Our City’s Sister City Board meeting is on Monday. Do you remember Lappeenranta, Finland, our forgotten Sister City?

Would you like to help reinvigorate the City of Lake Worth’s Sister City Board and help re-establish a bond with our good friends in Lappeenranta? Other Sister Cities are Saint-Marc, Haiti and Southend-on-Sea in England as well (the city of Sopot in Poland was never a Sister City; that was a rumor started by a former commissioner).

Sister City meetings in Lake Worth are always the 2nd Monday of each month. For the last 7–8 months reaching a quorum has been an issue and maybe it’s finally time to turn that around.

Boynton Beach is making big strides with their Sister City program; there’s news about that below from Palm Beach Post reporter Alexandra Seltzer. To learn how to become a board volunteer for any City board here is who to contact at the City:

• Silvina Donaldson, Executive Secretary to the City Commission and Volunteer Coordinator
• 561-586-1730
• Email: sdonaldson@lakeworth.org

Here’s the news in the Post from last December with the headline: “Boynton Beach residents, meet your new sister from Finland”, two excerpts: 

BOYNTON BEACH — Boynton Beach residents: You have a new sister, and her name is Rauma.
     City officials this week agreed to becoming Sister Cities with Rauma, Finland.
     The two cities can connect on issues they both experience, part of a bigger national picture that goes back to the 1950s. [emphasis added] President Dwight D. Eisenhower founded the Sister Cities International, a nonprofit, in 1956, and now cities all over the country have been partnered with communities across the world.

[and. . .]

     There are about 26,000 Finnish residents of Florida, and between 10,000 and 12,000 in Palm Beach County, Makila [Honorary Consulate of Finland Peter Makila] said. Traditionally, the Finnish residents have lived in Lantana and Lake Worth, but Makila said there has been a recent shift south of there.

Good luck and hope to hear about a big turnout at the Sister City Board here in Lake Worth!