Sister city program receives $10,000 grant

EAST MILLINOCKET — The Katahdin Region Sister City Committee has received a $10,000 grant from the Maine International Partnership Program through the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development.

Toni Blake, the Katahdin Region Development Corp.’s administrative assistant, said the award was extremely good news in light of state budget cuts. The grant was the maximum amount awarded under the MIPP.

Blake said the grant money would be used to develop the sister city program; for correspondence; to bring people to the Katahdin region; and to send designated leaders to Vetlanda, Sweden, where officials from both countries could work together to solve common problems.

Blake said that any kind of international ties would benefit communities in the region as well as the state. The sister city program is a formal affiliation between an American community and a community in another nation for the purpose of building international understanding through friendly exchanges of people, ideas and culture. The program, said Blake, would help citizens in both communities become directly involved in international relations as people’s economic, political, and social lives become interrelated around the globe.

The Katahdin Region Sister City Committee was established as the result of KRDC working with a business prospect who wanted to bring a Swedish venture to the region.

The idea of an economic-business exchange between the Katahdin region and Vetlanda, Sweden, has been well received. She said both areas have much in common.

Although the committee had planned to visit Vetlanda in the spring, the trip has been postponed until October to allow the group more time to raise funds. She said the committee was working to raise at least $10,000.