THEMATIC YOUTH EXCHANGE A GREAT SUCCESS
Seventeen
Rubtsovsk young people spent four weeks in and around Grants Pass in April
and May
as part of the first Sister City Thematic Youth Exchange. In July,
five Grants Pass youth spent three
weeks in Rubtsovsk. From North Valley
High School were Crystal Garcia and Charissa Bogdanov.
From Grants Pass High
School were Michael Brune and Emily Pesek. Jared Hooper, who also traveled
to Rubtsovsk in 1996, was the fifth member; Jared attends St. Mary's High
School in Medford.
These young
people worked on a project: Language and Cultural Centers in the Library. In
Grants Pass,
the Russian young people organized a display in the Josephine
County Main Branch and presented a
public program to acquaint our community
with Russian culture. The books they prepared for the library
will soon be
available for circulation. In addition, these students made presentations to
service clubs
and to classrooms at thirteen schools.
In Rubtsovsk,
our students made two public presentations. First, they organized a Fourth
of July party
telling about the U.S. Independence Day and preparing
"typical" Fourth of July food--hot dogs and apple
pie. Second, with their
Russian counterparts they prepared annotations of many English language
books
they delivered to the Rubtsovsk library. They prepared a display and
presented a program about our
holiday celebrations, which was very well
attended.
Of course,
all was not work. In Grants Pass, the Russian youth found themselves at a
Pow-Wow, a
high-school prom, the Club Northwest athletic club. They sampled
pizza, toured Wildlife Images,
attended several potlucks and a barbecue.
They hiked to Rainie Falls, toured in the redwoods,
frolicked on the Oregon
Coast, and even took a quick trip to Disneyland!
In Rubtsovsk, our young people particularly enjoyed a weekend at a sports camp:
"Olymp",
swimming in the local Alei River, and dancing at the city park. They
celebrated the 16th birthday
of Tanya, who had just been in Grants Pass, and
took part in "Ivan Kupala Day," begun as a religious
holiday celebrating
John the Baptist, but secularized to consist of throwing buckets and bottles
of water
on each other!
The mayors of
each city, Gordon Anderson and Lev Mokrousov, met with the young people. In
Oregon,
the Russian youth toured the state capitol with Senator Brady Adams;
in Russia, our students spent two
days in Moscow, learning some of the long
history of Russia.
Probably, all
the students from both countries would agree that living with a family was
the deepest
and most memorable experience of all. With their families,
students learned about the daily life of adults
and children in another culture. Letters and gifts will continue to be
exchanged in these special relationships
for years to come.
In Grants
Pass, we had a tremendous group of volunteer host families. If you want to
know more about
this exchange, ask any of the members of these host
families:
Amy and John Desmond
Martha Murphy
Pat and Tom Bange
Steve and Sheri Vorberg
Kirby and Lee Calvert
Kathryn and Paul Brooks
Pam and Robert Arbogast
Nancy and Robert Pugsley
Geoff and Charlotte Garcia
Glen and Betty Erps
Donna and Mike Eldred
Carol and Rick Ponte
Gary and Suzanne Docima
Jim and Claudia Mahan
Carol and Clyde Hooper
Steve and Rachel Parker
Lynn and Philip Turnbull
Jan Morningstar
Ron and Bonnie Reed
Dannette and Cliff McCann
Kathy and Bill Kieffer
Fritz and Gisela Brune
Mary Lou Osborne
History
Exchange Highlights
Member Application
Sister Cities International
Heart-to Heart Project
Grants Pass Chamber of Commerce Photo Album
A
Visit to Rubtsovsk
Official Exchange May 1993