sistercity_history

The first official delegation from Grants Pass visits Rubtsovsk. During this exchange, Mayor
Candice Bartow and Mayor Lev Korshunov sign the official Sister City agreement. Other
members of this delegation included Ron Brown from KDRV-Channel 12 News; Bruce Bartow,
the county planning director; Alayne Switzer, librarian; Mark Kellenbeck, businessman;
Vera Quimby, retired teacher; as well as high school student body presidents Mike Yunker
and Jeff Lippert and student Emilie Bartow.

Three Grants Pass students, Ricco Patterson, Brian Shelander, and Gordon Mehterian,
accompanied by Judo Patterson, take food aid to Rubtsovsk.

Rubtsovsk students Jane Zaikova and Alexei Agrizkov live in Grants Pass for two months,
where they 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 visits to Grants Pass.

Grants Pass river rafters join Rubtsovsk rafters on the Katoun River . They make friendships
with doctors, elected officials, students and business men. Participants in this trip are Mark
Kellenbeck, Jeff Anderson, Tom Bange, Eugene LaRosa, Len and Pat Ramp, Greg Taylor
and Tom Satterthwaite.

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.

Grants Pass community raises funds for medical supplies and food. As a result, the Rubtsovsk
Sister City Committee is able to distribute 17 crates delivered by Cindy Patterson.

Grants Pass delegations help celebrate Rubtsovsk's 100th anniversary. This delegation
includes: Bruce Marks, Bobbi Kidder, Dick Bamford, Joe Kauzlarich and Vera Quimby.

"Teachers' Exchange" of 14 (also including a doctor, a student, a homemaker, a city
administrator, and two businessmen) establish many friendships: Gwen Jacobsen, Mary
Edwards, Mary Anne Kightlinger, Nancy Hitchcock, Edith Young, Marla Flaherty, Joe Cirina,
Mark Kellenbeck, Dotti Tryk, Dick and Anita Stryker,
Bernie, Darlene, and Ryan Hill.

September

Eight Rubtsovsk businesspeople visit Grants Pass businesses: Semyon, Sasha, Lubov, Vitaly, Sasha, Olga, and Marina.

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.

Three Rubtsovsk teachers- Tamara Zharkova, Ludmila Petric,
and Marina Kovolyova- spend a month in Grants Pass, participating in local school classrooms

Eight Rubtsovsk citizens, primarily educators, comprise the official exchange delegation to
Grants Pass. Bearing hundreds of penpal letters and youth art work, they visit many schools
and organizations: Valentina Tibekina, Irina Volgina, Nadezda Ribina, Alexander Nikolaev,
Lyubov Kosinova, Victoria Agrizkova, Elena Minina, and Lyubov Nazarenka.

Hands Across the Ocean troupe from Grants Pass performs with their counterparts in Rubtsovsk. The Grants Pass troupe is made up of Bobbi Kidder, Loraine Sherman, and Samae Horner.

Carl Rhodes of Grants Pass lives for three weeks in Rubtsovsk, teaching about Native American
cultures in schools.

Rubtsovsk "Hands across the Ocean" troupe of five performs at RCC. Members include Vladimir Volkov
and Andrei Loskutov.

Mike Rogers was in Russia from Early November 1993 to September 1994 and attended the better part
of two semesters and the entire summer in Russia.

Mike Rogers of NVHS (see 1993) lives and studies Russian in Rubtsovsk for a semester. His American parents,
Steve and Serena Rogers, visits his Russian family, the Landes.

Cindy and Jenna Patterson take donated equipment and supplies to Rubtsovsk Institute for the Blind.

Social worker Bob Morse spends four months sharing family and youth therapy techniques with
colleagues.

Carl Rhodes 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.

Gwen Jacobsen organizes a month-long show of Rubtsovsk children's art at the Grants Pass
Museum of Art.

Second "Educational Delegation" visits Grants Pass: Ivan Korushev, Victor Brunner,
Galina Kolosova, and Rifor Valentin accompany Valentina Vesnina, assistant chief of
Rubtsovsk schools.

Yuri Ovidenko, founder of the first independent Rubtsovsk TV station, is a guest of KDRV-Channel 12
in Medford.

The third "Education Delegation" comes to Grants Pass: Vitali Yushkevich, Ludmila Trunova,
Mariya Tyshkevich, Mariya Pestereva, and Lyubov Yamishchikova.

Summer of 1995: Mike Rogers' family hosted his Russian host family (the Landas) for a month as a Sister
City sponsored exchange. From the Summer of 1995 to the Summer of 1996 (a whole year) Vlad Landa,
the boy who Mike lived with, stayed with Mike's family and attended classes at Rogue Community College.

July
Five high school students and a teacher help establish "English language & Culture Center"
in the Rubtsovsk City Library: Teacher Barbara Paulson accompanies Jason Spears, Breana Verser,
Emily Baumgardner, Dana Ponte, and others.

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: Kathryn Brooks, Inis Joiner, Ruth Pepple, Vera Quimby,
Christina Swanson, Nancy Hitchcock, Dick and Anita Strycker. From Idaho came Hilda Goddard and
Marjorie Carey to meet their Rubtsovsk cousins for the first time.

The Rubtsovsk youth delegation of 17 youths and two teachers establishes a "Russian Language
& Culture Center" in the Josephine County 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 and their teachers.

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. Teachers Nancy Hitchcock and Ruth Pepple accompanied students Michael Brune, Emily Pesek, Crystal Garcia, and Charissa Bogdanov.

Mayor Gordon Anderson and Larry and Linda Halstead are guests of Rubtsovsk Deputy Mayor
Alexander Popov. They meet several priests and pastors to form ties between the churches in
Rubtsovsk and Grants Pass.

July, 1998
Sister Cities International awards "Best Youth Program for Small Cities" to Grants Pass and
Rubtsovsk at the annual convention for the Thematic Youth Exchange.

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.

      2000

   August
Tenth-Anniversary Grants Pass five-member delegation spends one week in Rubtsovsk, kick-starting
exchange program after 1998 Russian economic disaster. See photo below: vase presented by Rubtsovsk.
Click on photo to enlarge.

          May-June
   Rev. Clay and Jeri Johnson visit Bokov family in Rubtsovsk, whom they had hosted in Grants Pass
   in 1990

          July—August
   Vitaly Yamshchikov, university student, spends two months in Grants Pass, taking ESL classes at the
   community college.

September
Alexei Volkov, member of 1997 youth exchange, visits host family in Grants Pass.

      May
   Three retired teachers from Grants Pass (Nancy Hitchcock, Gwen Jacobsen, Carolyn Rice) return to
   Rubtsovsk to work with English language students and teachers in several universities and institutes.
   Shown in the picture below at Rubtsovsk Rotary Club- V. Mashikov, Pres.

September
Lena Lukyanova, member of 1997 youth exchange, visits friends in Grants Pass.

          January-June
    Two secondary students study spring semester at Grants Pass High School, under SCI J-1 visa
    program: Inna Vasileva and Nadya Lovrova.