Lake County Gazette

City of Highland Park Sister Cities Foundation met June 24.

Here is the minutes provided by the foundation:

Voting Members Present: Rick Wolfe, Carol Wolfe, Rhoda Pierce, Gail Guggenheim, Lori Wyatt, Carole Schmarak, Marcia Rosenbaum, Phil Bettiker, Trudy Bettiker, Matt Pestine, Cheryl Levi, Holly Kerr, Tony Bilotti

Voting Members Absent: Joe Adler, Rene Nissim, Burt Schmarak, Emma Kowalenko, Nancy Richman, Sandy Richman, Larry Block, Abby Block, Wendy Lipsman

Student Liaison Present: Roy Steinberg Student Liaison Absent: Spencer Copland

Guest: Satish Tripathi

I. Call to Order

President Carol Wolfe called the meeting of the Highland Park, Illinois, Sister Cities Foundation to order on June 24, at 7:03 p.m. in the Lower Level Conference Room in City Hall.

INTRODUCTIONS: Carol introduced our guest, Satish Tripathi, and the members of the Board introduced themselves.

II. Approval of Minutes:

On motion by Phil and seconded by Cheryl the May minutes were approved.

III. Insurance

On motion by Phil and seconded by Carole Schmarak, the Board approved renewing our insurance.

IV. Donations to a 501c3 organization. Last month, the Board asked that we research our responsibility regarding donations that are made to our Foundation, earmarked for another 501c3. On the advice of attorneys and accountants who work in this area, the Board approved the following Steps for Donations:

Any donations to HPSCF earmarked for another 501c3 require at least the following:

Official 501c3 # designation of recipient organization 

HPSCF 501c3 letter from IRS

Identity of the donor

1. Checks will be made out to HPSCF and designated for specific recipient

2. HPSCF will write check to recipient

3. Recipient will give HPSCF a receipt upon receiving money showing date and amount of contribution

4. Nancy, our treasure, will send donor a donation letter confirming donation.

5. Nancy will copy Phil on letter confirming donation.

V. Presentation by Satish Tripathi

Dr. Tripathi shared information about Ek Kadam Aur, a non for profit he founded in India to democratize education. Through virtual classrooms that connect leading educators in the US and India, students in India and Nepal are receiving a quality education. The program also hopes to provide medical, dental and other services.

Dr. Tripathi, a Highland Park resident, would like to explore the possibility of Visakhapatnam, a city India becoming Sister Cities with Highland Park. Visakhapatnam is located on the Bay of Bengal. It is known as the City of Destiny and the Jewel of the East Coast.

Dr. Tripathi would like to connect Highland Park High School to El Kadam Aur and create a Virtual Classroom Project. Carol has arranged for a meeting with HPHS principal, Debby Finn to discuss.

The Board provided Dr. Tripathi with information about the procedure for becoming a sister city with Highland Park. Dr.

1. A committee of at least three people from our area will commit to serving on the Visakhapatnam sister city committee. Dr. Tripathi will provide contact information for all of them. At least one representative from this committee will attend Sister Cities monthly Board meetings.

2. A committee of at least three people from Visakhapatnam will commit to serving on the Sister City committee. Dr. Tripathi will provide their contact information to the Board.

3. These two committee will create an exchange between Highland Park and Visakhapatnam. At the end of sixth months, after a successful exchange, we will ask our Mayors to establish a Friendship City Relationship and send that request to Sister Cities International.

4. At the end of one year, if the Visakhapatnam Committee continues to maintain a viable relationship and a member of the Visakhapatnam Committee has attended the HPSCF monthly meetings, we will ask our Mayors to establish a Sister City relationship and send a letter to Sister Cities International asking them to create the formal relationship.

Tripathi will move forward towards this goal.

The Board expressed thanks to Dr. Tripathi and looks forward to this new opportunity.

VI. Display Case

Abby and Wendy are working on the display case and hope to have it displayed soon.

VII. Sister Cities Sign

The sign, designed by student liaison Roy Steinberg, has been purchased by the Foundation. The City will install it in Sister Cities Park on Wednesday, June 26. Some members of the Board will attend the installation. Carol will provide details as soon as she hears from Ghida.

VIII. Parade

Lori reported on the plans for the parade. She has procured a truck for us to use. Linda Iovino will play Mexican, Italian, and Israeli music on the accordion. Emma, Tony, Carl and Nancy Carani will join Lori and others to represent our Italian community. Roy will march with some friends, representing Israel. Hannah Pashtan, HPHS Hebrew teacher has provided Israeli flags. Aurora and Alicia will march with others representing our Mexican community. Carol and Lori will meet on Monday to discuss decorations for the truck. Cheryl suggested we purchase candy to be handed out along the parade route.

IX. Workplan

Carol will work with Nancy to create our 2020 workplan. We will continue to plan for educational and cultural programs. We will focus on music, the arts, and our mission to build bridges between cultures and provide opportunities for our community and residents in our sister cities.

X. Puerto Vallarta

The Values Book-Cultures United by Shared Values, a collaboration between HP and PV has been published and is available for purchase on Amazon.

a. The Day of Beauty for Cancer Survivors sponsored by Sister Cities was a huge success. The PV Sister Citiwa

b. Virtual Classroom: Carol met with Jeffrey Handley, the Chair of the World Language Department at HPHS. He will be visiting PV in July with his family. Carol connected via email with the teachers who will be participating in our Virtual Classroom Project this fall. A meeting is being planned.

XI. Modena: Rick presented an idea to promote our relationship with Modena. Considering the release of the new movie by Ron Howard about tenor Luciano Pavarotti who was from Modena, Rick suggested that we contact the Maserati dealership in Highland Park to create an event. The event, EXPERIENCE THE MODENA CONNECTION, will take place at Field’s Maserati and include opera, wine, Modenese balsamic vinegar, and parmesan cheese. Carol appointed Tony, Matt, Lori and Rick to explore the possibility of creating this event. Rick will contact his committee to set up a time to meet 

XII. Yerucham: Joe -no report

On motion by Matt and seconded by Tony, the meeting adjourned at 8:23.

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