State College Borough plans to establish its first “sister city” relationship by partnering with a Ukrainian town that community members have been working for months to aid.
Borough council on Monday unanimously approved a resolution introduced by council President Jesse Barlow to form an official sister city relationship “as soon as reasonably possibly,” with Nizhyn, a city of 68,000 people in the Chernihiv Region of northern Ukraine and home to Nizhyn Mykola Gogol State University. In the short-term, the borough plans to facilitate aid to the war-damaged city — though it cannot provide direct taxpayer funds — and encourage community members to pitch in.
“This is really an effort that is driven by the community,” State College Mayor Ezra Nanes said, adding that he already has exchanged holiday cards with Nizhyn Mayor Oleksandr Kodola. “…The substance and the body of this comes from the community and all of the neighborhoods. That is really why we are able to undertake this with full intention to support a war-torn city and hopefully grow from our relationship with them.”
Nanes said borough leaders will plan to meet via Zoom with Nizhyn officials in the near future.
The idea for the partnership came from Svitlana Budzhak-Jones, a native of Ukraine and longtime State College resident, and the Highlands Civic Association, who have been working since last year to raise money to help with critical infrastructure repairs Nizhyn. (StateCollege.com columnist Russell Frank has chronicled Budzhak-Jones and her efforts on several occasions over the past year.)
Budzhak-Jones told council in December that they settled on Nizhyn for multiple reasons. It did not experience total damage in the Russian invasion to the extent the State College community could not provide meaningful help. But it did see infrastructure damage that has yet to be fixed, including to a central boiler station that has since been unable to provide heat and hot water.
Though it’s much older than State College, dating back to at least the 12th century, Nizhyn shares similar characteristics with the borough. They have comparable population sizes and are both home to major universities.
Budzhak-Jones and fellow residents established Sister’s Sister, a nonprofit organization to provide humanitarian relief to Nizhyn, in particular for the boiler repair, and last month organized a benefit concert at The State Theatre. But their efforts needed more than what one neighborhood could accomplish.
“These people really need some sort of support and help,” she said. “We do whatever we can but we are just one neighborhood.”
Council’s resolution encourages community members to donate to the organization. Contributions can be made by check to Sister’s Sister Inc., 357 East Prospect Ave., State College, PA 16801 or by Venmo to @sisterssister.
In the long-term, the goal of the sister city relationship is to “identify activities common to all, that can generate new initiatives to further nurture humanitarian pursuits, cultural understanding, economic development, agricultural exchange, sharing of educational knowledge, promotion of human rights and improved municipal governance and administration,” according to the resolution.
Creating a sister city partnership is more than a mere agreement to do so. Sister Cities International, a nonprofit founded by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, works with nearly 500 member communities “to play an essential part in creating a more peaceful world through people-to-people exchanges and initiatives,” according to its website.
Community members met with Barlow and Nanes last summer to discuss the idea, and the borough leaders embraced it. But exploring it further required several months and more discussion.
“Sister cities is not an uncomplicated thing,” council member Peter Marshall said in December. “It takes some effort; it takes some planning and some research.”
Over time, the relationship is expected “to result in many exchanges to the benefit of both municipalities,” according to the resolution.
Yuliya Ladygina, Penn State assistant professor of Slavic and global and international studies and advisor for the Ukrainian Society student club, said she and the local Ukrainian community appreciated the efforts to raise awareness about Ukraine’s plight and to develop a relationship with Nizhyn.
“I want to say thank you very much for your hard work and your unwavering support of our community, for coming and standing with us in many, many rallies and events,” she said. “This is really an important historical move and we are really looking forward to developing and helping you develop relationships with the city of Nizhyn … these days it’s really very meaningful that our town stands by Ukrainians in their fight for freedom.”
