Representatives of the village of Schaumburg visited the district of Schaumburg, Germany, last year to mark the 40th anniversary of the Sister Cities relationship between the namesake communities. Courtesy of village of Schaumburg
While the COVID-19 pandemic challenged the vitality of international Sister Cities partnerships throughout the suburbs, most bonds proved strong enough to persist and carry on in the aftermath.
"The value is the exchange of knowledge and information between the two communities," Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly said.
It takes dedication and nurturing by volunteers from both sides to make a Sister City connection successful, experienced representatives say.
At last count, more than 50 Illinois municipalities participate at some level in a Sister City program, some towns with multiple international relationships.
Schaumburg has maintained a partnership with the Schaumburg district of Lower Saxony, Germany, for 41 years, and with the city of Namerikawa, Japan, for 27 years.
In 2013, the village had only just approved new programs with Hyderabad, India, and Safranbolu, Turkey, when it contemplated yet another with Changsha, China.
Before long though, Schaumburg was back to its original Sister Cities in Germany and Japan.
Schaumburg Sister Cities Commission Chair Suzanne Poeschel said the level of interest declined by officials in the three new cities, dooming the projects.
"Somebody suggested it and somebody thought that it would work," Poeschel said. "You have to be trying to form a meaningful relationship."
Carol Wolfe, president of both the Illinois Sister Cities Association and the Highland Park Sister Cities Foundation, said one factor for a successful pairing is an existing bond between the two communities.
In Schaumburg's case, there were business ties to Namerikawa and of course a true link to the village's earliest settlers coming from the same-named area of Germany. Sister Cities sharing a name is rare in Illinois, but also demonstrated by former President Ronald Reagan's boyhood hometown Dixon and the northern Russian port of Dikson.
While Chicago's 28 Sister Cities are supported by a funded and staffed public-private initiative, most other Illinois programs rely on volunteers and a few thousand dollars a year from the municipality.
Though a global disrupter such as the pandemic can affect Sister Cities relationships, challenges can also be opportunities to strengthen them, Wolfe said.
After the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, Highland Park sprang into action to provide funding for beds, baby formula and other supplies for refugees from the border area who were seeking shelter in Yerucham, Israel -- one of Highland Park's four Sister Cities.
"I think the important thing is that Sister Cities is not political," Wolfe said. "It's about people to people. We want to encourage people to take chances. It takes bravery to reach out."
Sister Cities leaders say the recent wave of nationalism worldwide makes the group's mission more vital than ever.
"We're all richer when we connect with people around the world," Wolfe said.
For the first time, Illinois Sister Cities Association honored two communities with its top award in 2024. Recognized for their level of activity were Hanover Park, whose Sister Cities are Cape Coast, Ghana, and Valparaiso, Mexico, and Hoffman Estates whose Sister City is Angoulême, France.
Hanover Park Village Trustee Herb Porter said the relationship with the West African city came about when new village residents migrated from there. Over time, the Illinois community has helped provide a children's play area at a hospital, a center for abused women at Cape Coast's police station and a school that endured for 20 years before going under during the pandemic.
As challenging and rare as travel and even internet communication can be with Hanover Park's Sister Cities, Porter said the relationships are strong due to the dedication of volunteers on all sides.
"I will tell you it's a lot of work and takes a considerable amount of resources," he said.
The program itself organizes the village's Black History Month and Juneteenth initiatives as well, Porter added.
Hoffman Estates' bond with Angoulême came about through Sister Cities International playing matchmaker rather than an existing tie, but local volunteers on both sides of the Atlantic have proved passionate about it since the early 1990s, Mayor Bill McLeod said.
"You have to have volunteers that are committed to this," he said. "I think what I find fascinating is how well the Sister Cities program has worked. That's why Eisenhower started it. People don't know people. Everyone wants to have the same stuff."
Today's Sister Cities are the successors to the People-to-People program U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower outlined in 1956 with the idea that individual citizens could better achieve the global diplomacy their national governments had failed to earlier in the 20th century.
Currently, Sister Cities International touts more than 300 member communities with roughly 2,000 partnerships in 140 countries.