Sister City dinner fills the house
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Attendees look over the desserts for auction at the annual Moses Lake-Yonezawa sister city exchange auction Saturday.
MOSES LAKE — The final tally won’t be known for a week or so, but the annual fundraising dinner for the “Moses Lake-Yonezawa Sister City Exchange” drew a full house Saturday night.
Committee president Krystin Moore said organizers sold more than 140 tickets, and the evening included a live and silent auction as well as dinner. (And a photo booth.) “This is our 37th year,” she said.
The dinner was at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center on Yonezawa Boulevard. “They (the city of Yonezawa) have a Moses Lake Boulevard as well,” Moore said.
Proceeds from the dinner go toward the sister city exchange program, where high school-age youths from Moses Lake travel to Yonezawa for about 10 days, and youths from Yonezawa visit Moses Lake for about 10 days. The Moses Lake kids will be leaving in late July, and the Yonezawa kids will be in Moses Lake in August.
“It’s a really unique experience, especially because it’s community-based.” The teens stay with the families of their counterparts in each city.
The kids and chaperones see the sights in the host city, of course, but they also get a chance to live in a Japanese or American home. That’s everything from eating local cuisine, which in Japan can include crickets, to recreation, like a boat trip on Moses Lake.
Moore was part of the program, visiting Yonezawa in 2002. “It was definitely life-changing,” she said. She already had an interest in Japanese culture and history, she said, but the trip broadened her interest in the world and international travel.
Japan Airlines sponsors the air fare, but the students are required to help raise money for other expenses. “It’s a lot of hard work. They definitely have to work for it,” Moore said. The Moses Lake students take about three months of lessons in basic Japanese from volunteer Ginny Hirai, and bilingual residents of both communities volunteer as translators. But the kids learn to communicate with each other regardless, Moore said.
People who want to donate to the program can contact Terry Moore by email at mlsistercity@gmail.com.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.