Accomplishments

  

Caroline Cole, 2013 Youth Leadership Award Winner 
caroline cole
Lakeside High School student, Caroline Cole, received the 2013 Youth Leadership award at the 2013 Sister Cities International Annual Conference held in San Antonio, Texas in July.Caroline received the award based on her willingness to go above and beyond what is normally expected of a student to promote and participate in the sister city experience. Caroline was a member of the 2012 Hanamaki student delegation that traveled to Hanamaki, Japan and in November of 2013 and was invited to become a youth board member of the Hot Springs National Park Sister City Foundation. 
  

Sister Cities Award


2012 Best Overall ProgramAward
Hot Springs Sister City Program has won Sister Cities International's 2012 Best Overall Program Award for a city with a population between 25,001 and 50,000. The award recognizes sister city programs that demonstrate outstanding accomplishments in advancing the goals and mission of the sister cities movement.

SCI Conference Report
   
  
  
  

 

2012 Leading Asia Exchange Funding

Hot Springs was one of seven United States cities selected by Sister Cities International to receive the Leading Asia: Renewing the U.S. and Japan Sister Cities Network exchange funding. The funding enabled a 10-day visit by the Hot Springs delegation to their Japanese sister city, Hanamaki, Japan.



Compassionate Exchange
Hot Springs’ program is mulch-faceted and includes citizen exchanges, cultural exchanges, and educational exchanges with sister city Hanamaki, Japan. In 2011, in the wake of the devastating tsunami in Japan, Hot Springs also included the “Compassionate Exchange.” Hot Springs assisted Hanamaki in caring for more than

 

1,000 evacuees from the coastal area that streamed into the city. The program raised $25,000 through fundraising efforts. Their efforts were widely recognized by local and international media as well as the U.S. Department of State.