Moses Lake exchanges gifts with sister city
Moses Lake City Council Member Dustin Swartz holds up a pair of landscape paintings by local artist Kim Matthews Wheaton that the city is giving to the City of Yonezawa in Japan as a gift, part of the long sister-city relationship the two towns have.
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Yanezawa is a city in the Yamagata Prefecture of Japan, located just north of the center of the large, southern island of Tashiro. The city’s population is roughly 82,000 people.
MOSES LAKE — The City of Moses Lake is giving a pair of landscape prints from a local artist to the city of Yonezawa, Japan, in response to Yonezawa’s gift of a tapestry to Moses Lake last year.
“In a show of gratitude for that, we’ve decided to present them with these two prints from local artist Kim Matthews Wheaton that show the agriculture in the area and some of the local geology, which is obviously unique to our area,” said Council Member Dustin Swartz at the start of a regular meeting of the Moses Lake City Council on Tuesday.
Swartz, noting the Yonezawa tapestry hanging in the back of the city council chambers, held up the two prints. While he two cities have agriculture in common, they both are situated in very different landscapes, Swartz noted.
“I thought this would be a good way of showing what we have in common but also what makes us unique,” he said.
Mayor Don Myers read a proclamation celebrating the 42-year sister-city relationship with Yonezawa, and Amador Castro, a member of the board of directors of the Sister-City Student Exchange Program, told council members the organization is working with both Vanguard Academy and the Moses Lake Christian Academy to find new students interested in participating in the summer student exchange program, which has not been held during the last few years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was easy to tell us that the exchange program has run its course. But we as a board would hate to see that happen, given that the program has been going on for over 40 years,” Castro said.
Castro said the student exchange is important to residents of both cities and has a lasting effect on lives on both sides of the Pacific.
“I would like to thank the city for their continued support of the program,” he said. “It really does make a difference in student lives as we watch them grow from the moment they find out that they’ve been chosen for the trip until they’ve hosted counterparts who come stay with them here in Moses Lake.”
“It’s a friendship that lasts a lifetime,” Castro added.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
