2 Days Left to Help Sister Cities

You have just two days left in 2010 to make your charitable contribution to Sister Cities International. I hope you’ll help us reach our fundraising goal with a year-end gift. We want to go into our 55th Anniversary year with a positive energy. What were some of our accomplishments in 2010…

• Convenings - an inspiring Conference in New Mexico brought together more than 400 sister city leaders from around the U.S. and the globe as well as online workshops and learning sessions throughout the year.

• Africa Urban Poverty Alleviation Program – a program where we are making a difference in 24 African cities in 13 countries with water, health, and sanitation interventions.

• Youth and Education – a robust set of gatherings (in-person and virtual!) to foster the next generation of citizen diplomats.

• Advocacy – a voice for our network on Capitol Hill, at the Department of State, and with other pivotal Washington institutions.

Here’s how you can help today with a gift. It's as easy as 1, 2, or 3!

1> Visit www.sister-cities.org/donate2010 and fill-in our online giving form. With a credit card in hand, this will take you about 45 seconds. (Timing may vary depending on how quick your hunt and peck typing may be!) I would suggest a $150 donation.

2> Donate using your mobile phone! Text SCI to 85944 and a one-time donation of $10 will be billed to your mobile phone bill. Messaging & data rates may apply. Donations are collected for Sister Cities International by mobilecause.com. (Reply STOP to 85944 to stop. Reply HELP to 85944 for help. For terms, see www.igfn.org/t.)

3> Write a check to Sister Cities International and mail it to Attn: Development Dept,1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 850, Washington, DC 20004.

If you’ve already made a donation, pass this along to your friends, family, and colleagues!

Thank you and here’s to a terrific 2011!

From Eisenhower to Obama: Citizen Diplomacy Marches On (Part 2)

A few posts ago I mentioned the U.S. Summit on Global Citizen Diplomacy. This was the second convening of citizen diplomacy leaders since President Eisenhower's initial call to action in 1956.

Summit produced a range of materials, breifings, and presentations on Faith-based groups, the role of the private sector, how state governments are engaging in citizen diplomacy, the health field, youth and education, and much more. There are some terrific examples within these publications. You may also be interested in the Summit's final report, which calls for a 10-year initiative to engage more U.S. citizens in our work.

I was pleased to to-chair a Task Force on Community-based Organizations with Sherry Mueller, the President of the National Council for International Visitors. We were asked to seek out some of the best programs in the community-based citizen diplomacy sector. After a competitive application process, the task force selected 10 programs to showcase:

• Boulder Kisumu Sister City
• Duluth Sister Cities International (DSCI) & La Crosse Dubna Friendship Association (LDFA)
• National Committee on United States-China Relations
• Rochester International Council, Inc.
• San Diego-Tema Sister City Society
• Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy
• Vanguard Leadership Group
• World Services of La Crosse, Inc.
• World Affairs Council of Oregon
• WorldChicago

These programs are featured in a summit summary for our task force. Read about these stellar programs. Congratulations to these programs and the many others which were commendable but didn't happen to make the final selection.

Also, I want to add my appreciation to the supporters of this event, most importantly the U.S. Department of State's Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and major corporate funders, including Verizon Wireless, Townsend Vision, American Express, The Coca-Cola Company, Visa, and the many others.

It took 54 years between the first summit and this one, when will the next one be?

Text SCI to 85944 to Give $10 Today!

'Tis the Season to reflect on all of those wonderful sister city memories you've have this past year and help us continue our work into 2011.

Sister Cities International has a new way for you to support our work toward world peace. You can now donate using your mobile phone! Text SCI to 85944 and a one-time donation of $10 will be billed to your mobile phone bill. Messaging & data rates may apply. Donations are collected for Sister Cities International by mobilecause.com.

(Reply STOP to 85944 to stop. Reply HELP to 85944 for help. For terms, see www.igfn.org/t.)

From Eisenhower to Obama: Citizen Diplomacy Marches On (Part 1)

The week before the holiday, I had the honor of representing Sister Cities International as part of the U.S. Summit on Global Citizen Diplomacy. This was the second convening of citizen diplomacy leaders since President Eisenhower's initial call to action in 1956.


More than 600 citizen diplomats from around the U.S. attended - including sister cities and international visitor council volunteers (as well as other community-based networks), business leaders, health workers, elected officials, educators (from elementary through university), young professionals, artists and culture purveyors. There were more than 40 countries represented. I have to say (to take a page from the Sopranos), I was very impressed by the presence of the heads of the families at this event (i.e. all the heads of all the exchange networks - large and small and all types pof exchanges).

During the event, some of the sessions provoked questions about citizen diplomacy and the formal diplomacy work of the State Department while others explored the local approaches to citizen engagement and cultural understanding. There were presentations on new programs and well-established programs. Attendees heard from a range of folks from the Department of State and Department of Defense. It was one big tent and many people joined in.

Tune-in for Part 2 on this blog when I outline the session discussion, which I co-moderated, on the top 10 programs from the Community-based Task Force.

Turning Red for World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. A day where we have the chance to raise the dialogue. A few months ago, Sister Cities International decided to partner with Project (RED), a group affiliated with efforts to raise awareness of AIDS epidemic and bring it to an end. You've probably seen their (RED) products all around. They've spent the day turning Facebook and Foursquare red .

So we worked in coordination with (RED) to encourage US sister cities and municipalities abroad to turn their cities "red" for the day to draw attention to the day. Around the globe, 85 cities are turning monuments, bridges, city halls - red. (My effort includes turning this blog red.)

Go take a look at the map and check out some of the cool pictures that are already coming in.

A Discussion around Cultural Diplomacy

The School of International Service of American University, along with its co-sponsors the Public Diplomacy Council and MountainRunner Institute, is hosting a half-day conference on Monday, November 8 at American University to explore the role of cultural diplomacy, Diplomacy 2.0 and Now Media, and the importance of "listening" as part of our diplomacy strategy.

“Cultural Diplomacy as a Listening Project?” will bring together stakeholders in the cultural diplomacy, including members of the policy community, diplomacy professionals, and academic researchers, to explore the challenges to, and potential for, listening across different approaches to cultural diplomacy.

It should be a terrific conversation, for directions and details, check out the event website.

Global Competence: Asia Society Calls for More Sister Schools

In a landmark publication published this fall, Ready for the World: Preparing Elementary Students for the Global Age, the Asia Society calls for significant improvements in the approach U.S. schools take to open the minds of elementary students. The guide lays out a complete framework on how schools, administrators, and teachers and integrate global competence in their work.

The authors lay out a 10-point outline that they call a Vision for Global Education, which calls for “dynamic interactions and exchanges with sister schools to enhance learning and create understanding.” This is a chance to connect your sister cities program with the local education system. Check out Sister Cities International's sister schools toolkit.

Any interested reader will find the guide accessible, but I see it as an important tool to articulate the needed reasoning for increased integration of global topics in the classroom. Both readers outside the education system and those professional educators will find this useful.

I was especially impressed with the opening of the preface by Tony Jackson, the Vice President of Education at the Asia Society:

Consider a girl entering kindergarten in the United States. Though her classes may be full of students from around the world, chances are global issues and cultures will not be consistently woven throughout her coursework. Unlike young children in other nations who begin learning a second language in elementary school, she will probably learn only one language, English, until high school. When she starts her career, she will likely live and work in a world where China is the largest economy and the world’s largest cities are all outside the United States. Will her American education prepare her for the challenges and opportunities of a global economy?

Well said. Elementary School? Middle School? High School? College? We are not doing enough to expose, engage and educate the current and next generation to the rest of the world. Kids across the globe know English, U.S. major foreign policies, and definitely American pop culture. What do our kids know about Africa’s emerging democracies, Asian cultures, or contemporary history of South America? Very little - we need to get moving!

The Start Line Approaches - 2010 Race & Festival for World Peace

Now's the time to make up your mind - what are you doing this weekend for world peace? Here's your options:

1> If you live in the greater Washington, DC area - sign up at www.raceforworldpeace.org/ and meet up at 20th & Pennsylvania Avenue on Saturday by 9am for the start of our 5K run/walk through the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. In addition to cash prizes for runners, we have an array of free giveaways for runners/walkers during the post race awards ceremony and through out the cultural festival that follows.

(Live in DC but you are out of town this weekend? No worries. Sign up anyway and we'll count your registration as a donation and support for our cause. You do like world peace, don't you?)

2> If you don't live in the WDC metro area, host your own event. You don't need police barriers and permits. You need one or more friends. Pick a meeting point near your house and walk (or run) on Saturday. If you register your "virtual race" with the Sister Cities International office ahead of time, we'll send your group free race t-shirts. Contact our race director, Anna Valero, to register your hometown run/walk.

Congratulations to Fort Worth, Texas; Accra, Ghana; Casablanca, Morocco; and Stuttgrat, Germany - all of whom are hosting virtual races. Let us know if you are on-board!

3> Jogging isn't your thing? That's fine, do you like sitting? C'mon by for our FREE FESTIVAL from 10am-2pm at 20th & Pennsylvania Avenue for a mix of music, dance, and spoken word, as well as cultural booths, food, and fun kids activities.

So,what are you doing this weekend for world peace?

Reframing a "D" in the 3 Ds

The White House announced a major development strategy to run complementary to the strength of our defense and diplomacy efforts. (Hence the three Ds - defense, diplomacy, and development). If this turns into increased aid programs and exchanges dollars over the next few years, it has the opportunity to recalibrate how much of the developing world thinks of us (using much less money than the other two Ds).

There are many policy papers and ideas generated in DC, but this is how things get started and can translate into progress abroad. We'll see how it plays out.

Check it out the new strategy.

Pardon my delay, I was being censored

For my blog followers, I spent the past week in China at the World Cities Scientific Development Forum and participating in meetings with some local officals and NGO leaders. (Hence, the flurry of posts.) All in all, a very productive trip. However, I attempted to post to this blog in "real-time" on a number of occasions from China and found it odd that the Blogger site was down for maintence at the exact time I was trying to post...every day. Then it finally struck me. The site isn't down, it was being blocked.


City to city partnerships and citizen diplomacy between the U.S. and China are growing stronger and richer each month. But, this experience was a reminder. Some larger bilateral issues reach beyond the local level and still need to be addressed. We want everyone's voice to be heard.

Sister Cities in Beijing

Sister Cities International delegation at the World Cities Scientific Development Forum, September 10-11 in Beijing, China.

Sister Cities in China, part 1

A delegation of 10 sister cities leaders spent Sept 7-9 in Shanghai, China as part of the People's Friendship Association conference. Nearly 700 individuals from around the world convened to discuss partnerships in China. Lots of networking, connecting, and sharing ideas about exchanges and projects.

A Call for Hosting Exchange Students

Take a look at this video call from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for more Americans to host exchange visitors/students. It makes a difference around the world.

A Week Later - Conference Success Stories

Whoa - has it been a week (or two!) since Albuquerque. The praise continues to roll in. Between the youth and adult conference we had over 500 participants from nearly 20 countries. Were you there? See who was by checking out the attendee list.

The Africa and Mexico days were well attended and fostered a very useful dialogue.Our counterparts from US-Mexico Sister Cities Association and the Mexico-US Sister Cities Association were on hand and added a great deal.

Alicia Anstead led a terrific series of conversations around Arts & Culture for the day and her keynote speaker, Bob Lynch from Americans for the Arts.

The kick-off economic development presentations and networking breakfast were a huge hit. Kudos to the State of New Mexico Economic Development office.

Keynoter Anna Munio from Continuum challenged sister city leaders to look at their work through new lenses. Take a look at her PPT and other presentations from the conference.

We also transformed two conference sessions into webinars. Our popular Social Media and Fundraising sessions can be found online for members who didn't make it to the conference. Take a listen.

Many thanks to...Richard Buckler from the Albuquerque Sister Cities program and his army of volunteers, the Albuquerque CVB and mayor's staff, Carol Robertson Lopez for her support as a board member and well-connected New Mexican from Santa Fe, and our sponsors who helped us make it happen.

The debate and dialogue in the workshops, panel sessions and networking events covered the gamut and folks left with a renewed energy, a pocketful of ideas, and inspiration for another year of sister city exchanges and programs.

Join us next year for our anniversary conference at a special time of year: our 55th Annual Conference in Arlington, Virginia USA on March 3-5, 2011. Visit www.sister-cities.org/conference for speaker and session details and to secure the early bird discounted registration rate today.

Sister Cities Facebook Fan Frenzy

We surpassed 1,100 fans on Facebook this month! Not too shabby considering the effort is less than a year old. (Kudos to our own Communications & Programs Manager Frances Reimers for her evangelizing on our behalf and nonstop tweeting!) Are you a fan?

Not Your Father's Sister Cities Conference!

More than 100 youth and young professionals at the conference. No minimum middle age required.(Posted: from our social media session.)

(Author’s note: If you don’t “get” the title of this post, you are officially part of the sister cities youth(ful) movement. Apologies to Oldsmobile. Do they still exist?)

A Call for Community Diplomacy: Sister Cities International 2010 Conference

This week we launch our 54^th Annual Conference in Albuquerque, NM bringing together more than 500 citizen diplomats and youth from 20+ countries to discuss community diplomacy.

We three top tier keynote speakers. Our opening speaker is from the design consulting firm Continuum. Anna Munio will challenge attendees to think about ‘how’ they approach problem solving in our network between communities. Continumm has been in the middle of creative thinking commercially for a long time (heard of the Swiffer? That was them!) but over the past few years they have expanded their practice to apply their concepts and solutions to social problems. The nonprofit buzz word is social innovation – I think our audience-goers will realize they’ve been social innovators long before it became trendy.

See below about national arts figure Robert Lynch's role at the conference.

Our closing speaker is Leanne Rios from the United Nations to talk about the U.N.’s progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. With an endzone of 2015, some countries are making serious progress while other problems seem to be getting worse. Rios will address a specific campaign to stop hunger.

In our other sessions, we plan to cover the globe in our own way:

• Africa and Mexico have their own tracks on Thursday, letting delegates dig deep into
  discussion and hear more about our urban poverty grant program.


• Arts and cultural programs have been the foundation of many local sister city programs for decades. This subject gets its own track facilitated by seasoned journalist Alicia Anstead in a series of interviews (featuring Americans for the Arts President & CEO Robert Lynch), discussions, and workshops on Thursday as well.


• On Friday, we are introducing a new educational model to our sessions: Sister Cities University. These three sessions on fundraising, Social Media, and Volunteer Management are designed to get members to roll up their sleeves and hear how experts and members programs address the topics while providing real-time answers and
  tips to problems.


• Friday has turned into a nonstop day of workshops and panels on: the Muslim World, Green/Energy exchanges, economic development, volunteer management, youth and multiculturalism, social media, fundraising, elected officials, and crisis management case study. See full schedule.

While I can’t recommend one over another one without getting into trouble with one group of the panelists over others (although I am moderating the fundraising one!), I have to say
hearing directly from local elected officials is always insightful.

Divide and conquer, there’s something for everyone. Learn, exchange ideas, energize your program and our network.

Sister Cities International & Africa (A 3-month Snapshot)

This spring Sister Cities International selected its Phase II cities for the Africa Urban Poverty Alleviation Program (AUPAP), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Read our formal announcement and the cities involved. This stretches the program to 26 locations in 13
countries around the continent. Phase I cities are well underway with projects finalized and the work on the water, health, and sanitation projects will begin soon. There are some terrific projects in development for the Phase I cities - take a look. This project continues to spin a ‘wow factor’ for us as we present about the program and talk about the impact in the African communities.

In May, a delegation of about 30 from Sister Cities International, lead by Board Chairman Mike Hyatt, participated in the Africa Global Sister Cities Foundation Conference in Accra, Ghana. Drawing participants from our AUPAP program, we added a richness to the dialogue with participants from Kenya, Swaziland, Liberia, and Ethiopia to share their progress on their urban poverty projects. The focus of the event was the intersection of influence between traditional rulers and local elected officials. I found the conversation very thought-provoking, educational, and inspiring. More than 70 traditional rulers (Kings, Chiefs, Queen
Mothers) were on hand.

We were fortunate to enjoy and audience with the President of Ghana John Atta Mills at the Presidential Castle. He expressed his appreciation for our participation and engagement in Ghana and stressed the importance of collaboration beyond borders.

What have you done for me lately?

Not much on this blog, that’s for sure. It’s not for lack of desire or interest but sheer lack of hours in the day for thoughtful (and coherent) posting. Allow me to catch up with you over the next few posts…watch this space.

Mark Your Calendar: Race & Festival for World Peace – October 23, 2010

Strap up your running shoes and get training. In connection with UN Day and UN Week celebrations in Washington, DC, Sister Cities International will host its second Race & Festival for World Peace this fall on Saturday morning, October 23 in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

Will you join us in DC? Will you host your own walk or run in your town? It’s not too hard to grab a few friends passionate about the world and go for a walk. Let us know about it (and send a picture or two!) and we’ll make a big deal of your efforts! Find out more at www.raceforworldpeace.org.

Shhhhh-Do you hear the crickets?

That would be the sound of my recent blogging efforts. Yes, yes woefully delinquent. Stay tuned - new posts forthcoming.

ROI: Show Them the Money

At the end of February I had the opportunity to attend and present at our Southern California (SOCAL) sister cities regional meeting. More than 100 citizen leaders assembled from Bakersfield, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Monica, San Diego, Torrance, among others – a great representation of the region.

Stelle Feuers, SOCAL’s leader, captained the day as the organizer and brought together a range of speakers to focus on economic development. Many of our local sister city programs are faced with showing municipal leaders how the local program delivers a “Return on Investment” for the community. Whether that means jobs (the magic word at the moment in politics) or actual revenue back to the city, this is a challenge for small nonprofits powered by volunteers. Some of our member cities have been doing economic work for years, but for some this is new ground to tread. The SOCAL meeting was a terrific mix of networking and a range of ideas, models, and best practices on how local sister city programs can accomplish this. Here’s an overview of the program:

· The morning started with well-known Adlei Wertman from USC. A compelling speaker who spoke about his experience as a social entrepreneur and the work of his USC program as it intersects business students looking to change the world.

· Susan Herlin from Louisville spoke about decades of economic and cultural work with their sister city, Kumasi, Ghana. Susan’s overall message was: slow and steady, success won’t happen overnight.

· SCI Board Member Carol Lopez from Santa Fe offered a terrific overview of her annual Santa Fe Folk Art Market. Her message: tangible micro-business opportunities can have a tremendous impact on individual artists and their native communities.

· Dave Zanetta from Long Beach gave a terrific summary of their work with their Chinese sister city. His message: get creative with your partnerships and get the word out about your efforts.

I had an opportunity to give the attendees and preview of some new research Sister Cities International undertook this winter on economic development and a range of economic development programs. My message: don't undervalue what your sister city program is delivering to your city.

Stay tuned for the roll-out of our economic development research in the next few weeks.

Reflections from Ghana

Guest Blogger: Jim Doumas, Executive Vice President, Sister Cities International

It was close to one year ago that Sister Cities International, (SCI) received a three-year, $7.5 million grant to fund the Africa Urban Poverty Alleviation Program (AUPAP). This grant enables SCI to assist our members to develop 25 water, sanitation and health projects with twinned partners on the continent of Africa. In addition, the project focuses on assisting the development and increasing the capacity of Africa Global Sister Cities Foundation, (AGSCF), an organization based in Ghana dedicated to increasing citizen-to-citizen exchanges on the continent of Africa with the world.

I am excited about this opportunity for so many reasons. Above all, I welcome the opportunity to work directly with African communities and assist them with achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. This is a remarkable opportunity to demonstrate to the world that the sister cities network is a dynamic force that changes lives on a variety of levels.

Following the grant announcement, the past eight months have been a whirlwind of activity. If you haven’t heard, we opened an SCI office in Accra, Ghana, hired various staff and consultants to assist with the implementation of AUPAP and, of course, selected our seven Phase I cities.

Last month, the Phase I cities and their African partners assembled in Accra for an intense six-day project work plan training session. For the first time, all the AUPAP leaders were in one room to discuss their projects and learn from each other. This was also an opportunity for AGSCF to illustrate their role within the project and to discuss how best to work together to develop sister city capacity-building within Africa.

What I saw during this week was a group of dedicated volunteers and professionals working long, intense hours to strengthen their proposals. While most of the U.S. participants had previously met, this training session was the first time all of the African citizen participants had an opportunity to work together in-person. Looking around the room I was reminded that nothing replaces face-to-face interaction and saw people-to-people interaction in Africa as an additional catalyst for creative ideas to help improve AUPAP. The groups shared their project designs, architectural schematics and their community outreach plans. It was apparent that the African city program managers have taken on a key leadership role. The communities illustrated how the local community committees are drawing from all areas of the community (private, public, NGO), far beyond their traditional sister city committees which is a critical component of the AUPAP project.

With the training session behind us, SCI staff and members have turned their attention to AUPAP Phase II which will increase the number of cities from seven to 25. SCI is also assisting AGSCF as they finalize plans for an international conference in Accra in May, and a parallel track on AUPAP at the SCI’s Annual Conference in Albuquerque this July at our Annual Conference. It is at this moment that I stop, take a breath and reflect on all that has been accomplished and all that is yet to be accomplished. I left Accra with a tremendous sense of excitement for our members and their future work with our partners in Africa and a sense that Sister Cities is on the precipice of something great.

“World Peace Doesn’t Telecommute!”

This is what I told my staff a week ago on Thursday when Washington media and general population was in hysteria over the Friday arrival of the (first) blizzard of 2010. While parts of the DC region closed down in anticipation of snowflakes, Sister Cities International staff made their way into work and continued to press on. As a native Washingtonian, I was nonplussed by the forecast. No offense to the resident meteorologists, but this is town is notoriously tricky to forecast snow storms. Although, Nor’easters do tend to get the best of us – like this past week.

Little did I know that was the last time I was going to see my staff for a whole week. After 30”+ inches of snow (and a 2nd blizzard – aptly named Snozilla), we re-opened our office (along with the rest of the Washington, DC establishment and federal government) this past Friday to complete gridlock, few sidewalks, and snow islands that were randomly deposited in the middle of major thoroughfares in and around the region.

So…world peace may not telecommute, but apparently world peace does have issues with snow management. I can proudly report that the Sister Cities International staff continued their work (electronically) throughout the week. But, I could not help myself in the midst of this extreme weather event to spread the good word of our mission, in my front yard.

This got me thinking of other deep freeze exchanges. People in (regularly) snowy places press on with our work every year despite the weather! How about Barrow, Alaska - the most northern sister city community in our membership? Today’s forecast: -3 degrees and blowing snow (yea, the temperature was negative three without the wind chill!). Barrow has two sister city relationships: Inuvik, Canada and Ushuaia, Argentina.

Then there’s the famed Aspen, Colorado. They have a number of hilly sister cities that happen to be ski resorts, such as Chamonix, France; Davos, Switzerland; and, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany; among their six sister cities. Their snowiest exchanges include medical and life saving training for patrols as well exchanges that focus on mitigating environmental impact of ski resorts.

I know there are other examples – feel free to share them with me. Maybe there’s an exchange or two that weren’t meant to be snow adventures but turned into one. Send me an email and I’ll pass them along in our blog.

An Inspired Life Motivates US-Mexico Relations

Guest Blogger: Michael Hyatt, Chair-Board of Directors, Sister Cities International

On December 30, 2009 Bobby Salcedo from El Monte, CA and a leader within the US Mexico sister city network was killed during a random act of violence while vacationing in Mexico. Bobby's life and work were celebrated at the US Mexico Sister City Association (USMSCA) Conference this past weekend in Cathedral City, CA. While some may shy away from relationships with Mexico in wake of such violence, members of the USMSCA called for an increase in the number of partnerships and exchanges with Mexico. The Association recognized that safety is a concern and needs to be addressed, but we must not live in fear.

I, along with Laura Giroux, attended the US Mexico Sister City Association conference this past weekend in Cathedral City, CA. Having formalized our partnership last year, we began to discuss ways to work together. We are working on a track for our 2010 conference which will focus on Mexico. We hope this will attract USMSCA members to attend as well as invite their partners in Mexico. I have also asked Gil Garcia to serve on our Mexico Task Force with its goals of increasing our relationships in Mexico as well as the level of activity.

A foundation in Bobby's honor for scholarships is being established in his name. I will have details on the Sister Cities International website when the foundation is complete. Bobby's death only highlights the need for our work to continue in Mexico and provide assistance to our neighbors.

If your city has one of our 151 partnerships in Mexico, please invite them to the conference in Albuquerque.

Honoring a Sister Cities Icon: Ruth Hashimoto

I have been fortunate in my nearly three-year tenure to meet thousands of sister city volunteer leaders from around the U.S. and the globe. I am always struck by the passion and commitment of our members. Unfortunately earlier this week, the Sister Cities International family lost one of our leaders when she passed away - Ruth Hashimoto, a legendary figure in our organization.

Ruth’s daughter, Ada Jane Akin, shared this message about her passing:

"My mother passed away peacefully on Monday, 1/4/2010, about 5:15am MT. She had been in declining health for the past few months, and her 96-year-old body finally decided it was time to go. My family and I are comforted by the knowledge that she was well-cared for and comfortable during her last days."

As we circulated the news today, in a short few hours I received a notable number of personal messages from sister city members about Ruth. I’d like to share just a few:

• A great loss to our organization. A friend to all, an inspiration and the kindest person you could ever hope to meet.
• It is sad to lose our long-time friend. She inspired so many of us through the years. So many treasured memories... her twinkling eyes, her ready smile, her origami offerings to us, her picture taking and photographs sent to us after each meeting, and most of all, her faith in the good of her fellowman and her steadfast belief in and love for Sister Cities.
• Ruth's legacy will live on through those of us who were fortunate to know - and love - her.
• A great board member and great Sister City enthusiast.
• My first impression of Sister Cities International was my Friend, Ruth. We both shared the same name and she sorta took me under her wing. Every time we met, she made me feel so very special. Her thoughtful and loving ways endeared her to so many of us that we each and all felt her “motherly instincts”. Her passion for SCI was contagious and certainly will linger with us for many years to come. To me, she WAS SISTER CITIES.

Thank you to all of those members who shared their thoughts with me. I didn’t have chance to meet Ruth, which is my loss, but based on everything I know of her, I think she’d appreciate this reflection by British Poet and Painter David Harkins:

“You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,

or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,

or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,

or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her only that she is gone,

or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind,

be empty and turn your back.

Or you can do what she'd want:

smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”

I invite those of you who knew her to share your stories, thoughts, and reflections. Add your comment below so we can celebrate her legacy and…go on.  

~Patrick Madden, President & CEO, Sister Cities International