The city of Eugene has sisters.
Four to be exact. Eugene’s sister cities are located in the far reaches of Russia, Japan, Korea and Nepal.
Recently, Mayor Kitty Piercy, her husband David, City Councilor Betty Taylor and the Chair of the Eugene-Irkusk Sister City Committee Galina Groza traveled to Irkusk, Russia, which is one of Eugene’s four “sister cities” on Aug. 18-29.
Eugene has participated in the “sister city” program for more than 40 years through an organization called Sister Cities International. The organization is a “non-profit citizen diplomacy network that creates and strengthens partnerships between the U.S. and international communities,” according to its Web site.
Eugene’s four sister cities are Chinju, Korea; Kakegawa, Japan; Kathmandu, Nepal and Irkusk. Irkusk has been a sister city since 1988, when it was still a part of the Soviet Union.
While in Irkusk, the delegation visited several sites, including several schools, two universities, hospitals and a library holding a collection of books donated through the sister city program that moved from America to Russia through the program.
The Irkusk government taught the Eugeneans aspects of their culture.
“Every meal, they were amazing – Irkusk has a lot of different nationalities – they wanted us to taste all the different kinds of food that they had. Every dinner was hosted either by the mayor or one or two of his deputy mayors,” Piercy said.
Cities involved in the sister city program have several things to offer one another through sharing different aspects of their cultures, Piercy said.
Delegates from Eugene’s sister cities often take ideas from Eugene back to their home cities, she said. For example, representatives from Chinju were impressed with the bike path around the Willamette River, so they decide to build a path along a river there. The mayor of Irkusk, who has traveled to Eugene several times, was very impressed with the neo-natal unit at Sacred Heart hospital and urged the development of a similar unit in a hospital in Irkusk.
Piercy said she learned that Irkusk and Eugene are very similar in two ways – their commitment to supporting the arts and their desire to protect the environment.
“I was touched by how much they value and support their artists. For Eugene, part of what we think is one of the most important things about Eugene is its art and outdoors and I think Irkusk is very similar to that,” she said.
She said Siberia is interesting because while Americans try to get people out of their cars to save the environment, people there can’t ride bikes in harsh winter weather. They solve part of the problem by using minivans to carpool to work but have yet to use more high-tech solutions.
Piercy also pointed out the changes in environmental concerns since their transition to a more democratic form of government.
“Their consciousness about that is so elevated since coming out of the Soviet period, their consciousness of their responsibility. At least that’s how they wanted to portray themselves and I appreciated that,” she said.
Piercy said the sister city relationship is vital to fostering cultural understanding among people from different parts of the world.
“For me, I’m such a strong supporter of the sister city program. I think it’s important for people to know we have that sister city and Siberia is such a beautiful and interesting place and has many similarities to Eugene,” she said. “I also think in this world, where we have so much conflict, these kinds of relationships, these kinds of friendships are just key to a more peaceful world and their value is hard to estimate.”