Terre Haute and Hopkinsville, Kentucky become sister cities
By Ryan Polk, THG staff writer
Terre Haute mayor Judy
Anderson proudly announced this week that Terre Haute and Hopkinsville, Kentucky
have adopted one another as part of the Sister Cities International (SCI)
program for promoting global cooperation among international communities. SCI’s
mission is to “Promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, &
cooperation—one individual, one community at a time.” Both Anderson and
Hopkinsville mayor Rich Liebe hope that this move will create an economic and
social partnership that will benefit both cities for years to come.
Mayor Anderson began
working with SCI last year to create a sister city relationship for Terre Haute
with a foreign city with a similar population and socio-economic status. The
town was originally matched with Shchuchinsk, a city of just over 40,000
citizens in northern Kazakhstan.
“I emailed officials in
Shchuchinsk a few times and was forming a good rapport with Mayor Sobchak, but
had to withdraw from our sister city relationship due to financial concerns,”
said Anderson, “When I got on Travelocity’s website and saw how much a plane
ticket to Shchuchinsk was, I realized we just couldn’t afford it. It is just as
well. I can just imagine what a headache it would be trying to explain how to
say and spell ‘Shchuchinsk’ all the time if it would have worked out.”
SCI tried to work around
Anderson’s budget, attempting to match Terre Haute with cities in Poland,
France, Ireland, Mexico, and Canada, but had little luck; the town’s coffers
were too bare. Anderson finally settled on Hopkinsville as Terre Haute’s new
sister city.
Said Anderson, “Hoptown
ended up being a perfect fit. Our citizens have a lot in common despite being
from different states and it is easy to send delegates to see one another—all we
have to do is hop on Highway 41 and head straight south. We can be there in
less than three and a half hours if we take the municipal Camaro.”
As part of the SCI
program, Terre Haute and Hopkinsville will alternate hosting a summer outdoor
music festival, featuring local acts from both towns. “It is important that we
not only work for economic growth, but to experience each other’s cultures if we
are to fully understand our differences so we can overcome them. This is why we
will have both heavy metal and country music at our annual festival,” added
Anderson.
