#GivingTuesday - How this will benefit our program

 How your #GivingTuesday donation can help our program

#GivingTuesday will be here tomorrow.  With money raised from #GivingTuesday, Lexington Sister Cities will be able to provide students and teachers with more opportunities to participate and benefit from our student exchange programs.  But what does that mean?  How will your donation benefit our programs?

We'd like to show you how.

Your donation can help to provide scholarships for students to participate in our student exchange programs.  

Lexington Sister Cities offers financial scholarships for students for each of our student exchange program.  These scholarships are need-based only and are not given out for academic reasons or other merits.

Your donation can help to provide opportunities for teacher to teacher exchanges.  

For the past 3 years, a teacher from Locust Trace AgriScience School has chaperoned our Shinhidaka Student Exchange as an exchange with the Shizunai Agriculture School.  Teachers and students from each school are able to meet, exchange topics and ideas, and further an educational relationship between the two schools.

Students making pancakes at Shizunai Agriculture School.

Locust Trace teacher Kathleen Magsam learning calligraphy while in Shinhidaka.  

Your donation can help to provide tour and activity opportunities for students visiting Lexington. 

The 2016 Lexington-Newmarket Student Exchange group visit Bi-Water Farm and pick pumpkins.

Your donation can be part of a life-changing experience.  

"Best experience of my life both as a student and as an adult." - Amy Shropshire

"We (both children and family) were positively impacted by the Sister Cities Student Exchange Program and feel we have expanded our family." - Amber Colley, Shinhidaka Student Exchange 2013, County Kildare Student Exchange 2014

"I can, without a doubt, say that Sister Cities has changed my life for the better." - Mariah Mowbray, Shinhidaka Student Exchange 2010, County Kildare Student Exchange 2011, Newmarket Student Exchange 2012

"All the programs I participated in with Sister Cities have changed the direction of my life." - Barton Lynch, Deauville Student Exchange 2010, Calvados Internship 2013, Deauville Teaching Assistant 2016-2017

"I left [France] with lifelong memories and several new friends.  I still talk to some of my friends regularly, and I plan on returning to France to see them again.  This exchange has given me 14 reasons to keep studying French; they each live in Deauville, France." - Dustin Summers, Deauville Student Exchange 2016

"The Shinhidaka student exchange has been an impactful experience, and one that I will never forget.  it gave me new found confidence in myself and helped me make amazing connections with American and Japanese students." - Caili Harris, Shinhidaka Student Exchange 2016

"This was one of the best things I've ever experienced.  It opened up my mind to what I want to do after high school and made me realize I want to travel a lot when I'm older." - Priscilla Portwood, Shinhidaka Student Exchange 2016

"Our son has participated in two Sister Cities exchange programs.  The experiences he has had have helped him mature and grow in ways we could have never imagined." - Cathy May, mom of Shinhidaka Student Exchange 2015 and County Kildare Student Exchange 2016 participant

"Making friends and memories while being able to experience a new culture is one of the best choices I have ever made." - Chandler Hendren, County Kildare Student Exchange 2016

"I'm grateful for these opportunities that have given me not only academic and professional skills, but also human experiences that have shaped the person I am today." - Aurore Dary, Deauville Student Exchange 2008, UK-Deauville Scholarship Recipient 2013-2014, Calvados Internship 2015

To donate to the Lexington Sister Cities #GivingTuesday campaign, visit the website below on Tuesday, November 29th.  The link will be available from midnight-midnight.  If you would prefer to donate by check, please send those to our office with "Giving Tuesday" on the memo line.

https://www.lexingtonky.gov/giving-tuesday-campaign 

We hope you will be able to donate to our program this #GivingTuesday.  Thank you for your support of Lexington Sister Cities.  

We are thankful for...

At Lexington Sister Cities, we have so much to be thankful for every year.  Through our organization, we get the chance to meet so many amazing people: from middle school and high school students on exchange programs, to university students attending school or participating in an internship, to adult delegates traveling to promote tourism - we are thankful for all the relationships we are able to form and grow through the Sister Cities program.

We are thankful for the students who participated in our 2016 student exchange programs.  

Lexington-County Kildare Student Exchange

Lexington-Deauville Student Exchange

Lexington-Newmarket Student Exchange

Lexington-Shinhidaka Student Exchange

We are thankful for the families who hosted students in their home this year.  

Lexington and County Kildare exchange students and host families in Lexington. 

Lexington and Newmarket students with their host families in Newmarket. 

Lexington student with her host family in France at Point du Hoc. 

Lexington and Shinhidaka students with their host families in Lexington.

We are thankful for the friends we made from our University Student Exchanges and Internship Program.

Maynooth interns Emma and Lucy with Sarah Martin.

Emma and Lucy in Lexington.

Violette Touchard (right) is studying at UK for the 2016-2017 school year.  She is with her sister Lena (who studied at UK from 2014-2015) and Deauville Committee chairman Betty Mills.  

Transylvania student Aaron Botts interned in France this summer as part of our Deauville Internship Program.

We are thankful for the student exchange chaperones we bonded with in Lexington.  

Lexington Sister Cities Ambassadors with chaperone Ellen Brett.

Lexington Sister Cities Ambassadors with chaperone Fintan Brett.

Lexington chaperone Sarah and Newmarket chaperone Annette Hill with the exchange students in Lexington.

Shinhidaka chaperones present Councilmember Angela Evans with a gift during their visit to Lexington.

Lexington chaperone Sara Tracy (center) with two students during the exchange in Japan.

We are thankful for the teachers and counselors who promote our programs to their students each year.

We are thankful for the many sponsors who donated their time and money to our Golf Scramble.  

Team UBS - and first place finishers!

Team Frank & Helen Hamilton

Team Trek Advancement.

Team McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland - and 3rd place finishers!

Team Kentucky Utilities.

Team WKYT.

Team Kyna Koch.

Team Lexington Legends.

Team Sister Cities. 

Team Visit Lex 1. 

Team Visit Lex 2. 

Team Central Bank.

Team Hilton Lexington/Downtown.

Team Wayne & Kathy Martin - and 2nd place finishers!

We are thankful for our ambassadors, without whom we couldn't do what we do.  

Lexington Sister Cities Ambassadors at our annual meeting.

Lexington Sister Cities Ambassadors support fellow ambassador Helen Hamilton as she receives an award.

Ambassadors present Kay Sargent with a cake to recognize her Sister Cities International Award.

We are thankful for our friends in our Sister Cities. 

Lexington Sister Cities Ambassador Helen Hamilton with County Kildare Twinning Committee Chairman Senan Griffin.

Lexington Sister Cities Executive Director Kay Sargent with County Kildare Twinning Committee Secretary Marjorie Moore.  

From left: Kent Barker, Lori Vaught, Diane Prim, Dale Barker, Nora Lahart, Linda Gorton, and Kay Sargent.

Lexington and County Kildare delegates at a dinner in Dublin, Ireland. 

John & Kay Donovan - Kay passed away earlier this year.  We will miss our friend in County Kildare.

We are thankful for the international connections we are able to make through our program. 

Kay Sargent with Sister Cities International Executive Director Mary Kane and board members.   

Lexington delegates with the Lord Mayor of Belfast.

From left: former Lexington Vice Mayor Linda Gorton, Lexington Sister Cities Executive Director Kay Sargent, Ireland Prime Minister Enda Kenny, and County Kildare Twinning Committee Secretary Marjorie Moore. 

Lexington Sister Cities Ambassadors with the Ambassador of Ireland to the United State at the Sister Cities International Conference.  

Kay Sargent with the Japanese Ambassador to the United States at the Sister Cities International Conference.  

Lexington city representatives meet with delegates from Quebec City

We are thankful for our supporters in the community who give us the opportunities to expand our programs each year.  

Lexington and Shinhidaka students visit American Pharoah at Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

Newmarket and Lexington students at the North American Racing Academy in Lexington.

Lexington and County Kildare students at Southland Bowling Lanes in Lexington.

Connemara Golf Course - site of our 4th Annual Golf Scramble.

O'Neill's Irish Pub - home of our annual Halfway to St. Patrick's Day Fundraiser for 14 years. 

We are thankful for the long-term friendships we were able to see come back together this year.  

Barton & Gregoire were counterparts in the 2010 Lexington-Deauville Student Exchange.  Here they are again in 2016. 

Aurore and Amanda were counterparts in the 2008.  They reunited in 2013 when they both attended UK; and then again in the summer of 2015 when Aurore participated in an internship in Lexington.  

2013 Lexington-Deauville Student Exchange Participants reunite in France in 2016.

We are thankful for our volunteers who make our program complete. 

Volunteers at the 4th Annual Golf Scramble.

Commission Member Polly Marquette as a guest bartender at Halfway to St. Patrick's Day.

Volunteers at the 2016 St. Patrick's Day Festival.

We are thankful for all the people that share our mission of promoting peace - one individual, one community at a time.  

Happy Thanksgiving from Lexington Sister Cities!