The city of Delaware’s Sister City Advisory Board is working to cultivate a series of activities with Baumholder, Germany, next year, according to Rand Guebert.
“We are hoping to have a family-to-family exchange,” the board chairman said.
Two families, one in Delaware and the other in Baumholder, would swap students. Guebert said the ground work has been laid out through the local Rotary Club.
Additionally, Ohio Wesleyan University soccer team will visit Baumholder next summer as it has done so every three years, playing a variety of teams.
But the spring opening of the 1st Armored Division Museum would kick off the activities between the two cities. The museum will provide the history of the impact of a local military base in Baumholder. Its history goes back to the 1930s but found new life since the 1950s when the United States took control. The post is the largest employer of the German community, Guebert said.
He added that he like to get a group of Delaware residents, including veterans, to make the trip for the museum’s opening.
‘It’s a great sister city to have,” Guebert said, who spent three days in the city in April.
Aside from Germany, it’s expected that students from Sakata will visit Delaware in November. Delaware has accepted exchange students from the city in Japan for about 20 years.
“They got that well established,” Guebert added.
The board is expected to determine in October the five or six people from the city to visit Sakata next year. Mayor Carolyn Kay Riggle is expected to lead the delegation, Guebert said.
The next Sister City Advisory Board meeting is Oct. 11.
