Kranj, Slovenia, will be a part of cities from Greece, Japan, Mexico, Australia, Kyrgyzstan and Taiwan because the seventh sister metropolis to Colorado Springs.

Smolensk, Russia, was once an official sister metropolis, the persevering with struggle in Ukraine cited as cause for it to be faraway from the listing. 

Kranj continues a practice that began in 1962, when Colorado Springs partnered with Fujiyoshida, Japan, a relationship that has been maintained to today. 

Whereas on paper, there could not appear to be many similarities between Kranj and Colorado Springs. Digging deeper reveals these connections: Kranj is a hub for skilled sports activities and it’s nestled on the base of the Slovenian Alps, simply as Colorado Springs sits on the foot of Pikes Peak.

“As house to world-class sports activities infrastructure and elite athletes that practice in Kranj and signify Slovenia on the world’s largest stage, I sit up for working alongside Colorado Springs-Olympic Metropolis USA,” Kranj Mayor Matjaž Rakovec mentioned. 

However what are sister cities, and the way did they arrive about within the first place? To know this, one should wind the clock again, all the way in which to World Conflict II, the place two separate occasions united a metropolis within the Soviet Union and England. 

In 1940, the city of Coventry was closely bombed by the German Luftwaffe. Two years later, the Soviet metropolis of Stalingrad was surrounded by the German Military, and residents and troopers suffered tremendously. 

Seeing this, the mayor of Coventry despatched a telegram to Stalingrad acknowledging their shared struggling and impressed the official “twinning” to happen in 1944. 

In the US, Sister Cities Worldwide (SCI) was began by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 as a technique to “champion peace and prosperity” by “fostering bonds” amongst individuals from world wide. 

“And it is hopeful that [SCI] would cut back wars and preventing as a result of usually, when individuals do not find out about folks and do not perceive, then that creates concern,” mentioned Donna Nelson, the chairman of the Colorado Springs Conservatory. 

Nelson toured the U.S. Olympic Coaching Middle with representatives from Kranj, underscoring the connections the cities have in skilled sports activities and Olympic competitors. 

After partnering with historic Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Video games, an envoy competitors was created. Known as the Younger champion Ambassadors, this program offers the winner the chance to journey to the Olympic opening ceremonies.

“The winner travels with us to Greece,” Nelson mentioned. “That winner carries one of many Olympic torches within the torch relay that begins in Historic Olympia, Greece, and ends wherever the Olympics are.”

Ambassadors have been in a position to take part within the 2020 video games, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and introduced house the Olympic torches for show within the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum. 

Colorado Springs’ different sister cities are Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Nuevo Casas Gandes, Mexico; Canterbury-Bankstown, Australia; and Historic Olympia, Greece.

When working with Fujiyoshida, Japanese households may have their baby stick with an American household for one to 2 weeks. This may even imply assembly with the mayor and Metropolis Council members as town does its finest to teach the customer on how issues run. 

That is also a two-way avenue, and in a go to to Fujiyoshida, members of town authorities have been in a position to observe a “sustainable good city.” In line with Nelson, Springs Mayor John Suthers was impressed and led discussions on how combine “smart-town” developments into Colorado Springs. 

So far as prices go, Nelson estimated charges can run wherever from $100-$2,000. She pressured that town all the time tries to maintain prices low and has usually labored with native companies to get diminished pricing.

“Town pays for the mayor and myself, and anybody else that comes with us — they pay for their very own flight,” Nelson mentioned. “Once we get to the worldwide nation, they deal with every little thing from the second we get on the bottom — the entire transportation, the inns, the meals, every little thing.”

Past the cultural trade, the sister-cities program brings about some financial growth and cooperation. Delegates from Kranj have been in a position to community with Springs-based tech firm Altia. Founder and CEO Mike Juran was “excited to do much more work,” in line with Nelson. 

This can be a pure evolution of conversations individuals have, Nelson mentioned. The primary goal of establishing sister cities is cultural trade and bonding — breaking down limitations and studying new methods of doing issues that may be utilized to our lives. 

“And that is actually what’s been occurring this week. When individuals have been asking, ‘oh, you are changing into sister cities with Kranj, Slovenia? What do we’ve got in frequent with them? We do not have something in frequent with them,’” Nelson mentioned. “We’ve a lot in frequent. In all of our conferences, everybody’s mouth is sort of by no means closed, as a result of they’re always saying, ‘Wow, wow, wow, we’re a lot the identical.’”