Los Altos Sister Cities spreads local goodwill worldwide

By Robin Shepherd, Special to the Town Crier

Former Los Altos mayor Kris Casto, center, gets caught up with enthusiastic students while visiting Shih Lin, Taiwan.

If you like to travel and enjoy meeting people from other countries, you can do both through Los Altos Sister Cities Inc. (LASCI). Today, more than 100 Los Altans are actively involved in a variety of social, educational and cultural exchange programs with Los Altos’ official sister cities: Bendigo, Australia; Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic of Russia; Shih Lin, Taiwan; and Rustington, England.

LASCI is currently formalizing a new relationship with Bassano, a city just north of Venice, Italy. Delegates from Bassano are expected to visit Los Altos in the summer.

Los Altos began its involvement with Sister Cities in the mid-1980s largely through the vision and efforts of former Los Altos Mayor King Lear, along with Jane Reed, Roger Eng and the late Terry Cullinane, all of whom have served as city officials during the past two decades.

“Terry brought us together, and we started the program from scratch,” said Lear. “Several of us had been to Australia and loved it, so we recruited students in the Los Altos School District and kicked off a big letter-writing campaign with citizens of Bendigo. Friendships quickly began to develop. It was Jane Reed who traveled to Bendigo, met with city officials there, and helped formalize the relationship.”

Bendigo is located about 200 miles northwest of Melbourne on the northern fringe of the Great Dividing Range in the state of Victoria. Its gold production made it the richest city in the world in the 1880s. Today, the city of 89,000 people has the distinction of being, by its own account, the second highest producing goldfield in Australia and the seventh largest in the world.

“Bendigo is an extremely hospitable and pleasant place to visit,” said Lear, “and its Sister City program is very organized.” Lear has been to Bendigo several times and panned for gold in one of the city’s active, working mines, many of which lie hundreds of feet beneath the city. Bendigo’s landscape has been compared with that of the Sierra foothills. The city has preserved much of its historic Victorian architecture as well as artifacts from Chinese elements of its heritage.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower founded Sister Cities International (SCI) in 1956. After witnessing the alienation of peoples in times of war, Eisenhower believed a people-to-people, citizen diplomacy initiative would help establish meaningful and lasting global connections.

By SCI’s definition, a sister city, county, prefecture, province, region or state relationship is a broad-based, officially approved, long-term partnership between two communities. The British call it “twinning.” The partnership can involve activities oriented to business, education or cultural exchange. SCI recognizes, registers and coordinates community-to-community linkages, currently representing over 2,100 communities in 122 countries worldwide.

LASCI’s board members facilitate programs for individual and group travel to sister cities as well as hosting international guests visiting Los Altos. People of all ages and from all walks of life participate in Sister Cities programs.

“Students are our best ambassadors,” said Phyllis Semple, co-president of Los Altos Sister Cities. “They come here as ambassadors of their native countries, and they return home as ambassadors of America.”

According to co-president Pat Farrell, “One of our past presidents, Dick Hasenpflug, was instrumental in establishing our relationship with Syktyvkar. Several years ago, two Russian students stayed with our family during the summer and held jobs with local merchants as part of the Foothill College International Work Experience Program. They were like extended family, and called us their American parents.” After graduating from school and launching their careers at the Teachers Institute in Syktyvkar, both young women recently returned to the United States and visited the Farrells and other LASCI members again.

When two cities are considering a sister city relationship, the respective local representatives review the opportunity and put it to a vote. They exchange official proclamation documents, and each city gives the other a representative gift.

“A funny thing happened when we went to Rustington to make our new sister city relationship official,” said Semple. “We presented them with a painting of the Los Altos Town Square clock created by local artist Jim McGuinness. All of a sudden Rustington’s city clerk, Don Rogers, burst out laughing. As it turned out, Rustington had also commissioned a picture of its town clock as its official gift to Los Altos.”

Semple hosted Rogers and his family at her Los Altos home. A year later, Rogers invited Semple and her husband to stay at his home and attend his daughter’s wedding.

Once a relationship is established, each community looks for ways to create shared experiences, such as opening their homes, inviting visitors to community events and providing tours of local attractions.

“We’ve had the pleasure of taking many international visitors to Napa, San Francisco, Monterey and Carmel,” said Farrell. According to Farrell, one Russian visitor was all smiles when she donned a pair of sunglasses and accompanied him on a scenic drive down the coast along Highway 1 in his vintage 1966 Mustang.

That same young Russian student, who worked at Linden Tree during her summer in Los Altos, wrote of her American experience, “Traveling enlarges your outlook on life. Now I see life through the eyes of Americans. I have had three memorable months of my life, in these months I have done and experienced more than in my entire life (in Russia). I have grown personally a lot, my whole concept of life has changed. I have borrowed a lot from the American standard of living, I will use it in my life and my future family.”

Rustington is located on the English coast south of London, in an area of Sussex the British affectionately refer to as “the sun belt.” During the summer of 2003, LASCI member Barbara Roark hosted a visitor from Rustington who had taught survival tactics to soldiers in the Royal Air Force.

Music has been described as a great equalizer or common bond among people around the world. For Farrell, it proved to be true in England. “We were touring the magnificent Arundel Castle, built in the 11th century, when King Lear (mayor of Los Altos at the time) suddenly began playing his harmonica. It was hauntingly beautiful, and everyone stopped to listen.

“When Bendigo representatives asked if they could send their pro basketball team, known as the Braves, to Los Altos for a visit in the 1990s, we not only hosted the team, but we put together a team of our own and enjoyed a little lighthearted competition,” said Farrell.

In 1998, Los Altos Sister City members formed the first delegation to travel to Shih Lin, a district of Taipei, Taiwan. “They put us up at The Grand Hotel and treated us almost like celebrities, offering us personal guides and following us everywhere with their TV cameras, and we made the newspapers almost daily,” said Semple. Describing the countryside beyond Shih Lin, Semple said, “It looks like Kauai.”

Roger Eng initiated the Shih Lin relationship, and former board member Bill Sun, a dual citizen of the United States. and Taiwan, helped the relationship blossom.

While in Taipei, Los Altans dined at the home of a prestigious banker, stayed with a distributor for Rolex, visited a Buddhist temple and participated onstage in a major town parade.

“When Taipei sent a choir of 30 women to Los Altos, I hosted a wine and cheese reception for them in my home,” said Semple. “We were very impressed by their singing talent, and they just couldn’t get over how luxurious our bathrooms are!”

LASCI members actively maintain connections with each sister city. Earlier this year, two Taiwanese students visited Los Altos and spent several weeks attending high school classes. “It was their first trip abroad,” said Farrell. “They were nervous about the language barrier but said everyone here was incredibly helpful.”

During the 2003 holiday season, LASCI will display a tree decorated with mementos and flags, which coincidentally all happen to be red, white and blue, from Los Altos’ four sister cities, at the Los Altos History Museum.

On the third Thursday of January, at the annual LASCI meeting and show, Lawrence Chu of Chef Chu’s will provide a delicious meal for those attending.

This spring, LASCI member families will host two students visiting from Rustington. According to Farrell, LASCI members have an open invitation from Shih Lin to visit again.

“Just as Eisenhower said, the people-to-people connection always works. Perceptions change and stereotypes melt away, both for us as Americans and for our international friends,” Semple said. “Being involved with Sister Cities enables each of us to contribute to peace, one person at a time.”

For more information, call 947-2608 or logon to www.losaltossistercities.com.