Exchange by Videoconference

This is one in a series of articles written by a Lawrencian for the the Ostholsteiner Anzeiger, a newspaper in Eutin, Germany, published on 10/10/2020. Read the German version here.

by Bill Keel

The governing board of Sister Cities Lawrence has been meeting virtually for its monthly meetings since March. The Zoom picture of the September meeting shows Ken Albrecht (Friends of Eutin), Sheri Hamilton (Treasurer), Bill Keel (Chair), Bob Moody (Public Relations Committee), Diana Carlin (Secretary), Phyllis Farrar (Website Committee), Courtney Shipley (City Commissioner), Jan Miller (Membership Committee), Amy Meyers (Membership Committee), Kelly Scholz (Vice-Chair), Hans Carttar (Chaperone Committee), not pictured are Melissa Johnson (Friends of Hiratsuka) and Bob Schumm (Friends of Iniades). Even though the three school exchange programs have all been canceled this year, there is still a lot to do. And plans are already being made for 2021.

Lawrence students, who were to go to Hiratsuka and Eutin in the summer, as well as their partners in Eutin and Hiratsuka, who were planning to come to Lawrence later, all had to learn that this year, for the first time in 30 years, there will be no student exchanges with our sister cities. The disappointment for the students, the parents and the accompanying teachers and for us was enormous. In the case of the trip to Eutin, there were also financial problems with the reimbursement of airline tickets, train tickets and hostel tickets. That took a good amount of time to sort out. And the first exchange group from Greece, which was supposed to come to Lawrence in April, had to be canceled on short notice after entry from Europe was blocked in mid-March. Our Greek friends then hoped to travel in August, but to no avail. The three student exchange programs will now try to make a fresh start in the new year 2021. Let's hope for the best!

The 30th anniversary celebration of our sister-city partnership with Hiratsuka, Japan, also had to be postponed. A delegation from Lawrence had planned to fly to Japan for a week in mid-October. A return visit from Japan was planned for autumn of 2021. But before Lawrence's group could book their flight to Japan, everything had to be canceled. We are now hoping to send a delegation from Lawrence to Japan in October 2021. Our friends in Japan have had to postpone their visit to Lawrence until 2022.

     Despite the great disappointment in this Corona year, we are still working hard. On the one hand, our Sister Cities Lawrence has designed a new webpage. Under the leadership of Phyllis Farrar, who has chaperoned students in to Eutin several times, the webpage has been completely modernized. At sistercitieslawrence.org you can now learn about our relationships with Eutin, Hiratsuka and Iniades. For example, there have been at least six marriages between citizens of Lawrence and those of its sister cities - five of them with persons from Eutin! Bob Moody heads our public relations committee and in working to increase interest in Sister Cities. For example: with the help of sponsors, our newspaper, the Lawrence Journal-World, has offered to publish a special insert section with information about Sister Cities next winter. And thanks to Stephan Klein, on August 22nd we had our first Zoom meeting between Friends of Eutin in Lawrence and Friends of Lawrence in Eutin. So there are still many opportunities for sister city cooperation during this Corona pandemic.

Greetings to Eutin and hoping everyone stays healthy!

Bill Keel

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The author is currently Chair of the Sister Cities Lawrence Governing Board, and has been active in the organization since its inception. Keel is a retired German professor who also chaired the University of Kansas German Department for many years. He has visited Eutin many times, including as leader of the KU Summer Language Institute, as an organizer of Friends of Eutin, and leading Lawrence delegations.