The Sedona Sister Cities Association gave a presentation to the Sedona City Council on Tuesday, Oct. 22, to provide an update on the search for Sedona’s inaugural sister city, and discuss how the organization will be hosting the Arizona Sister Cities State Conference.
SSCA Canmore team leader Don Groves said he presented a friendship city certificate from Canmore Mayor Sean Krausert, of Alberta, Canada, to Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow on April 23. “That’s a concrete indication that we’re really moving forward,” Groves said.
West Sedona School teacher Deb Sanders made a trip to the Elizabeth Rummel School in Canmore as part of SSCA’s first school-to-school partnership in the middle of October. During the trip, Sanders read and gave a copy of “The Three Little Javelinas” to a first-grade classroom. Verde Valley School Head of School Ben Lee is also working with Luc Arvisais, a teacher at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Academy in Canmore, on developing future programming collaborations.
SSCA member Edyta Wieczorek discussed opportunities for partnering with her hometown of Jasło, Poland, possibly based on the cities’ shared winemaking traditions; in August, eight members of SSCA went on a five-day visit to the Polish town. The group later held a screening of the documentary “Raze to the Ground,” about the town’s destruction by the German army in 1944, at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Sept. 13.
Wieczorek announced that Jasło will be hosting a photography exhibit titled “The Beauty and History of Sedona” in November in their town square and that Sedona has been asked to participate in the Jasło 2025 regional volleyball tournament.
“The next step is for Jasło officials to visit Sedona, ideally during the Sedona International Film Festival in 2025,” Marr wrote to the Sedona City Council. “Following their visit, the SSCA Board will evaluate … and make a recommendation to the City Council.”
SSCA members also announced that they will be hosting the Arizona Sister Cities State Conference on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 15 and 16.
“It’s the first time that group has had its meeting here,” Marr said. “But it’s a chance for us to show off Sedona and for our folks to meet folks from the other 13 cities that have sister cities in our state and learn from that as to how they’re doing. So it’s a worthwhile effort, and it’s much bigger now than we thought. The kickoff dinner will be close to 150 people, and they’ll be about 80 people attending sessions the next day. We’ve got mayors coming from Mexico, Canada.”
The dinner will feature a keynote address by Ricki Garrett, Ph.D., president and CEO of Sister Cities International. Marr said that SSCA’s goal is to make the dinner an annual event. Following SSCA’s presentation the council directed city staff to draft a list of examples of how the city could appropriately use a minimal amount of city staff time and resources to support SSCA, such as responding to emails, allowing SSCA to use city marketing materials and allowing SSCA to use city conference rooms.
Councilwoman Jessica Williamson questioned the number of sister cities the group could form and the criteria the group uses to scout potential cities.
Marr said that the total number of cities will be dependent upon the number of volunteers the group can recruit and how much the volunteers wish to contribute financially to build and sustain the relationships.
“We have consistently covered our own expenses and managed operations independently, without relying on city funding,” Marr subsequently wrote. “We hope our practice approach reassures the council that we will not place undue demands on City resources.”
Marr said he was optimistic that Canmore would sign a sister city agreement with Sedona during 2025 and that Jasło would enter into a two-year friendship agreement.
