over the Seattle metropolitan region, some even crossing the Puget Sound to get here every month. Other participants bring friends from out of state.
Everyone is here to create feminine care kits ...
Nashville Descends on Northern Ireland
Sister Cities of Nashville, Tennessee led scores of public officials, musicians, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, education leaders, diplomats, and many more to Belfast, in Northern Ireland, early this month. They were there to celebrate “Nashville in Belfast,” a week of events highlighting the Music City’s food, history, culture, and (of course) its music.
They brought with them guitars and accordions, brochures and little Tennessee state flags, gold- and platinum-record lapel pins, fried chicken, corn pudding, and lemonade, in hopes of giving folks in Belfast a ...
Board Member Edmund Adams Takes Honor Flight
Sister Cities International board member, Edmund Adams, will participate in the Honor Flight Tri-State from Cincinnati to Washington D.C. on Tuesday, May 22. The purpose of the Honor Flight Program is to recognize American military veterans for their sacrifices and accomplishments who served their country during wartime.
Adams, as a 1st Lieutenant, was a Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, and Battery Commander of a HAWK surface-to-air missile unit on the West German-East German border near Kassel, Germany in 1964-65 during the early stages of the Vietnam War.
All ...
Maryland Receives Visitors from South Africa and Japan
The month of March was a busy one for Maryland’s sister state programs.
The state hosted two delegations: one from the coastal South African province of KwaZulu-Natal on March 12, and the other from Japanese prefecture Kanagawa, which lies between Tokyo and Mount Fuji, on March 28.
At the first of these meetings, the Maryland-KwaZulu-Natal Sister State Committee facilitated a dialogue between the Maryland Department of Commerce (MDOC), local economic authorities in Baltimore, the South African Embassy, and the KwaZulu-Natal International Trade and Investment ...
U.S. – China City Diplomacy: Sister City Contributions to Peace, Commerce, and Governance
Contributed by Ben Leffel
In 1993, my late mentor, economist Richard V. Knight, presented a lecture titled “Global & Local Cities” to an audience of scholars and city officials in Venice, Italy in which he described the knowledge and technology transmission made possible by Sister Cities International’s worldwide bilateral exchange programs. The validity of his points still stand today, but are especially relevant when looking at the ways in which sister city relationships have helped connect countries like China to the rest of the world.
The immediate ...
Tackling the Heroin Crisis: Sister Cities Seattle and Bergen Working Together
When you think of Bergen, Norway; the first thing that comes to mind is its picturesque harbor with its quaint wooden houses. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most photographed scenes in the world. It is no wonder that the postcard-perfect city set on a fjord against the backdrop of seven majestic mountains, served as the inspiration for many of the settings in Disney’s Frozen.
A native Seattleite, I have often made the observation that my own city is like “Bergen in larger format, but more modern.” Norway’s second city, like its sister city Seattle, ...
Power Up: Duluth Hopes to Foster Competitive Robotics Teams Throughout Sweden
Sister cities Duluth, Minnesota and Växjö, Sweden have for years exchanged college and high school students, professors, artists, professionals, and athletes. Now they can add one more category to the list: Robots.
Last summer, Linnea Frisk traveled all the way from her hometown of Duluth to the south-central Swedish city of Växjö with her family. There, the Minnesota high-schooler and captain of the Duluth East High Daredevils competitive robotics team reached out to a group of local students who were interested in building a robot.
“The daredevils started ...
Juneau Extends a Friendly Hand Over the Bering Sea
The long-dormant relationship between Juneau, the capital city of Alaska, and its sister city in Eastern Russia, Vladivostok, was rejuvenated early last month when American Consul General Michael Keays delivered a book to the sister city committee there.
The book, written by Alaskan author David Ramseur, describes the blossoming of citizen diplomacy efforts across the Bering Sea during the late 1980s and early 90s, set against the backdrop of the collapse of the Soviet Union and normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia.
Families ...
Maryland Sister State Committees Band Together to Send Medical Supplies to Mexico
Two 26-foot trucks braved a snowstorm over the mountains from Boise, Idaho all the way down to Brownsville, in Texas early this month to hand off a much-needed shipment of medical supplies and equipment. The supplies, valued at over $350,000, made their way to the Mexican state of Tamaulipas thanks to efforts by the Maryland Sister State program. The supplies will help alleviate the lack of healthcare facilities in Tamaulipas, particularly in the aftermath of a recent series of earthquakes that have devastated large swaths of the country.
Responding to the Call for ...
Dortmund Comes to Buffalo in April for 40th Anniversary Tour
The Oberbürgermeister der Stadt (or Lord Mayor) of Dortmund, Germany, will lead a delegation of 20 government, education, and business leaders to Buffalo, New York, to help celebrate the two sister cities’ 40th anniversary next month.
The delegates will attend the ground breaking ceremony on April 15 for a future park on the shore of Lake Erie, to be named Dortmund Park as a testament to the two cities’ historic partnership. Lord Mayor Ullrich Sierau and the others will then spend the rest of the day meeting with their American counterparts and building upon their ...
