Sister Cities News

The Sister Cities Board of Directors recently approved an agreement with partners in our sister city of Magdeburg, Germany for the presentation of a month-long German Christmas Market in Nashville's Hall of Fame Park during the 2008 holiday season. Modeled on the centuries-old German tradition, the Christmas Market will offer German holiday food and drink specialities, authentic handcrafts, and craft demonstrations, along with a daily schedule of holiday music and entertainment. For more information, visit the Christmas Market website at www.nashvillechristmasmarket.com.

Sister Cities is pleased to welcome Monica Mackie as our new Executive Director. Mackie follows Gina Guglielmi, who stepped down at the end of February after serving in this position for four years. Since the beginning of March, Mackie has assisted in organizing and coordinating a number of activities including a delegation visit from Belfast and a membership event honoring musicians from Mendoza. The Executive Director is responsible for the daily operations of the organization, including communication with our members, and Mackie is already filling this role with great energy and efficiency.

On Monday, February 11, 2008, Nashville, Tennessee and Crouy, France officially became International Friendship Cities. Nashvillian Steve Schmoldt and SCN Vice President Rita Richardson traveled to France for the ceremony.

The proposal to twin Nashville and Crouy was initiated by Schmoldt in October 2007. While doing research on a fallen WWII soldier from Nashville named Charles M. Peal, Schmoldt found that Captain Peal had died while flying a mission over the small town of Crouy in northern France. Schmoldt also discovered that the townspeople risked their own safety to give Captain Peal a proper burial.

After the war, the town erected a monument in his memory and named a street after him. To paraphrase Schmoldt, our two towns are linked for eternity thanks to this brave young man who gave his life for our freedom.

As part of their visit to the small town, Schmoldt and Richardson were given the opportunity to interview six townspeople who witnessed the pilot’s plane crash. Their ages at the time ranged from thirteen to twenty-one. It was a touching moment for everyone present.

One French gentleman, Georges Carpentier, had actually taken Captain Peal’s remains to the building that served as the town morgue. He asked Richardson, who was acting interpreter, to make sure Captain Peal’s family and all Nashvillians know that he was given a very dignified funeral. He explained that the townspeople woke up very early for the funeral and were very quiet, so as not to awaken their occupiers.

At the signing ceremony, Richardson read the mayoral proclamation in French. Both English and French versions of the proclamation bear the signature of Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and Crouy Mayor Bernard Pitois. Gifts were exchanged on behalf of the two municipalities as well as the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, where Schmoldt is currently employed.

As the proclamation declares, this relationship "will remind all the citizens of Crouy and Nashville that the personal and national ties that bind us all together are much stronger than any challenges to peace and liberty that we may face individually or collectively."

Click here to read the Tennessean story on the Crouy-Nashville Friendship City relationship.

On November 7 a large ceremonial bronze pot was presented to Mayor Karl Dean for the city of Nashville as a symbol of Taiyuan-Nashville Sister City friendship. The pot is a replica of an ancient bronze 3-legged pot unearthed in 1988 from Zhaojianzi Tomb at the foot of ancient Jinyang Dragon Mountain of Taiyuan. Nashville’s tripod pot is No. 56 of 2500 replicas made in 2003 for the celebration of Taiyuan City’s 2500-year anniversary. It is a gift of the Taiyuan City Government Culture Broadcast Bureau and Bureau Director Jian Jun DONG, who designed the replicas.

The presentation was made on behalf of the city of Taiyuan by Elsie Wang and David Wu, SCN President Douglas Berry, and SCN Taiyuan Committee co-chairs Tracy Dry Kane and Barbara Cobb. The bronze pot will be displayed prominently in City Hall to remind visitors of Nashville’s connection with Taiyuan.

Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province in north central China, became Nashville's newest sister city in April 2007, when the two mayors signed a partnership charter. Click here to view a video about Taiyuan and the partnership with Nashville.

In August the SCN Taiyuan Committee organized a send-off dinner for Major Wingate, who was moving to Taiyuan to play basketball for the Chinese professional team, Shanxi Yujun. Major is a former University of Tennessee basketball star and was the No. 2 player drafted in the Chinese top professional league this year. (You can learn more about the league and its teams at www.asia-basket.com/chn/chn.asp.) The Taiyuan Committee also helped Wingate and his family make contact with a local family in Taiyuan.

UPDATE: A musical connection between the two cities is planned--the 18-member Taiyuan Heping Ladies’ Band is being invited to come to Nashville September 10-19, 2008. The band, composed of young professional musicians, has been performing for the past three years in cities around China. They play both traditional Chinese music and Western songs. During their visit in Nashville, the band will provide performances open to the public, and will provide demonstrations at schools, universities, and public venues to promote cultural awareness in our community.

UPDATE: Nashville’s sister-city relationship with Taiyuan influenced Bill Wojasinski, Vice President of the International Tai Chi Chuan Symposium, and YANG Jun, a 6^th generation Yang-style Tai Chi Master from Taiyuan, to select Nashville as the site for the symposium. The Symposium will be held July 5-10, 2009, at Vanderbilt University. For more information, contact Bill at Taichisymposium@aol.com.

Wojasinski and Yang visited Nashville in November 2007 to talk with SCN and other organizations about the planned symposium. In the photo below, Master Yang (third from left) and Bill (far right) are shown with members of the Taiyuan Committee.

Mayor Bill Purcell led a three person delegation to Magdeburg from August 16 to 19. This was the Mayor's third visit (and sadly his last as mayor) to our German sister city. He was accompanied by Doug Berry, SCN President, and Board member, Bob Bogen. Highlights included a luncheon with Mark Scheland, the US Consul General in Leipzig, a boat ride on the Elbe River, lunch at Wanzleben castle with our friend, Fritz Kuehne, and a flight over the city in a World War II era bi-plane.

Sister Cities was privileged to support the Ulster Project again this summer in its hosting of a group of teenagers from Northern Ireland. The group toured Rock Island State Park on July 6, led by two of the park's naturalists, Corey and Rush. They first went to Twin Falls, exploring the area and playing on and under the waterfalls, and then moved on to the gorge area, where they jumped off cliffs in the very cold water and enjoyed lunch in the gorge. They then visited a warmer swimming hole and, finally, another falls with a 35-foot jump and more very cold water! After changing to dry clothes, Corey led the group on a tour of Big Bone Cave. The very hungry group had their fill at Ryan's restaurant on the way home.

Nine students from Nashville public and private high schools, accompanied by Dr. Laura Beasley of Father Ryan, spent most on the month of June in Argentina. Students lived with host families in the city of Mendoza at the foot of the Andes mountains and attended school during the day to improve their mastery of the Spanish language. "I could tell their improvement within the first week. That is what immersion does to your language skills", said Dr. Beasley. "Students were not afraid of making mistakes anymore and their fluency and comfort in the language showed." Students found that the warmth and affection of their host families and friends more than made up for Argentina's winter weather. The final three days of the trip were spent in Buenos Aires, known as "the Paris of South America" for its culture, art, and architecture.

Charlemos Spanish, the Spanish social conversation group of Sister Cities of Nashville, received one of the five Annual Noteworthy Awards presented by the Hispanic Nashville Notebook on January 15. The award recognized the program as "Noteworthy in Social Unity" for uniting Spanish speakers and learners and promoting "all things Hispanic." This is the inaugural year of the Hispanic Nashville Noteworthy Awards created by editor John Lamb. The awards were created to recognize “exceptional people, groups, events, and work in the Hispanic community in Nashville." Recipient were nominated by readers. “This award is shared by everyone who has ever attended Charlemos Spanish”, said Charlemos president, Elizabeth Worrell Braswell.

Nashville's first sister city celebrated the 15th anniversary of our partnership in December with a delegation visit led by Mayor Bill Purcell and Vice Mayor Howard Gentry. Commemoration activities included a reenactment of the charter signing, a performance by the Marionette Theater of the Nashville Public Library, and the opening of a Nashville Civil Rights Exhibit at the Caen Memorial for Peace by Professor Bobby L. Lovett of Tennessee State University.

Mayoral delegations from Belfast, Caen, and Magdeburg were welcomed by Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell for the beginning of the city's bicentennial celebrations on October 1. This was the first time that Nashville has hosted official visits from three of its sister cities at the same time. Delegations were led by Lord Mayor Pat McCarthy of Belfast, Mayor Brigitte Le Brethon of Caen, and Lord Mayor Lutz Trümper of Magdeburg.

On the occasion of the Nashville bicentennial, Georg von der Gablentz of Magdeburg's German-American Dialogue Center presented the city with an oak tree (pictured third from the left) for the new Magdeburg Greenway. This gift, complete with posters and t-shirts, reflects the creativity, warmth, and generosity of the Dialogue Center, and Mr. von der Gablentz in particular, in their consistently enthusiastic commitment to the Magdeburg-Nashville partnership. Nashvillians will hopefully enjoy the benefits of this kind gesture for many generations to come.