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SISTER CITIES: USA - RUSSIA
OUR MISSION: GRANTS PASS, OREGON &
RUBTSOVSK, RUSSIA - ENRICHING LIVES, EXPANDING HORIZONS, MAKING A
DIFFERENCE
AND BUILDING COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS WORLDWIDE. OUR
BOARD MEETS 5:30, SECOND THURSDAY EACH MONTH,
Community Outreach Room at OHMS (Oregon Health Management) Bldg. You are welcome. Parking is available in lot
at corner
of 5th and H Streets, across the street from Sunshine Health Foods.
FEBRUARY 11 ANNUAL SISTER CITY
WINTERFEST Celebration at GP Museum of Art on G Street. 6-8 pm
Suggested donation $5 pp. INVITATION:
WINTERFEST 2010 INVITE.pdf
DECEMBER
2009 Sister City was an Official Entrant in Christmas Trees/Winterfest
Event at the Bear Hotel. Carolyn Rice was
the coordinator of this project. The committee included Andrea
Dougan, the artist who made the "Snow Maiden" figure
for the top of the tree, and the doves; Betty and Glen Erps, Lena
Green, and Ruth Pepple.
See Christmas Tree photo below.
Other Recent Events:
An Evening of Friendship, Thursday August 6, 2009 6:30 pm at the Fruitdale
Grange,
corner of Parkdale Drive and Rogue River Highway.
OCTOBER 15, 2009: Annual Meeting was held at JJ Norths, Russian
music was provided.
Посмотреть сайт на русском языке
English-Russian translation by Dominic McIntyre
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GRANTS PASS-RUBTSOVSK ARE MEMBERS OF
SISTER CITIES INTERNATIONAL:
In 1956, President Eisenhower proposed a people-to-people program at a White House
conference.
Originally
a part of the National League of Cities,
Sister Cities International (SCI)
became a
separate,
nonprofit corporation
in 1967.
The Grants
Pass Sister City Committee was formed in 1990, after white-water rafters
from
the
two
cities
met at
an international competition during the late
years of the Cold War.
Candace
Bartow
and
Lev Korshunov, then
respectively
the mayors of Grants Pass
and Rubtsovsk,
signed
the
agreement in
1990,
"to
develop friendship
between people
of the
Soviet Union
and
the United
States
and to stimulate
economic
and cultural cooperation..."
Since then,
the sister city committees in Rubtsovsk and in Grants Pass have
facilitated
visits
of
over 200
citizens
between our cities. Pen and email
pals correspond; books
have been donated
to each other's
libraries;
special
sewing machines for the blind
and medical
supplies were
donated
and delivered, and
videotapes and gifts
have
been exchanged.
GRANTS PASS
SISTER CITY COMMITTEE MISSION:
To foster goodwill and
understanding between the cities of Rubtsovsk, Russia
and Grants Pass,
Oregon,
and to provide
a conduit for citizen exchange.
The Grants Pass Sister City Committee: a non-profit membership organization affiliated with Sister Cities International.
Our sister
city is Rubtsovsk, Russia, located in south central Siberia, three times
zones east
of
Moscow,
near
the
point where the borders of Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan and Russia meet.
It
has a population
of about
170,000
people. Founded in
the 1880s, it was built on the Siberian
steppe (plains), where rich
black
soil produces
wheat,
sunflowers (for cooking oil), and grazing
for dairy
cattle. Not far from
the
rugged Altai Mountains to the
south where
rich
mineral ores are
found, it became
a manufacturing
center in the mid-20th
century.
After WWII,
a large tractor factory became the major industry in Rubtsovsk. In the
1980's,
it
employed
about
22,000
people and provided housing, health
services, and cultural activities, for
its employees and
their families.
Rubtsovsk,
like other former Soviet cities, has experienced unbelievable changes over
the past
decade.
The people
active in sister city activities tell their
Grants Pass friends
that their sister city
connection has
many times
sustained their hope.
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OUR TWO BRIDGES...Rogue River & Alei River |
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MORE
Postcards
This website is maintained by the Grants Pass
Sister City Committee, Grants Pass, Oregon, USA
Webmaster Judy Gosnell
Web hosting originally provided by Mark Kellenbeck,
now provided by Grants Pass company VISP, with
many thanks to Mark for making this happen.Photos above from Rubtsovsk web site
Background map © Defense Mapping Agency
Evening Bells
MUSIC (VECHERNIY ZVON) Works well with WINDOWS MEDIA
PLAYER.
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THE "RUSSIAN
WINTER" CHRISTMAS TREE 2009 at
the Bear Hotel
Christmas tree decoration team coordinated by Carolyn Rice.
CHRISTMAS IN RUSSIA, contributed by Carolyn
Rice
In Russia, after a long period of communist leadership, Christmas is
taking root as a
major holiday. Now Christmas is full of spiritual meaning and is
celebrated both at
home and at church. Christmas service is one of the most beautiful and
important
services in the year. On Christmas Day, hymns and carols are sung. People
gather
in churches which have been decorated with Christmas trees, or yelka,
flowers and
colored lights. Most Russian families cannot imagine the holiday season
without a Christmas tree
in the house. Children enjoy decorating the trees, and the somewhat hectic
New Year
preparations, and receive the richest gifts of all members of the family.
Both New Year night and Christmas are
marked by festive dinners. If you were to visit a family for New Year’s
dinner you would be surprised to see that even the
poorest of families would have a beautifully set table with a lot of good
food. Most Russians believe that
the way you meet the New Year sets the tone for the whole year lying
ahead. Lena Green
Instead of Santa Claus, the character most often associated with the
holiday season in Russia is Father Frost.
When he makes his appearance he is often accompanied by the Snow Maiden.
Both of them are figures from Russian folk tales.
Father Frost is actually called Grandfather Frost, but the name Father
Frost is more euphonious in English, so that is the name
he is given in translation. He has a long, long white beard. He wears a
long, fur lined coat, a peaked hat like a bishop's, and
shoes that turn up at the toes. He carries a staff with a moon or a star
at its tip, and makes his appearance at New Year's
celebrations, carrying a pack full of toys for children. After giving out
the toys, he passes around one of his gloves,
and into it the people put slips of paper on which they have written their
worries and concerns for the coming year.
When Old Father Frost leaves, he takes all those worries away with him.
The Snow Maiden, the story goes, is the magical child of a poor woodcutter
and his wife who were childless,
though they wanted a child very much. One day they made a figure out of
snow, and while they were admiring
her and wishing she was their daughter, she came to life.
