Sister City Exchange fundraiser set for June 10
Courtesy photo (From left) Paul Price, Zach Henninger, chaperon Amador Castro and Sherry Gonzalez will represent Moses Lake in the annual Sister City Exchange program in Yonezawa, Japan.
MOSES LAKE — For the 36th summer, three Moses Lake teens will spend about 10 days in Yonezawa, Japan, and three Yonezawa teens will spend about 10 days in Moses Lake. A fundraising dinner for the annual Sister City Exchange is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. June 10 at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center, 900 E. Yonezawa Blvd.
Tickets are $35 per person, $250 for an eight-person table. Dinner will be catered by Michael’s on the Lake. A live auction is part of dinner, with Chuck Yarbro Auctioneers wielding the hammer.
The three Moses Lake students are Paul Price, Zach Henninger and Sherry Gonzalez. Price is the son of Dr. Irene Kumira and a junior at Moses Lake Christian Academy. Henninger is the son of Bryan and Nancy Henninger and is home-schooled. Gonzalez is a junior at Moses Lake High School and the daughter of Leroy and Heather Gonzalez.
The group’s chaperon is Amador Castro, a teacher at MLHS and the owner of the UPS Store in Moses Lake. The students will visit Yonezawa for about 10 days beginning July 24, while the Yonezawa teens and their chaperons visit Moses Lake for about 10 days beginning Aug. 6. In both communities the teens will stay with local families.
Both sets of students will get a look at the community, both its government and cultural attractions. The teens visit the Yonezawa and Moses Lake city halls, the police station and fire hall. The Moses Lake teens get a look at Japan’s feudal past at the replica of Tsurugajo Castle (the original was destroyed during the wars of the Meiji Restoration in the mid-1860s). Yonezawa is in northern Japan, up in the mountains, and the students visit the Tengendai ski and hot springs resort.
The area, the Yamagata prefecture, is known for its wood carving artists (the technique is called sasano ittobori); the Moses Lake group will visit a wood carving studio, and will participate in a local fireworks festival.
In their travels the Moses Lake teens will learn a little about the Yonezawa economy, which is famous for its apple and cherry orchards, cattle ranches and fish farming – Yonezawa beef and Yonezawa carp are national delicacies.
The Japanese teens will visit Grand Coulee Dam and Dry Falls, and go to the annual Cowboy Breakfast that kicks off the Grant County Fair, among other things, and get a look at the Moses Lake economy.
A delegation from the Yonezawa Sister City Friendship Committee will visit Moses Lake in October.