Barbara Honig
Approximately 2 weeks ago, Culver City said good bye to a delegation visiting from our sister city of Iksan, South Korea. The delegation included the Vice Mayor, the President of their City Council, 2 other Council members and city staff, eight people in total, 4 women and 4 men. They arrived on a Friday at noon and left at about the same time the following Wednesday. They were not here on a vacation. They came to learn about Culver City and the immediate surrounding area, to share our cultures with one another and mostly to further develop the relationship between our two cities, who have been sister cities since 1983. The delegation was hosted by the Culver City Sister City Committee with major support from our city staff and City Council. As President of the Culver City Sister City Committee, I could not have been more pleased with the exchange experience and the wonderful group of volunteers who helped put it together.
The committee that organized and shepherded the delegation did an amazing job of developing an itinerary and program that met the needs of the delegation and showcased our city. From visiting our Senior Center on that very first day, to learning about and commerce at the Westfield Culver City, to visiting city departments, Sony Studios, the Getty, the Gene Autry Museum and the Korean Cultural Center located in neighboring Los Angeles, and more, our Korean friends received an excellent overview of our community and our neighbors. They were presented to the City Council, formal messages were expressed, and they also had the opportunity to have more personal conversations with our Councilmembers throughout their visit. Our Korean guests also met with other key members of our community including school officials and representatives of our county and state elected officials as well as the student leadership of Culver City High School. We shared music and dance with each other, with members of our student delegation who had been to Iksan last summer singing a favorite Korean song on their very first night in Culver City and experiencing traditional song and dance from members of their delegation. Those of you who follow us on Facebook were able to view these cultural exchanges through social media.
I share this much detail because I believe it is important for our community to understand that the exchanges sponsored through the Culver City Sister City Committee to our sister cities, whether we send a delegation there or receive a delegation from our sister city here, are much more than a jaunt to a foreign country. Our two public events were held on Saturday night and then on Monday night and many community members had the opportunity to speak with our guests in an informal and comfortable setting. They asked questions of us as we did of them. For example, did you know that their city council consists of 24 members? Certainly glad that’s not something we have in common, that must be one heck of a meeting! Actually they are divided up into 3 different groups that are responsible for different areas of community management and needs and meet separately. That’s not to say that all travel isn’t beneficial because I am of the opinion that visiting different cultures, even on a vacation, helps break down barriers and develops relationships unless you’re at a beach resort where you never see the local area or people. So as other organizations in our community develop trips abroad, I wholeheartedly support them, but the delegations through the Culver City Sister City Committee to our 4 sister cities is definitely not a vacation.
In July of 2010, ten of us from Culver City were on a delegation to our sister city of Lethbridge, Canada. We spent a very full five days visiting historical sites and museums, experiencing their culture (yes, they have a different culture than we do), and being taken to some of the most beautiful locations in the vicinity of Lethbridge. The most exciting aspect of the experience was that the Lethbridge Twinning Society paired us up with community members who hosted us for the duration of our Lethbridge visit. Living with an individual/family and having the opportunity to have personal dialogue and experiences with them was the highlight of the delegation visit for me and one of the distinctions between going on vacation and being part of a delegation. Prior to leaving Culver City, most of the delegation decided to develop an itinerary and vacation together in the surrounding area after our delegation visit to Lethbridge. We spent some time in Calgary, attended the famous Calgary Stampede and some of our Lethbridge hosts came up to Calgary to attend with us. We also went on to Banff and the Columbia Icefields, one of the most amazing locations I had ever visited, notwithstanding the fact that we were in a snow blizzard in the middle of July! We were treated like royalty by our Canadian hosts while in Lethbridge, including a reception with the Mayor and representatives from their City Council and interviews with the local media. It is truly an experience I will never forget and I know that I have a connection with Lethbridge that is quite different than the many cities throughout the U.S. and the world that I’ve had the opportunity to visit. Lethbridge will always be my second home. I like to think that our Korean guests consider Culver City to be their second home. That bond creates a difference in the way we view each other. We feel more responsible for our actions and how they might affect others.
In March, Culver City will be hosting the 49th annual U.S./México Sister Cities Association national conference and delegates will be visiting from different cities in California and other states as well as from Mexico. We will again be showcasing our city as we meet people from other communities and learn that the world is really a very small place. Everyone wants to live in peace and when you get to know someone personally, the affects of war and destruction on people, even thousands of miles away become personal. We exemplified that in our joint fundraising with our Japanese sister city of Kaizuka for Japan relief after the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year.
I welcome any of you to join us as we plan for the U.S./Mexico conference. Let me know if you’d like more information and go to our website and friend us on Facebook. We are always looking for people to serve on our 4 sister city subcommittees. Kaizuka is now planning the long-time marathon exchange, having just selected a male and female marathon runner from Culver City to go in February and participate in their Senshu marathon and in March we will be hosting a male and female runner from Kaizuka who will be participating in the L.A. Marathon. The Kaizuka committee is also starting the outreach for our middle school student delegation to Kaizuka in the summer 2012. The Iksan subcommittee will be having a meeting right after the holidays to review the recent delegation visit and to develop programming based on discussions with our Korean guests prior to their departure.
I invite readers to comment and share some of your experiences as part of a Culver City Sister City delegation as well during your own travels. We learn not only from our personal experiences, but from others as well. I always tell friends that I travel vicariously with them wherever they go. Bon Voyage!
Barbara Honig is the President of the Culver City Sister City Committee and the Former President of the Culver City School Board.
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