City of Highland Park Sister Cities Foundation Board of Directors met Oct. 18.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
Directors Present: Carol Wolfe, Rick Wolfe, Abby Block, Larry Block, Wendy Lipsman, Gail Guggenheim, Phil Bettiker, Matt Pestine, Jamie Pestine, Burt Schmarak, Carole Schmarak, Lori Wyatt, Marcia Rosenbaum, Zdenka Samson, Holly Kerr, Luis Gonzalez, Rhoda Pierce
Directors Absent: Rene Nissim, Joe Adler, Nancy Richman, Sandy Richman, Cheryl Levi, Trudy Bettiker
Student Liaisons Present: Eliana Daugherty, Sara Steinmeyer
Guests: Julie Gordon, Linda Brodson
Council Liaison: Andrés Tapia
I. President, Carol Wolfe, called the meeting to order at 7:05.
II. On motion by Phil and seconded by Marcia, the September minutes were approved.
III. There was no Treasurer’s Report.
IV. Governance Committee
Larry reported that the Governance Committee met to define the process by which a person can become a Director of the Foundation.
Larry presented the committee’s recommendation to the Board. On motion by Larry and seconded by Holly, the resolution was unanimously approved.
(The resolution is included as Appendix “A” to the Minutes.) V. Awareness Campaign
a. At last month’s meeting, the Board discussed the Awareness Campaign proposed by Zdenka.
b. After the September meeting, Carol became aware that some people did not have the opportunity to share their ideas.
c. Carol met with Julie and Sara and spoke to Eliana.
d. She asked them to present their suggestions to the Board.
e. As a result of their recommendation, the Sister Cities Foundation will entrust the social media campaign to our student liaisons.
f. Sara and Eliana will create an Instagram account for the Foundation and look into other ways to promote our programs.
g. This role will be passed on to future student liaisons.
h. Since Sara and Eliana are seniors, they will seek out under classmates to work on this project.
i. Julie and Luis volunteered to work with the students and Carol and Zdenka offered their support as well.
VI. Focus on the Arts
Wendy reported that there will be no Focus on the Arts next year. As a result of Covid restrictions and uncertainty, the next Focus will be in 2023.
VII. Mural Rededication
a. Abby and Larry reported that the mural rededication will probably take place in December.
b. The staff at Northwood will beginning promoting the event in November.
c. Luis reported that Heidi Smith, Executive Director of the Highland Park Library, and Carmen Patlan, Executive Director of the Highwood Library, would like to be involved in the Dedication Ceremony.
d. Carol shared a surprise encounter. While setting up the Zoom portion for tonight’s meeting, she met Juan Reyes. Juan is the Media Services Manager at the Library. Juan told Carol that he was one of the students who painted the mural when he was a student at HPHS. Carol suggested that Juan speak at the rededication ceremony and share his experience working on the mural.
e. Luis pointed out that Aurora Santos, who is an Honorary Member of our Board and currently works as a teacher at the Highwood Library, also worked on the mural when she was a student at HPHS.
f. To honor Javier Niño, the artist from Puerto Vallarta who painted the mural with the students, the mural will be rededicated in memory of his wife, Rosa, who died last month from Covid. We hope that Javier will be present at the Dedication via Zoom.
VIII. Puerto Vallarta
a. Rick provided an update on Puerto Vallarta.
• The new mayor, Luis Michel, is a professor from the same political party as the President of the country.
• The new mayor is currently appointing people to managerial positions.
• Next week Paula, the Sister Cities president in PV, will meet with Ludwin Estrada, the Director of Tourism, to discuss ways in which he can provide help to our Sister Cities program.
• Bridges are still being repaired after the earthquake and floods from Hurricane Nora. However, the City is ready for tourism. Paula expressed gratitude to our Foundation for the relief we provided to people who were affected by the devastation.
• Magda, the teacher in PV who will be working on the Adult Literacy Program we are sponsoring, has begun registering students.
• Carol and Luis shared that we will be connecting the teachers of the Adult Literacy Program at the Highwood Library with Magda so that they can share best practices.
• Paula is working with the City of Puerto Vallarta on the construction of The Sister Cities House of Culture. Details to follow.
• Paula will be talking to Enrique Peredo who will be participating in the Water Reclamation Exchange with Dave Miller, the Executive Director of the North Shore Water Reclamation District in Highland Park. Rick spoke to Dave and he is looking forward to participating in this program. Rick thanked Rhoda for arranging this opportunity with Dave.
• The Student Jazz Festival will be held in Puerto Vallarta on Feb. 18th and 19th. The PV Sister Cities Committee is working with Mary Jo to procure the Malecon and another venue for the performances.
• Phil suggested that those planning to be in Puerto Vallarta for the Jazz Festival consider attending the Corazon de Niña gala which will take place on Monday, Feb. 14.
• The children from Desembocada will be delivering the portrait they painted of Thierry Blouet to thank him for the Cooking Class he taught to raise money for children’s art programs in Puerto Vallarta.
b. Phil reported on the Spaghetti Dinner to raise funds for Corazon de Niña.
• The dinner was very successful.
• Money is still coming in. By the next meeting we should know how much was raised.
• Phil commented that Matt had some good suggestions to raise funds for next year’s dinner.
• On behalf of the Board, Wendy expressed gratitude to Phil and Trudy for all of their efforts to support Corazon de Niña.
IX. Modena
Lori provided an update on Modena.
• Lori spoke to Pierpaolo, the President of the Sister Cities Committee in Modena.
• He and members of his Board met with Massimo Bottura, the acclaimed chef from Modena, to discuss a Sister Cities fundraising cooking class on Zoom.
• Money raised will go to Il Tortalante, the organization
Massimo supports that teaches young people on the spectrum to make tortellini and run a business selling their product.
X. Yerucham
Matt will schedule a meeting with Gaby Tanami, the young woman from Yerucham who has expressed an interest in helping to relaunch the Yeruchan relationship; a woman Zdenka introduced Matt and Carol to, *Dr Maayan Hillel, Post-doctoral Fellow, The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies at Northwestern University, and Councilwoman Annette Lidawer who has children living in Israel and has offered her support. *the information in italics was not presented at the Board meeting.
XI. Hradecko Drama Program
a. Zdenka reported that Christina Frega, music/drama teacher at Edgewood, Lori, Carol and she met on Zoom to discuss the Drama Exchange between students at Edgewood and students in a middle school in Hradecko (pronounced Haradetz) in Zdenka’s hometown. Hradecko is about a one hour drive east of Prague.
b. A meeting with the teachers in Hradecko, who both speak English, has been scheduled for later this month.
c. Zdenka expressed her hope that this exchange will broaden cultural awareness and be a wonderful learning opportunity for the children in both Highland Park and Hradecko.
XII. Fund Raising Proposals
a. Lori proposed that we consider working with local restaurants to raise money for programs in our sister cities.
• She has spoken to Moishe at Casa de Isaac about creating an event where people dine in or carry out from the restaurant and a portion of the money goes to help build the Puerto Vallarta Sister Cities Cultural Center.
• A similar event might occur with perhaps Bella Villa to raise money for programs that our Foundation supports in Modena. Matt has already spoken to Eli Mizrahi about an event with Mizrahi Grill for programs in Yerucham.
Lori will follow up with Moishe regarding this program.
b. Matt suggested we consider a “Focus on our Sister Cities” event.
• Larry suggested this might take place at the Art Center, combining music, food and art.
• This will be discussed further at our next meeting.
c. Lori suggested we might also consider having an event with food trucks at Sister Cities Park this summer.
This, too, will be discussed further at our next meeting.
XIII. Carol reported that she has been attending Presidents’ Meetings with the Illinois Sister Cities Association.
a. The president of the Illinois Sister Cities Organization is Jay Mathur from Rockford. He is proposing a Sister Cities International Peace Cup Soccer Tournament to take place in Rockford this coming summer or fall.
b. Soccer teams from all of the sister cities in Illinois will be invited to attend, including local teams.
XIV. Andrés suggested the Sister Cities Foundation publish in one place a list of all the artistic events it is sponsoring in Highland Park and in its Sister Cities. That can be used to advertise in one comprehensive way the many ways the Sister Cities Foundation is nurturing the arts as a bridge building experience across the various Sister Cities. It would include both in-person and virtual events. The events should be all encompassing of various art forms and media. It can also include events the Sister Cities is piggy backing on. And this list can be used to negotiate and coordinate with other groups committed to the arts to see if things can be done jointly. And given the pandemic, there can be caveats of "pending COVID developments...." This suggestion will be discussed at our next meeting.
XV. Adjournment
On motion by Phil and seconded by Matt, the meeting adjourned at 8:15.
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