Grußworte der Präsidenten
President’s Message
As you read this Newsletter, a few of us are enjoying ourselves in Germany.
A small group from our Sister Cities organization left July 21 for Paderborn. There we will stay for a 5 day official visit. As everyone made their own arrangements for the rest of their stay, John and I are going on a cruise through the North Sea for a few days. We will board in Holland. After that we will visit friends and family in my hometown. We will return to Belleville August 17, just in time for our quarterly membership meeting August 18.
While we are in Germany, our President Elect, Norma Bergkoetter will be attending the annual International Sister City Convention in Spokane, Washington. We are anxious to hear about all the information she will be bringing back to us.
On June 16 we held our annual Appreciation Dinner. This year we held it at the Elk’s. We had a nice crowd of about 70, but would have loved to have seen more of our members. The food was delicious, especially all the wonderful desserts and many thanks to everyone that brought a dish. The Elk’s really out-did themselves in making that event possible. Their Fried Chicken and Roast Beef were wonderful.
We also welcomed a very special guest, the Honorary Council of the Federal Republic of Germany, Lansing Hecker. Thanks for joining us at our functions.
This year we were part of the Shriner’s Parade again. Riess Ford of Marissa graciously loaned us two convertibles, which we decorated in the German and American colors and flags. We carried the banner that has our logo on it.
Now this is just a thought! ! ! How about us making our own float for next year’s parade? All we need is some kind of a flatbed and a place to store while we are decorating it. And with all your help and ideas, we might even come up with a prize winning float. How about some feedback on that!!!
On June 21, a few of us participated in the annual Sister City – Waterloo-Porta Westfalica parade. This year they celebrated their 25th Anniversary of the two Sister Cities. After the parade a very nice dedication in honor of Vera Kohlmeier was held.
If you have a spare moment, how about going down to City Hall and check out our display case for Sister Cities. Rich Berkel and I cleaned it up and re-arranged all the beautiful gifts that were presented to us over the past years. We also had a sign made for it, which bears, both, the Belleville and Paderborn flags. And of course Hermann is standing on top guarding it safely.
DECALS are up for sale!!! We had decals made of Belleville with the fountain on it. They would make a nice little token to give to our friends in Germany, or even put them on your car here. Germans are known to have a lot of decals on their cars, showing places they have been. We’re selling them to members for $1.00 and $ 2.00 a piece for non members. We will have the decals for sale at the Oktoberfest and of course at the Membership night.
On July 8, we welcomed 14 youth from Paderborn and their two chaperones. Linda Driesner, along with her youth committee has a great itinerary planned for the two weeks while they are here. Besides touring Belleville and St. Louis, they will also visit Springfield, IL. A trip to Six Flags, Cahokia Mounds, a 2 day trip to Huzzah Valley in Missouri, a Work-Out at the YMCA and a Grizzlies Game are also on the agenda. The group will depart St. Louis on July 22 for another week in New York, and then back to Germany. Let’s hope they have a great and very memorable stay here with us. On behalf of Belleville Sister Cities I want to thank all the Host Families for opening their homes to these young students. But “ SPECIAL THANKS“ go the Paul Thompson family. They were gracious enough to open their house and huge back yard for the „Welcome Reception“ for the youth group from Paderborn. We also welcomed Mayor Mark Eckert and his family that night to greet the youth group from Germany. Any more detailed information about the youth group, please read the article submitted by our Youth Chairperson Linda Driesner. But I also want to thank all involved with this youth program for helping, especially Linda Driesner, our chaperones Jamie Stephens, her mother Mary Stephens, our Treasurer Jim Sheridan and Theresa Fritz. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I know there is a lot of work involved, but my main concern is that ALL of you, after handling 28 kids, are still mentally functioning.
The „Farewell Party“ was hosted this year by our members from St. Libory. They deserve as well „SPECIAL THANKS“.
And last but not least, keep in mind that the Oktoberfest is coming up soon. As in previous years, you will receive a letter with a work schedule. Please fill it out and return it. It makes it a lot easier if we can assign workers ahead of time. That way we shouldn’t be over or under-staffed.
As you know, our election for President Elect, Treasurer, Secretary and one Trustee is coming up in November. If anyone is interested to run for any of these offices, please let us know at the next meeting, or call me.
Hope to see all of you at our Membership Night on August 18 at Fischer’s. I would also like to encourage our host families and the youth to join us at our General Membership Meeting. I think it would be nice to hear their input and experience of hosting.
Viele Gruesse an unsere Freunde in Paderborn. Wir hoffen dass Sie die Jugendgruppe wieder gesund zurueck erhalten haben.
Doris Roach
President
News from Paderborn
Dear Friends in Belleville and Around!
It was the time of the Libori-Fest, this year from July 23rd thru 31st. We were glad that we could welcome the delegation from our sister city Belleville: BSC‘ s President Doris Roach and John Roach, Rich and Sally Berkel, John and Adrian Villotti and Nancy Macklin. By invitation of the Mayor of Paderborn, Heinz Paus, they celebrated the opening of the fest with their hosts and a large crowd at the Rathaus (City Hall). Again Mayor Paus gave a separate reception for the delegation in remembrance of the 15th anniversary of the signing of the documents of friendship on September 2″d, 1990. At that time late Rich Brauer and Willi Lueke, then Mayors, were the ones who got this sister city relationship formally going on the side of both cities.
In their addresses Mayor Paus and Doris Roach put a strong emphasis on the importance of the youth exchanges between our cities that have been kept going for 15 years! The youth exchange started in July 1990 when 14 young people from Belleville came to Paderborn. Both expressed their intention that these activities should go on since one could understand each other best when one could talk to each other and could experience the way of living in a host family.
Mayor Paus said that Doris should extend his thanks to the host families that had taken the young people from Paderborn in July.
Bernd Broer on his part expressed his thanks to Doris Roach and especially to Linda Driesner, the host families and everybody else involved in this year’s wonderful program.
Mayor Paus could also welcome a resident of Mainz, Germany, who had come by train that morning to attend the reception at City Hall: Lin Driscoll (married to Professor Heinz) lived in Belleville from 1954 thru 1965, near Memorial Hospital while her father was PR manager for the Chamber of Commerce in St. Louis. Lin was really happy to have the chance of meeting with residents of Belleville. Later that day she talked intensively with Rich and Sally Berkel exchanging memories of the school teacher, both Sally and Lin had, Miss Anna Lee Grommet at Dewey Grammar School. The three remembered the B.Z.B. Restaurant and Ice Cream and Stan Kahn, organist, who is still performing in Belleville from time to time.
This year’s official meeting ended with a get-together with the members of the German-American Friendship Society at „Richts Deele“ in Altenbeken-Buke, a restaurant in a rural setting. Willi Lueke gave a report of the beginning of the cities‘ twinning in 1988.
When everybody said „Goodbye Auf Wiedersehen“ to each other this was done in the hope to continue this wonderful experience…
Jay Erdmann will accompany a group of 4 students from Paderborn arriving August 13th who will attend High Schools: Maren Fastrich, Gesa Hage, Felix Jonas and Robert Berns will attend classes at Belleville West, East and in Mascoutah for three months. They’ll stay with host families whose children will come to Paderborn next year. BSC has been very active to make this possible. Our thanks go to the Principals of the Schools, to Linda Driesner and Doris Roach and everybody involved.
On June 19th Deputy Mayor Elsbeth Menneken (who was in Belleville in May 2004) opened an exhibition of pictures by the young Belleville artist Rob Thornberry. The show lasted thru July 6th 2005. Rob and his wife Linda were invited by the City of Paderborn. They were present when about 50 people were listening to the opening addresses and the talk of the art expert, Dr. Alexandra Sucrow. She said characterising Rob’s works of mixed media: „A book full of interesting stories seems to have been put together for us by the artist Rob Thornberry, which is being opened for this exhibition – stories that do not only express the thoughts of the artist’s but also characterise a living world over and over again.
Collages are Rob Thornberry’s preferred area of creation. Collections of script, pictures and intensive colours that often appear to be interwoven in horizontal and vertical passages. Singular letters or complete scriptures, logos or bands – preferably from cigar boxes, appear to give the pictures an identity beyond colour and shape; they find a way through partially windowed, partially opaquely created colour fields, to the surface of the picture, as though they were trying to make themselves and the picture being recognised.
Thornberry himself calls many of his works ‚landscapes‘ and indeed on closer inspection one can repeatedly make out horizontal lines, green verges and sky area – on occasion even cloud formation. We can imagine the curvy shapes to be trees, bushes and other vegetable forms. Rob Thornberry does this, he sees sailing boats at sea in his pictures and in others he sees flower meadows. There are not only the classical „landscapes“ though, but also a „primary scape“, a landscape created in primary colours and a „number scape“ a landscape in which numbers have an important creating role….“
We wonder when the people of Belleville will have a chance to check these impressions on their own.
We have got a warm reply of Bishop Braxton to our best wishes that we had sent on his installation as 8th Bishop of Belleville. We hope that he as well as Mayor Eckert will be able to visit their sister city Paderborn in the next future.
Sincerely,
Bernd Broer
President
Dr. Otmar Allendorf
Secretary