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Museum Display
During the week of Nov. 15, I was informed that our display at the Museum of World Treasures had been dismantled and that our articles were in a “somewhat secure” area. Carla and I made immediate arrangements to meet there Friday afternoon and retrieve our items. With the help of Reed Bennett, everything has been returned to city hall. If you have contributed items for this project, please be sure to pick them up the next time you are at city hall.
Pen Friends are being sought for students in each of our sister cities. I have been working (behind the scenes) in an effort to get this project off the ground. I recently visited our sister city of Kaifeng, China and returned with 111 letters of students who want a pen pal in Wichita or anywhere in America. If you know of anyone who is interested in having a pen pal/friend in either of our sister cities, especially China, please have them contact me at 267-5897 or rbennett4@cox.net. The students are 15-17 and have studied British English for 3—5 years.
Thanks, Peggy
If you have visited our website lately, you are aware of the fact that we have two Christmas projects going on at once.
The first is being spearheaded by Emily Johnson, a student in the IB program who traveled with Jerry Smartt to Cancun. She was so touched by the students in this poverty stricken area that she is collecting school supplies, clothing and toiletries. If you are interested in helping, please call her at 733-6275. There was a huge article in the Nov. 26 edition of the Wichita Eagle, but no mention of Wichita Sister Cities.
The second project is for the troops in Iraq. You may or may not know that one of our members, Ernie Garcia is a Lt. Colonel in the Marines and is in Baghdad. The items he suggests to send are: homemade stuff, i.e., cookies, macaroons, hard Christmas candy, etc....they also like beef jerky of all kinds, teriyaki, in particular. Copies of the latest publications of People, US News and World Report, Times, Newsweek, & Glamour (for our female Marines and Soldiers). Nuts of all kinds are usually a popular item...small tubes of toothpaste and shaving cream are also sought after items. Small Christmas tree ornaments would really be cool. He does not recommend sending cans of anything because they are too heavy and too hard to store. One shipment has already been sent. If more items arrive we can sent that too. Call Carla at 268-4331 for more information.
As the webmaster for our website, I check the statistics daily to see how we’re doing on server space availability, how many hits the website is getting and more. While working on this newsletter, I discovered that in one day alone, our website was visited 19 times by persons in Sweden and 6 times by persons in Finland. Additionally, our site has been viewed in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, France, Venezuela, Czech Republic, Scotland, China, and more. Sister Cities International visited our site 163 times from Nov 1st to the 24th. It is doing very well and I couldn’t be happier. We average about 20 “hits” a day.
February 7, 2005 is the day we will celebrate the Chinese New Year at Toms Lotus Garden, 822 S. Broadway, 6 p.m. This is the year of the Rooster! The sign of the Rooster indicates a person who is hard-working and definite about their decisions. Roosters are not afraid to speak their minds and can therefore sometimes come across as boastful. They make good restaurant owners and world travelers. Famous people born in the Year Of The Rooster: Michael Aspel, Yoko Ono, Rod Stewart, Mia Farrow, Eric Clapton. You were born in the year of the rooster if you were born in 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981 or 1993.
Reserve your seat today - Call Carla at 268-4331
SCI Annual Conference
The annual conference for Sister Cities International will be held in Spokane, Washington July 26 through 31. The Conference Hotel is the Double Tree Hotel Spokane City Center. Their Fax number is 509-45-6285. For reservations from the U.S. & Canada, call 800-222-TREE (8733). Room rates of $92 + tax are available during the conference dates. The deadline to reserve sleeping rooms at this rate is 29 June 05.
Conference fees are $375 if paid before April 1, 2005 for members. If you prefer to attend one day only, the cost is $200 per day (Wed., Thurs., Fri. or Sat.).
Sister Cities International will be honoring the “Volunteer of the Year” at a ceremony in September. The Volunteer of the Year Award recognizes an exemplary individual for his/her contribution to the sister city movement. The Volunteer of the Year Award honors one outstanding volunteer whose individual leadership and talents benefit both his/her local program and the sister city network. We can nominate as many as six persons, but I believe only one will be chosen. We are currently accepting nominations. See Carla for more details, or call her at 268-4331.
Sister Cities International will also be giving Innovation Awards in the following categories: Arts & Culture, Humanitarian Assistance, Sustainable Development and Youth & Education. Personally, I would like to see the project by Emily Johnson of East High School, be nominated for the last award. Emily received a scholarship from us, to travel to Cancun with Jerry Smartt. They visited a poor school in a very low-income village just on the edges of Cancun. Emily was so touched by the children and their enthusiasm to learn, that she began collecting school supplies, clothing and toiletries for those children. There was a wonderful article about her in the Nov. 26 edition of the Wichita Eagle (of course we were not mentioned). She recruited over 70 people to help her with this project, and has collected many items to be sent, with the help of Fed Ex. They have agreed to send 200 pounds a week at no cost. She has collected about 700 pounds of clothes, toys and school supplies!
For more on this project, visit our website at www.wichitasistercities (projects).
This is for our new Treasurer, who ever that will be. Our P.O. Box is being used as the contact address for students who are interested in having a pen friend from our sister cities. When a request for a pen pal is received, please notify Peggy Bennett at rbennett4@cox.net.
T
he Annual Meeting with be held at City Arts in Old Town, on Friday, January 14, 2005. We’ll begin our social at 6:00 p.m. and plan dinner for 6:30, with the meeting to follow.
The Members of the Mexico Committee will be hosting the event, as their fund-raiser. Tickets will be $15 each.
This is the time to renew our membership and enjoy seeing everyone again. Please plan to attend, and bring 10 of your closest friends, as this is also the time to recruit new members. ☺ If you have questions or wish to RSVP, you may call Peggy at 267-5897. As always, the Mexico Committee will also have a program for us. We hope to have Emily Johnson there to give us an update on her project, if she is not in Mexico with the 700 pounds of items she has collected.
The new President for 2005 will be De Eaton and we’ll hold an election to discover who the rest of the board will be.
As always, this is expected to be another busy year and your help is always appreciated. Please plan to be an active member of Wichita Area Sister Cities and together we can make this the great program it was meant to be. Your help is needed. The board meetings are always the second Tuesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. and usually take place in the first floor board room of city hall. Call Carla at 268-4331.
I wanted to thank you for electing me to serve as your President for this past year. My term actually began in September of 2003 and will end the night of the annual meeting when I pass the gavel to De Eaton. It has been a wonderful time for me. I’ve learned a few things about myself, people in general and more about other cultures.
In November of 2003 I quit my job at Broadway Christian Church for a variety of reasons and that freedom loaned itself to the opportunity to take a class in web design. I strongly felt that we needed a website and am pleased to have had the opportunity to donate my skills and knowledge for this effort. I thoroughly enjoy working on the website and I hope you enjoy viewing it. It’s full of pictures, information and news. If at any time you have suggestions or comments about it, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss it with you.
As President, I had the wonderful opportunity to assist in the planning of a group of young performers from China. They were in Wichita in late September of this year. Their visit gave me experiences that I never imagined for myself and I enjoyed each and every moment.
During my term as President, we had official and un-official visits from Cancun, Tlalnepantla, Orléans and the Henan Province of China. We also had visits to Orléans, Tlalnepantla and Kaifeng, and sent a group of young students to Cancun.
Our Cancun project received an award from Sister Cities International in July, and I was fortunate enough to attend the award ceremony in Ft. Worth.
The highlight of my term was without a doubt my recent trip to Kaifeng for the 22nd Annual Chrysanthemum Festival. We left Wichita on Oct. 15 and I returned on the 22nd, a day before the rest of the delegation. China is such a magical place and that having been my second time to visit, was even more rewarding than the first time. My first time was an eye opening experience to enjoy the beauty of the country. This time I enjoyed the beauty of the people and their desire to know more about us and their willingness to share themselves with us.
I look forward to the coming months and years as a member of Wichita Area Sister Cities and all that it has to offer. I see great things happening and I’m excited about being part of it.
I strongly urge you to become a more active member in 2005. We need your support and ideas. This is your organization and it needs your help. I’m certain that the bicyclists from Tlalnepantla will return for the River Festival for the third year in a row, and we will also celebrate our 20th Anniversary of our twinning with Kaifeng, China. It promises to be another eventful year. Please be there with us when it all happens. Share in the excitement, you’ll be glad you did.
Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to serve as President of this world class organization. It has been a great honor for me.
Sincerely,
Peggy Bennett