December 23, 2015
St. Charles and her sisters Around Town
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Holiday Guide Best of Western St. Charles
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Around Town
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Cookie Run
Submitted photo Members of the St. Charles Sister Cities program welcome a group from the German sister city of Ludwigsburg earlier this year.
Sister Cities program results in cultural exchange between St. Charles, Germany and Ireland By Brett Auten As it nears its 20th year of existence, the St. Charles Sister Cities organization is running at full-steam ahead. The organization is the brainchild of Joe Daues. Daues, who moved to St. Charles County in 1965, became a member of the German Heritage Club. In 1990 he became president of the organization and soon read an article about Washington, Missouri and its sister city, Marbach, Germany. The Sister Cities program is designed as a way for cultural exchange. A community of any size decides to join with a community in another nation to learn more about one another. Sister City relationships begin for a variety of reasons. Generally sister city partnerships share similar demographics and town size. Partnerships may arise from business connections, travel, similar industries, diaspora communities or shared history. “The more I learned about the program the more excited I became,” Daues said. “Everything from pen pals and exchanges for both students and seniors. Washington even had a firefighter exchange.” As members of the German Heritage Society noticed a significant number of St. Charles citizenry are of German descent, the search was on for a town in Germany that had characteristics close to St. Charles: a similar population size, a major river and a university. Out of
the 34 cities contacted only four replied and talks narrowed in on Ludwigsburg, Germany. On July 4, 1996, a delegation led by then-St. Charles Mayor Robert Moeller went to Ludwigsburg to take part in the signing of the Sister City agreement on German soil, and on Oct. 5, 1996, a delegation from Ludwigsburg, led by Lord Mayor Dr. Christof Eichert, replicated the signing ceremony in the St. Charles City Hall. Daues recently became the first person not from Ludwigsburg (and from Germany) to be named the town’s citizen of the year. Ireland’s Carndonaugh became a sister city in 2012 largely through the efforts of Sandi Swift who worked toward it at least five years. An agreement to twin with St. Charles was signed in April, 2011 and the first student exchange occurred in March, 2012 when St. Charles West sent students to Ireland and Carndonagh students came to St. Charles West in October, 2012. Through the St. Charles Sister City program, Daues has helped create a successful student exchange program, finding host families to accommodate German teenagers, language teachers and chaperones who make the trip. Since that time, there have been many benefits received by the St. Charles citizens and students to Ludwigsburg; and, in return by Ludwigsburg students and citizens to St. Charles.
“This year there have been about 58 kids, 45 from Germany and 13 from Ireland, who have done exchanges at St. Charles, St. Charles West, and Lutheran High School,” Daues said. “There have been an estimated 1,500 over the past 20 years.” St. Charles Sister Cities is a 100-member strong club that creates a variety of opportunities to interact with people around the world. If you would like more information on the St. Charles Sister Cities Club call 636-561-2047 or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/StCharlesSisterCities.
Humbuggery
Recipe
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All about desserts
Movie: “The Danish Girl”
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