Despite our good will and best intentions, there are substantial obstacles to reviving the relationship as it once was. One of these is that as the times, interests, and population of Fairbanks have changed, the Fairbanks-Yakutsk Sister City relationship has for the most part been forgotten. For the years 1990-1994, delegations of 40-80 "citizen diplomats" traveled back and forth, some staying for months at a time. Later, there were many spin-off programs, funded by the United States government supporting projects ranging from English language instruction, small business development, to health programs.
With twenty years of hindsight, we are at a good place to look back and document the exchanges which were accompanied by a huge wave of mingled
curiosity, enthusiasm and good will. As one of the original members of the Fairbanks North Star Borough's Sister
City Commission who was very much involved in the choice of Yakutsk as a Sister city, and a participant in exchanges in programs taking me to Yakutsk about 20 times over the last 19 years, I have had the idea of
chronicling the exchanges and their off-shoots for some time, and at this gathering in August I shyly presented the idea to Anastasia
Bozhedonova. "You must do this," she immediately responded, "and you must tell everyone about it." Before I knew what was going on she was rapping on her glass. "Mimi wants to say something."
Since that meeting I have come up with a tentative outline, listing some of the people whom I might contact for information on the
various aspects of this far-ranging program.
WORKING DRAFT OUTLINE
Suggested Title: Interior Twins: Fairbanks and Yakutsk (Working Title)
Forewords by Juanita Helms, Mike Davis
I. Finding Each Other (Mimi with Pat Walsh)
II. The First Meetings (Mimi with Juanita, Mike)
III. Handshake across the Water. Citizen Exchanges
IV. Success : Official exchanges in later years Juanita, Shirley
Odsather, Marilyn
Berglin,
Marilyn Griffin, Eileen Cummings
V. University Programs (Steve
McClean? John Lehman?)
VI.
Athabascans Meet the Sakha People (Miranda Wright, Bernice Joseph, Howard Luke)
VII. Rotary International (
Leslye Korvola)
VIII. Building Bridges to the People (Women in Business, Voting program, Juanita Helms, Karen
Garrity)
IX. Education (Don Gray)
X.The Arts. (Jo Scott, Gloria Fisher, etc. Mimi on ice sculpture)
XI. Northern Engineering (Ed Clarke, Don Lowell,
Odsather)
XII. Health programs -- Janet Thurston, Eileen Cummings, Dr. Taylor
XII. The Lend-Lease Monument
How many people we wondered, had been involved in the program over the last 20 years since the first exchange of delegations in 1989? We started thinking of all the people whose lives had changed as a result of the relationship with Yakutsk and the friendships formed. The group at the reception expressed interest in reaffirming the ties.
