GRANTS PASS SISTER CITY COMMITTEE
Exchange Program Highlights, 1990-2007
Summer, 1990
The first official delegation from Grants Pass visits Rubtsovsk. Mayors Candace Bartow and Lev Korshunov sign the Sister City agreement. Others in this delegation are Ron Brown, Channel 12 TV news reporter; Bruce Bartow, county planning director; Alayne Switzer, librarian; Mark Kellenbeck, businessman; Vera Quimby, retired teacher; high-school student body presidents Mike Yunker and Jeff Lippert; and student Emilie Bartow.
Spring, 1991
Three Grants Pass students, Ricco Patterson, Brian Shelander, and Gordon Mehterian, accompanied by Judo Patterson, take food aid to Rubtsovsk. Rubtsovsk students Jana and Alexei live in Grants Pass for two months, attend GPHS, and visit many local classrooms. Cindy Patterson and Glen Lewman take a hiking/rafting trip with Rubtsovsk friends and meet with Rubtsovsk leaders to plan their first official visit to Grants Pass
Summer, 1991
Grants Pass river rafters join Rubtsovsk rafters on the Katoun River. They make friendships with doctors, elected officials, students, and businessmen. Participants are Mark Kellenbeck, Jeff Anderson, Tom Bange, Eugene LaRosa, Len and Pat Ramp, Greg Taylor, Kelly Taylor, and Tom Satterthwaite.
August 20, 1991
The first official delegation from Rubtsovsk arrives in Grants Pass on the second day of the attempted coup d’etat. It was a tense few days. Participants were Mayor Korshunov, and representatives of the education system, trade unions, and
factories.
Spring, 1992
Grants Pass community raises funds for medical supplies and food. Rubtsovsk Sister City Committee distributes 17 crates delivered by Cindy Patterson.
May, 1992
Grants Pass delegation helps celebrate Rubtsovsk’s 100th anniversary: Bruce Marks, Dick Bamford, Joe Kauzlarich, Vera Quimby, and Bobbi Kidder. Bobbi begins a drama project, “Hands Across the Ocean.”
August, 1992
“Teachers’ Exchange” of 14 (also including a doctor, a student, a homemaker, a city administrator, and two businessmen) establish many friendships with Rubtsovsk educators. Participants: Gwen Jacobsen, Mary Edwards, Mary Ann Kightlinger, Nancy Hitchcock, Edith Young, Marla Flaherty, Joe Cirina, Mark Kellenbeck, Dotti Tryk, Dick and Anita Stryker, Bernie, Darlene, and Ryan Hill.
September, 1992
Eight Rubtsovsk businesspeople visit Grants Pass businesses: Semyon, Sasha, Lubov, Vitaly, Sasha, Olga, and Marina. Tanya of “Hands Across the Ocean” comes to plan.
October, 1992
Six students from three area high schools, accompanied by retired teacher Carl Rhodes, visit Rubtsovsk schools: Amy Jo Medina, Brian Shelander, Gennifer Martel, Jesse Sartain, Janette Ehlig, and Monty Olsen
March, 1993
Three Rubtsovsk teachers—Tamara Zharkova, Ludmila Petric, and Marina Kovolyova—spend a month in Grants Pass, participating in local school classrooms.
May, 1993
Eight Rubtsovsk citizens, primarily educators, comprise the “official” delegation to Grants Pass. Bearing hundreds of pen-pal letters and youth artwork, they visit many schools and organizations. Valentina Tibekina, head of the Rubtsovsk schools, was accompanied by Irina Volgina, Nadezhda Ribina, Alexander Nikolaev, Lyubov Kosinova, Victoria Agrizkova, Elena Minina, and Lyubov Nazarenka.
August, 1993
“Hands Across the Ocean” troupe from Grants Pass performs with their counterparts in Rubtsovsk. Included are Bobbi Kidder, Loraine Sherman, and Samae Horner. Ron Brown of Channel 12 accompanied the group and produced a new video of Rubtsovsk.
September, 1993
Carl Rhodes of Grants Pass lives for three months in Rubtsovsk, teaching about Native American cultures in schools.
October, 1993
Rubtsovsk “Hands Across the Ocean” troupe of five performs at RCC. Members include Vladimir Volkov and Andrei Loskutov.
1994
Several Grants Pass people make special trips to our Sister City in 1994. Mike Rogers of NVHS lives and studies Russian in Rubtsovsk for a semester. His American parents, Steve and Serena Rogers, visit his Russian family. Cindy and Jenna Patterson take donated supplies to the Rubtsovsk Institute for the Blind. Social worker Bob Morse spends four months sharing family and youth therapy techniques with colleagues. Carl Rogers returns to teach about the American West in the pedagogical institute. Several Rubtsovsk citizens visit friends in Grants Pass during these two years, strengthening existing friendships and making new friends.
January, 1994
Gwen Jacobsen organizes a month-long show of Rubtsovsk children’s art at Grants Pass Museum of Art.
May, 1994
Second “Educational Delegation” visits Grants Pass. Educators Ivan Korushev, Victor Brunner, Galina Kolosova, and Rifor Valentin accompany Valentina Vesnina, assistant chief of the Rubtsovsk schools.
February, 1995
Yuri Ovidenko, founder of the first independent Rubtsovsk TV station, is a guest of Channel 12 in Medford.
May, 1995
The third “Educational Delegation” comes to Grants Pass. We host Vitali Yushkevich, Ludmila Trunova, Mariya Tyshkevich, Mariya Pestereva, and Lyubov Yamishchikova.
Winter, 1996
Mike Rogers returns to Rubtsovsk to help plan thematic youth exchange.
July, 1996
Five high-school students and teacher help establish “English Language & Culture Center” in Rubtsovsk city library. Teacher Barbara Paulson accompanied Jason Spears, Breana Verser, Emily Baumgardner, Dana Ponte, and Jared Hooper on the first thematic youth exchange.
August, 1996
Ten Americans take a three-week trans-Russia trip from Khabarovsk to St. Petersburg. Two Rubtsovsk friends, Tamara Zharkova and Marina Kaiser, help plan the train trip across Siberia, and they meet and accompany the Americans. They spend five days in Rubtsovsk before touring Moscow and St. Petersburg. From Grants Pass were Kathryn Brooks, Inis Joiner, Ruth Pepple, Vera Quimby, Christina Swanson, Nancy Hitchcock, and Dick & Anita Strycker. From Idaho came Hilda Goddard and Marjorie Carey to meet their Rubtsovsk cousins for the first time.
Winter, 1996-1997
Sister Cities International awards grant for thematic youth exchange. Carl Rhodes returns to teach in Rubtsovsk and to help plan youth exchange.
April & May, 1997
The Rubtsovsk youth delegation of 17 youth and two teachers establishes a “Russian Language & Cultural Center” at this library. Small groups visit school classrooms throughout the county to tell about their home. Over thirty Josephine County families open their homes to these young people.
July, 1997
Five high-school students and two retired teachers participate in the Thematic Youth Exchange to Rubtsovsk, adding more books to the Cultural Center at the library. Students Michael Brune, Jared Hooper, Emily Pesek, Crystal Garcia, and Charissa Bogdanov were accompanied by Ruth Pepple and Nancy Hitchcock.
October, 1997
Mayor Gordon Anderson and Larry and Linda Halstead are guests of Rubtsovsk Deputy Mayor Alexander Popov. They visit dental clinics, and meet with several priests and pastors to form ties between the churches in Rubtsovsk and in Grants Pass.
July, 1998
Sister Cities International awards “Best Youth Program for Small Cities” to Grants Pass and Rubtsovsk at the annual convention.
September, 1998 to February, 1999
Olesya Borzenko studies at Grants Pass High School for one semester. She is the first secondary student from Rubtsovsk to be a full-time Grants Pass student.
August, 2000
Tenth-Anniversary Grants Pass five-member delegation spends one week in Rubtsovsk, kick-starting exchanges after 1998 Russian economic disaster. Members: Karen Paxton, Ruth Pepple, Joanne Stumpf, Don & Carolyn Rice. Karen visits several hospitals.
May-June, 2001
Rev. Clay and Jeri Johnson visit Bokov family in Rubtsovsk. They hosted Gena Bokov in Grants Pass in 1990.
June, 2001
Rubtsovsk eight-member delegation visits Grants Pass for three weeks. It includes five directors of the large tractor factory, one small businessman, and the directors of the Rubtsovsk branchs of the state bank and state university.
July-August, 2001
Vitaly Yamshchikov, university students, spends two months in Grants Pass, attends ESL classes at RCC. His mother Luba, who came in 1993, visits for two weeks.
September, 2001
Alexei Volkov, member of 1997 youth exchange, visits host family in Grants Pass.
May, 2002
Gwen Jacobsen, Nancy Hitchcock, and Carolyn Rice, retired English teachers and former Rubtsovsk delegates, work with English language students and teachers in several universities and institutes.
September, 2002
Lena Lukyanova, member of 1997 youth exchange, visits friends in Grants Pass.
January-June, 2003.
Inna Vasilevna and Nadya Lovrova, secondary students selected by Rubtsovsk Sister City Committee, study spring semester at Grants Pass High School, under Sister Cities International J-1 visa program.
May-June, 2004
Heart-to-Heart Medical Delegation to Rubtsovsk: Rita and Tom Turek, Kitty Waud, Nancy Miller, Cindy Patterson, and Ron Brown.
May, 2005
Heart-to-Heart Medical Delegation to Grants Pass: Elena Frolova, Elena Nefedova, Lyuda Dmitrieva, and Anastasia Poperechnaya.
April, 2006
Public Safety Delegation to Rubtsovsk: Brian Robinson, Brian Pike, Tony Strickland, Clay and Huong Johnson.
June, 2006
Youth delegation to Rubtsovsk: Tamara. Garrett, Breanne, Emily, and Lianna, accompanied by Ruth Pepple and Rachel Parker.
October, 2006
Open World social services delegation to Grants Pass: Vladimir Lazarev, Marina Kryukova, Yelena Purichi, Yelena Saidova, and Marina Doroshchenko (facilitator).
March, 2007.
Youth delegation to Grants Pass: Natasha Vorona, Natasha Kobzeva, Galina Kutdusova, and Victoria Kovalyova, accompanied by Natalia Chernukha.
May, 2007.
University English teachers to Grants Pass: Liudmila Starchenko, Irina Yazykova, Svetlana Sevastyanova, and Nikita Sevastyanov.
October, 2007
Open World healthcare delegation to Grants Pass: Irina Abramova, Vadim Mirko, Tamara Sakhabutdinova, Tatiana Tsareva, and Yelizaveta Pyanzina (facilitator).