Our greatest events in 2011

1. Japanese Taiko Drum Ceremony

December 06, 2011

The Lethbridge Twinning Society hosted a formal dedication of a ceremonial Japanese Taiko Drum, a gift from our Twin City, Towada City City , Japan. The Ceremony was a made extra special as Jodi and Matt from the University of Lethbridge, Global Drums Ensemble performed. Jodi and Matt had visited Towada City City, Japan a couple years back where they along with other members of the University of Lethbridge Global Drums performed. Special guests and dignitaries attended the dedication: Consul General of Japan – Calgary – Consul Fukuda; His Worship, Mayor Rajko Dodic, former Lethbridge Mayor, Bob Tarleck, Pastor Kelly Stickel of Victory Church, Reverend Izumi of the Southern Alberta Buddhist Temple, Taka Kinjo of the Okinawa Friendship Society.

The dedication was open to members of the public and many came to the Lethbridge City Hall for the celebration. His Worship Mayor Dodic even stepped forward, dressed in a Japanese "Yukata" and showed us all how to play the Japanese Taiko!

The Japanese Taiko now rests in the heart of the city, at City Hall, a fond and constant reminder to the residents of Lethbridge of our friends in Towada City City.







Jennifer (Director for Towada City City , Japan Relations) – Master of Ceremonies	Taiko Drum	L-R Mayor Dodic, Michael Bennett (Director of Culver City Relations) Consul General Fukuda
Pastor Kelly Stickel – Victory Church	President of Lethbridge Twinning Society – Harold and Carol (Director of Public Relations)	Jodi and Matt performance
Mayor Dodic getting ready for his performance!	L-R (Jodi, Mayor Dodic, Matt)	L-R Consul General of Japan – Consul Fukuda
Consul General of Japan – Calgary: Consul General Susuma Fukuda	Taiko Drum Ceremony	Bob Tarleck
Taka Kinjo ( Okinawa Cultural Society)	Reverend Izumi (Southern Alberta Buddhist Temple)	Jodi and Matt




2. Lethbridge Twinning Society Newsletter

November 21, 2011

The newest issue of the Lethbridge Twinning Society Newsletter is available now: click here to download, PDF file


3. Alberta Japan twinning relationships going stronger

August 19 - 20, 2011

Lethbridge's Harold Pereverseff was among those greeting Susumu Fukuda, Counsul General of fapan, at the annual conference of the Alberta/Japan Twinned Municipalities Association (A/JTMA) in Hinton.

Pereverseff, of the Lethbridge Twinning Society, will continue his role of president of the А/JTMA for another year.

Establishing Alberta/Japan twinning relations was the vision of former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed in 1972 when there was formalization of the relationship between the Town of Jasper and Hakone-cho. Since then the number of twinned municipalities in Alberta has grown to 22. The Lethbridge Twinning Society has established relations withTowada City City.

The A/JTMA acts as as a conduit to encourage Alberta/Japan twin relations and also supports and enhances existing relations by sharing new ideas and innovative opportunities.

Counsul General Fukuda addressed the delegates and thanked them for their kind and compassionate assistance to fapan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March of this year, he also was encouraged by the diligence of the A/JTMA in supporting and encouraging strong twinning relationships.

The A/JTMA is working with municipalities in Alberta to assist in establishing new Japanese twin relations, and to help strengthen existing ones, informal relationships in municipalities can be supported by the A/JTMA and they are encouraged to join the organization.

Further information on the A/JTMA can be found on www.ajtma.com.



Alberta Japan twinning relationships going stronger - An article in Lethbridge Herald


4. Luncheon in honour of Consul General of Japan


Picture: L to R - Mr. Brian Manning, Mrs. Alicia Fukuda, Consul General Susumu Fukuda, Minister of Alberta International Intergovernmental Relations, Hon. Iris Evans, Mr. Kyo Oshima, Mr. Harold Pereverseff and Mr. Kent McMullin.

On June 14, 2011 Hon. Minister, Iris Evans hosted a luncheon in honour of the recent arrival of our new Consul General of Japan, Susumu Fukuda. The luncheon was held in Edmonton.

The luncheon provided the opportunity to get to know the new Consul General and his lovely wife. Consul General Fukuda has served in postings in Los Angeles, California, the Dominican Republic and was also Counsellor of the Japanese Embassies in Chile , Guatemala and Norway . His most recent posting was that of Consul General of Japan in Lima, Peru. Consul General Fukuda and his wife, Alicia have two daughters, Mie and Reina who are both studying in the USA. The Consul General enjoys golf and karaoke while his wife enjoys art and is honing her painting skills.

It was a great pleasure to meet and welcome the Consul General and his wife. We wish them a successful and enjoyable tenure in Alberta.


5. Lethbridge Twinning Society donation to Towada City City

July 07, 2011

T-AIR President Shirayama presents Lethbridge Twinning Society donation to Towada City City Mayor Oyamada.




6. Bar-B-Que fundraiser at Save on Foods

May 14, 2011

We held a very successful Bar-B-Que fundraiser at Save on Foods. The weather cooperated and we had several members come out to support and/or help out with the event. Our Russian students, Dasha and Rostic were also able to participate and got first hand experience in our fund raising efforts.




7. Reception at the Calgary International airport

April 14, 2011

Rostislav (Rostick) and Dasja (Dasha) are students from Timashevsk who have come to Lethbridge for two months of English language training and will be attending Lethbridge 's Immanuel Christian High School .

(More information, please see our Timashevsk page on this web site.)



Kyle Pereverseff – Director for Lethbridge/Timashevsk relations looks on as students, Rostislav and Dasja receive the "Official White Cowboy Hat" reception at the Calgary International airport.	Rostislav and Dasja receive their souvenir official passports to Calgary and are on their way, Cowboy hats and all, to Lethbridge to begin their Canadian experience.




8. Urgent! News from Japan

March 13, 2011 - ARAO Teiichi about the current situation in Japan

Hello the directing members of the Lethbridge Twinning Society.

As you know from the world news coverages, the eastern-northern half part of Japan from the Tokyo area to the Hokkaido area was hit by the largest earthquake officially recorded in Japan. The energy released was magnitude 9.0, one of the strongest officially recorded of the world ever! The earthquake intensity was 7.0 at the strongest in the Japanese standard, which means that almost all buildings, even though built of concrete, would be destroyed instantly.

When the earthquake occurred, the graduation celebrating party of Kitasato University in Towada City had just begun and the speech of the Dean suddenly stopped. The light disappeared due to the power blackout. But all the students and professors are accustomed to earthquake, no one fell into a panic. They all evacuated from the party room to the outdoors led by the clerks in charge. The party was aborted and the dean told them to go back home and to the university to confirm the safety.

The water supply was maintained very fortunately.

Very large scale TSUNAMI again and again hit the shores facing the Pacific Ocean and the Japan Sea, which reminds you of the ones that occurred in Sumatra Island in 2004. Many people living in the area facing the Pacific Ocean seem to have got hit and taken away by the wave. TSUNAMI, which means "harbor wave," is not simply a wave. It is like a flooding sea that runs very fast, as fast as the Japanese bullet train.

Furthermore, nuclear power stations that locate along the Pacific Ocean shore in the Fukushima prefecture got hit by the strong earthquake and got their reactors destroyed. The news tells that melt down of their reactors occurred, radioactive materials spilled out and tens of people were contaminated by the radioactives.

Towada City locates 35 km west of Hachinohe city that was hit by the strong TSUNAMI and heavily damaged. And it also locates about 70m high from the sea level. So we have no fear of TSUNAMI. And the earthquake intensity in Towada City was only 5, which means that walls would be cracked or chimneys would fall down. But no chimney fell down in Towada City. Maybe you would be able to find cracks on some walls if you were careful enough.

The electricity supply was recovered at around 23:05 on March 12. The citizens are recovering their daily life now. No one died or missing in Towada City. very fortunately. But other cities and communities seem to have serious damages by the earthquake and the TSUNAMI, especially Hachinohe.

Now all the trains in the eastern-northern half of Japan stop. No one can predict the recovery. The track of the bullet train from Tokyo to Aomori is said to be seriously damaged. Many power poles on the track fell down and some concrete poles that support the track were destroyed. Short-time recovery is impossible. Maybe it takes a month or so.

Anyway, no one died and missing in Towada City. Towada City survived the earthquake and is heading to the recovery.

Sicnerely yours,
ARAO Teiichi


http://www.ajtma.com/news.php


9. The Honolulu Festival

The Honolulu Festival, (17th annual) is on March 11th to the
13th http://honolulufestival.com in Honolulu, Hawaii.

This year, the Lethbridge Twinning Society along with the support of the Alberta Government, International Intergovernmental Relations Department, is very pleased to assist Adam Mason and the University of Lethbridge, Global Drums with some funding so that they are able to perform at the festival!


This will be the very first time any group or individual from Canada has performed at the Honolulu Festival.
The festival attended by tens of thousands of people! Performers/groups from practically every country that is washed by the Pacific Ocean will be at the festival performing. We are very thankful to the Honolulu Festival Committee, in particular Mr. Hayashi who has extended the invitation to Adam Mason and the University of Lethbridge, Global Drums.
The performance of the Global Drums is sure to impress the crowds at the festival, and will do Alberta and Canada proud!

Stay tuned for updates on how the festival went.



10. The Ice Breaker Road Race 2011

April 17, 2011 - The Ice Breaker Road Race - Great Falls, Montana!
VERY close, VERY affordable, VERY much fun and a VERY good way to shake off the winter blahs and get moving!

Come join us as we car pool down to Great Falls for this event!

For further information, please contact Carol at 403-915-3668






11. Beginner Russian – Conversational Language lessons


Instructor: Andrey S.

Start date: Wednesday – February 02, 2011 - 7:00PM to 8:30PM.

Six weeks (every Wednesday).

$25.00 registration fee.

Everyone is welcome to participate.
Please contact PR Director Carol for further details and location @ 403-915-3668.