Worthington/Crailsheim: A Historic Partnership

Worthington/Crailsheim: A Historic Partnership.

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d e t i v n I e r You a Join us as we dedicate the Bridge Sculpture celebrating our 70 Year sister city partnership with Crailsheim, Germany “a lasting friendship across the miles.”

Friday, August 12th • 6:00 PM at Chautauqua Park Sculpture dedication begins at 6:45 PM ~Band Concert to follow~

Oldest recognized sister city partnership in the United States

A Word About the Sculpture The sculpture standing in front of you, representing half of a bridge,was originally commissioned in Crailsheim, Germany

by Axel Huss,who was an exchange student to Worthington in 1986-1987. In August 2014, Axel challenged the citizens of Worthington to construct the other half of the bridge. This bridge represents the fellowship between the two cities and serves as a reminder of this unique friendship.

The process for this friendship started in 1946 as a humanitarian effort to help rebuild a war-devastated city. What started as a pen pal request for shoes, sparked compassion in a young girl, Martha Cashel, to collect and give to those affected by the devastation. With the help of her parents and family, they rallied the community of Worthington to help people who had lost so much. In July 1947, Crailsheim, Germany was the city best suited for the Worthington Adoption based on similarities in population, agriculture, location, and other factors. Shoes, clothing, seeds, and many items were donated by citizens of Worthington and sent to Crailsheim to help with the process of rebuilding.

Humbled by the actions of total strangers, Crailsheim citizens initiated an exchange program of individuals. The exchange started in 1948 and continues to this day and is known as the oldest city-to-city relationship in the United States.

Because of the efforts of the citizens, the city of Worthington was recognized with the 1st Aunual Brotherhood Award in June 1958. The city also received the World Community Friendship Award.

Other exchanges, including city officials, citizens, high school choirs, city bands, and employment opportunities have been the result of this growing partnership. These exchanges have helped develop many relationships.

This part of Worthington history shows that friendship knows no boundaries.

Welcome to Worthington

Daily Globe

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A 1948 issue of American magazine shows pictures from Worthington and Crailsheim and a map of their locations.

Worthington makes peace with the Germans GORDON GASKILL American magazine

became the first Americans to “adopt” an enemy town . . . A heart-warming experWorthington makes iment in world neighborliness – by air mail Historians may peace with the one day write (at least, in a Germans footnote) that our war with Editor’s note: This article Germany really ended by act, was originally published in the not of Congress, but of the April 1948 issue of American city council of Worthington, magazine, which ceased pub- Minn. (pop., 7,000), a bustling lication in 1956. It details how farm center which calls itself the Worthington-Crailsheim “Turkey Capital of the World.” partnership came to be and And that the armistice began, the impact it had on both com- not on V-E Day, but on July 31, 1947 – the day Worthingmunities. ton became the first American “It’s time to let bygones be city to “adopt” an enemy town: bygones,” said the citizens of Crailsheim, Germany. one Minnesota city. So they Most Germans feel the

world regards them as a notch below lepers, and Worthington’s gesture was like heat to a frozen man. Fritz Schatz, Crailsheim’s balding bürgermeister, went around town muttering, “God bless Vor-tington!” pronouncing it in the German way, and a Crailsheim girl burst into tears when she heard the news. “I didn’t realize anybody in the outside world cared what happened to us,” she wept.

The idea was born one evening as Theodora Cashel and her husband, Charlie, who manages the Worthington telephone company, listened to 11-year-old Martha and

10-year-old Michael Cashel excitedly composing a letter to a young Finnish girl pen pal.

The children and some of their friends had collected shoes and clothing to send overseas.

Mr. and Mrs. Cashel suddenly realized “that we were doing so little, when so much had to be done.” Lots of Allied towns - - French, Belgian, Dutch, etc. – had been adopted, they noted, but wasn’t it about time to let bygones be bygones and welcome Germans back into the fold, too?

They talked it up, convinced friends, and one night the city council formally adopted Crailsheim in a curious munic-

ipal document which, with a bow toward the Declaration of Independence, begins: “As, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for freedom-loving people to stamp out hate in a world of strife . . .”

Then Worthington sat back, a little defiantly, listening for howls of indignation from the rest of America. They heard many – at first. One was from a veteran who had lost a buddy in the capture of Crailsheim.

But one of his living buddies chipped in $5 for the cause.

The town held its breath while the local posts of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars met to

discuss the plan. Both groups voted to take no action, to wait and see how things developed. Many critics thought of the project only in terms of relief until its real meaning was explained. Finally, Worthington’s idea was reported in the press all over America, with editorials patting the friendly Gopher town on the back. The war, it seemed, was really over.

Recently I visited Crailsheim, driving deep into the rolling hills of Württemberg,

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to see how the “adoption” was working out. A pleasant highway, lined with whitebarked birch trees, led to the war-battered town through fields where wild deer grazed.

Ironically, this town, first to be U.S.-adopted, was the site of the last serious U. S. shooting in Germany. A stubborn SS outfit defended it bitterly, and it changed hands three times before we took it for good.

Worthington left the choice of its adopted town to Military Government and relief officials, but specified it must be a town hard hit by war, of about equal size and a farming center. Among a half-dozen towns surveyed, Crailsheim fitted best. It has 8,600 inhabitants; its country is 95 percent agricultural; bombs and shells destroyed two thirds of its buildings.

Its people are poorly fed but not starving; farmers never starve.

Crailsheim is at least 1,000 years old, heavy with tradition, and its name probably once meant “the home of Charlemagne.” It still mourns the passing of the last King of Württemberg, and Crailsheimers still bow low from the waist when they pass on the street the 84-year-old Prince Hohenlohe.

I discovered that, never having been adopted before, the townspeople were at first a little puzzled. They soon discovered this odd American gesture did not mean every Crailsheimer now had a rich Yankee uncle to keep him in luxury’s lap. Although Worthingtonites can’t resist sending some material help (they collected three tons of much-needed clothes and shoes), the adoption is principally a thing of the spirit. Oddly enough, most Crailsheimers want it that way.

“We need friendship more than anything,” explains a lanky sash-and-door manufacturer named C. J. E. Haaseman. “Write to us as a friend!

We must have contact with the outside world.”

Basically, the “adoption” is a kind of good-neighbor idea.

People in both towns write to one another, exchanging news, gossip, photographs, and ideas. Correspondents

are put in touch with one another by a “Crailsheim Committee” in Worthington and a “Worthington Committee” in Crailsheim. They try to match people with, roughly, the same interests, feeling that while a German farmer and an American dentist might write once, out of curiosity, the exchange would soon languish and die.

Thus Herr Haaseman writes to Bernard R. St. John, who sells and plans insulation jobs in Worthington; both know a tongue-and-groove when they see one. Eventually St. John asks, “What about some seeds for your spring garden?” And Haaseman replies that German seeds, like many other things, seem weakened now, and it would certainly be nice to get some husky American ones.

So Worthington is shipping 170 seed packages, each with some 25 varieties of seeds and capable of producing up to 5 tons of food.

The funds – at $3.95 per package - -were raised largely through the efforts of J. G. Duncan, who works in the telephone exchange and who, unknown to his boss, Charlie Cashel, personally solicited the employees of other firms when he became fascinated by the possibility of growing gardens thousands of miles from home. Elvin Thue, agricultural instructor at the high school, stepped in and persuaded the Nobles County Crop Improvement Association to send Crailsheim some new and improved varieties of seed oats.

Bürgermeister Schatz corresponds with Worthington’s Mayor L. V. Hartle about the business of running a town.

Hartle mentions that Worthington is building a new hospital, and Schatz says he, too, is trying to get together a small one – just for orphan babies.

So Mayor Hartle drops a word to Publisher V. M. Vance of the Worthington Daily Globe, and soon an editorial asks for cribs and diapers, powder and oil to equip a nursery for 25 children. And gets them.

Thus, the Globe’s city editor, Al Goff, writes once a week to Gunther Arnold, the Crailsheim editor. Al sends photographs of his three children, says he’s learning oil painting, while his wife Lucille prefers charcoal portraits, chuckles over the way 4-yearold Billy daubed paint the other night on the outraged nose of his 9-year-old sister, Virginia.

Gunther replies that he writes spare-time poetry, gossips about newspaper work in Germany, mentions he’s been trying to start a little youth paper but has no newsprint. Goff asks how much he needs, and Gunther says about 800 pounds monthly.

And now Goff is trying to find it somewhere, perhaps from the ends of rolls in his own and other plants.

Thus, Mrs. W. J. Schmidt, of Worthington, tells her opposite number in Germany: “My Linda isn’t quite 2. I’m wondering if your little Charlotte couldn’t wear some of her clothes, since she’s only half as old. I find Linda outgrows

her clothes without wearing them out. How big is Charlotte? Linda weighs about 24 pounds now.”

It is, in short, a kind of friendly gossiping over the back fence, although the fence is no less than the Atlantic Ocean. And although many of the letters bring some tangible gift eastward across the Atlantic, it is far different from impersonal charity. First a friendship is made by mail.

Then, naturally, friends help out friends. For the moment it’s all one-way, since there’s not much Germans can do for Americans. So far all Crailsheim has been able to send in return is (1) thousands of words of thanks and (2) an account of the fantastic Crailsheim coat-of-arms, written by Fräulein Ersilia Schuler, the schoolteacher.

The latter is no mean gift, for Crailsheim is perhaps the only city on earth to have a lady’s posterior for its heraldic symbol. Late in the 13th century the town was besieged and nearly starved into submission. But the then bürgermeister’s wife, an enormously fat lady, tricked the foe. She mounted the battlements, lifted up her skirts, and sat with her back to the besiegers.

After gazing in awe at the bulging flesh thus exposed, the enemy commander decided Crailsheim must still have plenty of food. He raised the siege, marched away in disgust. Grateful Crailsheim promptly adopted the frau’s fat hams for its coat-of-arms, although heraldic artists softened them to a figure which now resembles a fat, rounded script W. When I visited there, Crailsheim was deep in discussions of how to say thanks to Worthington, for most Germans are a polite people who like to return favors. It isn’t easy today. A Crailsheim hairdresser, who is also an amateur composer, wrote two songs dedicated to Worthington, which will be sung over local station KWOA. The women suggest they can do hand embroidery for Worthington ladies – if they send the materials. Crailsheim hasn’t any. Herr Haaseman’s woodworkers are, on their own time, making neat oaken sewing boxes for Worthington, and Herr Haaseman, himself, is planning a huge desk for Mayor Hartle.

For the moment, however, nothing so bulky may be shipped out of Germany by Germans. They are limited to letters only. Nor have they access to airmail. A letter to Worthington travels six weeks or so before it arrives, while Worthington’s air-mail answers are delivered in six or seven days. The time lag is discouraging to many.

Whatever the return gifts are, eventually, Crailsheim is agreed on one thing: They’ll be anonymous. “Otherwise,” says the bürgermeister, “people in Vor-ting-ton might feel obligated to send something back to the donor.” Crailsheimers are, as a matter of fact, almost pathologically afraid of appearing to be beggars, and most letters are carefully worded to avoid any hints for presents. One schoolgirl even refused to sign a joint letter to a Worthington class because it mentioned, quite truthfully, that the school was cold and few children had decent shoes.

“I know it’s true,” she told her teacher, “but it isn’t polite to have Americans think we’re hinting for something.”

The Crailsheim committee, which distributes the American names and addresses, goes to great lengths to weed out those inevitable spongers who want to write merely to get something. In a small town where everybody knows everybody, this isn’t difficult.

Meanwhile, many begging letters have been written to Worthington from other parts of Germany, where the unselfish spirit of the project is not so well understood.

Although a few Crailsheimers try out their school-learned English, most write in German. Worthington has enough citizens of German ancestry so that translations are easy. There’s Marcella Gosch, German instructor at Worthington Junior College, and Reverend Paul Koch, pastor of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church. Letters received by county officials are translated by Martin Gertonson, courthouse janitor.

English letters from Worthington cause more trouble, keep schoolteachers busy. If many more start writing (there are about 100 now), one man is debating opening a translation bureau in Crailsheimer, and there’s even talk of hiring a municipal translator.

They may need one. When the local paper recently ran a full-page section on the Worthington experiment, 250 people jammed in the small office the next day to turn in their names and addresses.

Worthington farm youths are writing to Crailsheim ones, who are goggle-eyed over Worthington’s mammoth turkey business. Twin 4-H clubs will exist in both cities.

School students are writing back and forth, after a little initial trouble with the first American letter, which started, “Hi, kids!” Crailsheim pupils looked up “kids” in the dictionary, discovered it meant very young children, turned the letter over to kids just out of kindergarten. It took another letter to clear up the difference between Web-

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the difference between Webster and Worthington.

Worthington’s Association of American University Women wanted to correspond with the equivalent group in Crailsheim, but there ain’t no such animal. The letter was turned over to one of the rare

Crailsheim women who went to college.

Perhaps most telling of all is the correspondence between a pale, scarred German named Hans Birmes, who looks 10 years older than his 34, and Payson Wolff, graduate of Harvard Law School and son of a Worthington department-store owner.

Birmes told me in his precise English: “No one has to teach me the value of peace

and friendship among nations.

I have many proofs – eight, to be exact.” For 8 different times was Hans Birmes wounded as an infantry officer defending the Third Reich.

And Payson Wolff is a gifted young Jew who saw service in Germany with the Army that destroyed the Third Reich.

Roger Russell, KWOA announcer, who served as an attack bomber pilot with the U. S. Army Air Forces, is

exchanging letters with Ottokar Kristall, once a fighter pilot in Hitler’s Luftwaffe. In a recent letter, Editor Goff in America mused to Editor Arnold in Germany: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if an idea born in Worthington would help bring the world back to its senses?

Of course, that’s too much to expect, but . . .”

And of course it is. Al Goff knows it, Gunther Arnold knows it, General Lucius Clay

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knows it, everybody knows it.

The Worthington experiment is a mere breath blown against the hurricane.

Yet it is a valiant breath, full of good will and human sanity.

At least a dozen other U. S. cities have written Worthington for information; they want to adopt towns, too. American officials in Germany think it’s a fine idea, and are willing to find any kind of town anybody wants.

Editor Goff’s letter rambles on: “. . . there are so many miles between us to be bridged, and it is not easy.”

Easy or not, the “Turkey Capital of the World” is taking the first step. While the rest of the earth looks to its conferences and its armies and to the hidden might of atoms, Worthington is trying something else. It is testing the secret power in an airmail stamp.

Student Exchange

One of the most enduring components of the Worthington-Crailsheim partnership is the student exchange. Each year, a high school student from Crailsheim comes to Worthington to spend a year, and a student from Worthington spends a year in the German community. Armin Zeigler of Crailsheim was the first such student, coming to Worthington in 1948-49. Two students from Worthington -- Eddie Blair and Gene Janssen -- spent the year in Crailsheim in 1956-57, followed by a single student every couple of years until the mid-1960s, when the practice of sending one student from each community every year began. Through the Facebook page for the Worthington-Crailsheim sister-city relationship, the Daily Globe invited former exchange students to share about how the experience affected their lives and what they are doing now. These are the responses:

GUNTER METZGER

Exchange student from Crailsheim to Worthington 1967-1968 Being an exchange student abroad had indeed very much influence on my life after.

Here are the three major changes I had been confronted when becoming an exchange student : • Travelling abroad.

Before 1967 I had not visited any country outside Germany.

• Staying away from home. Before 1967 I had not stayed away from home longer than 2 weeks. Then it had been with relatives of our family.

• Living at families I had not met before.

However, with the help of my host families and my friends in Worthington I was able to adopt the new responsibilities and the different way of living rather quick. Already a few months only after my arrival in Worthington I felt very much home.

Extract of the highlights: Some of the high-

Hand family on the lake.

• Halloween. Decorating trees and houses with toilet paper. This habit was new for me as it was not known in Germany – by then. Today it devolved in a way which not everyone may enjoy.

• American Way of Christmas at the Dickey Family • YMCA canoe trip to the Gun Flint Trail up Northern Minnesota and Canada • Senior trip to Washington DC and New York.

Martin Luther King had been killed shortly before Gunter Metzger in a photo we had arrived at our from the WHS yearbook hotel in Washington D.C. during his exchange year. As a result we were not allowed to leave the hotel lights at School beyond for 48 hrs.

• Coronation-Homeother subjects had been: coming • Playing a tuba in the • Living at the Duba WSH-Band and receiving family, which became a sousaphone as a present my Mom and my Dad in to take home with me at Worthington the end of the exchange Time went on quick, too year. Take notice: I am quick. After one year it playing my sousaphone was time to go back. The still today, 49 year after journey to New York in I had received this won- 1968 was more like a holderful present. iday visit. That changed • Singing with the choir quickly: When the ship in WHS was leaving the harbor • Water skiing with the and the band started to

noticed that parents can also be your best friends. The relationship to my younger sister and brother also improved very much.

All this had helped to develop a very close and warm relationship in our families which still goes on.

Being an exchange student abroad had also helped me to develop a successful life in business. I enjoyed working and finished with Gunter Metzger plays the the age of 68. NorSousaphone he brought mally in Germany we home from Worthington retire when we are 65. d u r i n g C r a i l s h e i m ’ s I am very grateful and I will never forget all Volksfest celebration. the people who were play “Wooden Heart” part of this develop– only than I started to ment, starting from realize that had to leave a the onces who selectplace where I felt home. I ed me becoming an exchange student and was very sad.

There had only been all the ones I had met Unfortunately positive and joyful expe- since. riences. As a result I did I will not be joining not only become one year the Crailsheim group older. Also I had learned this year and hope to open my eyes, my ears, that some of you will and my thoughts more be visiting Crailsheim than I did before. Upon instead. I will look forarrival back at home ward to seeing you. God in Crailsheim I quickly bless you.

HEIDRUN PONTIN KIRN

Exchange student from Crailsheim to Worthington 19691970 It was a Wednesday, the 19th of February, 1969, that changed my life.

The life in a small town in Germany opened up to the world when the city council of Crailsheim decided to award a year on another continent to me as a young 16-yearold applicant.

The exchange year with students from Worthington in Crailsheim and from Crailsheim in Worthington is sponsored by the two host cities.

This exchange program actually dates back to the end of the Second World War. It was the first sister city program when Worthington adopted a former enemy city similar in structure with the goal to create more understanding between the two nations by allowing the young generations to come to get to know and

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understand the idiosyncracies inherent in each country’s history.

The response of the Worthington people to my introductory letter published in the Daily Globe was overwhelming, and I was so happy to be able to spend time with four familie,s thus getting to know all walks of life of a typical environment in a small town in the United States.

First I enjoyed the country life on the farm with the Heeringa family, probably driving Mum and Dad and my brothers and sisters crazy when I always asked “how do you spell this?”.

This because I needed to see new words written down in order to remember them. Their patience gave me the best start into my new life in the U.S. Then the serious part began when Senior High started. I moved into town to stay with the Oberling family.

This was also the time when I got more involved in the church life of Worthington, attending different denominations’ services with my friends from school . It was totally new how many churches existed in Worthington and how tolerant every church member was toward members of other denominations.

And then romance hit me when I fell seriously in love with Mike. During the rest of the year I was allowed to spend a lot of wonderful times with his family – like racing the horses through the fields.

My funniest mistake in English was when I confused the term “in heat.”

Dewdrop, the horse I was allowed to ride, went a bit crazy at one occasion and scared me as my riding skills were far from good. So next time

Pontin Kirn I came out to the farm I asked Sally Ann if Dewdrop still was “on fire.”

Of course when a family invites such a young person into their home they take upon them a big responsibility, making sure that nothing happens to those entrusted to their care. And my foster parents really “kept an eye on me.”

After a few months I moved to the Rickers family, and my social life expanded even more.

Presentations in school, at different social events, clubs like the Rotaries and the Daughters of the American Revolution trained my language and social skills.

Winter came, and I just loved the cold dry air and then retiring with Dad in front of the fireplace reading the newspaper before dinner. Christmas in the Rickers home was very special, also because of all the baking and cooking. Throughout all my stay with them Mum Dorthy and I cooked up a storm many evenings testing recipes for her cooking column in the Worthington Globe.

Eventually I moved to the Barkuloo family right on the lake, where we celebrated graduation together and then I attended prom together with Mike. What a highlight for a German never to have experienced something like this.

During these months we

were slowly moving to the end of school and drifting into the relaxed summer feeling. Thanks to Mum being so patient with me when practicing parallel parking, I successfully pass the test.

Riding around the lake on my bicycle almost every morning – it felt like going into a long farewell from this wonderful place taking everything in as much as I could not ever forget. Melancholy surrounded me, but also deep felt happiness and gratitude for what I was allowed to experience this past year.

School and all my teachers were really great.

I wish we would have had such an all-day school life in Germany offering the students more than just the standard curriculum.

Extra voluntary courses were offered such as science, choir, psychology and debate classes.

I had so many mind-broadening learning experiences particularly in history class with Mr. Gay. We covered so much of the Third Reich, which was not yet really talked about in German schools at that time.

Never was I judged or condemned for what the German people had done.

And probably my English teacher made me aware that I wanted to go into languages after my return from the U.S. Having always been politically interested, our class trip to Washington DC and New York reassured me that the United Nations was working for peace and understanding between people and nations. And this wish came from the life and emotions I experienced in Worthington.

The friendliness, the tolerance and the understanding for each other, never to give up and judge others - these were the major lessons I learned from my families, friends and teachers in Worth-

ington.

My professional goals changed a bit when Bill Pontin entered my life, and after I finished my language education in Heidelberg, I started working in the language services department of Siemens in Munich. The department I set up both in Munich and Boca Raton took me many places. It was an absolutely exciting time with all new technical developments.

And it was also due to my English background that began in Worthington, which established me in this male-oriented technical environment.

In my next job at Siemens in the international sales department (in printing and publishing), I did a lot of marketing and press work. I couldn’t have done this without my “ambassador job” with lots of public speech in Worthington.

Next I joined the purchasing department of Siemens. Again, my background in English helped to really get into the world of legal “speak” and, paired with my technical background, learned to understand and negotiate software license contracts. Soon I ran the first fully international software license department negotiating contracts and accounting for software licenses from all major software vendors particularly from the US. New management did not make life easier, and so I finally decided to leave Siemens after 34 years, and the compensation package allowed me deal more with my private life and take up with friends from Worthington. I then joined the French company Atos with headquarters in Paris, and it was again also due to my English background that they hired me immediately.

Atos finally purchased and merged with that part of Siemens I was work-

ing in last before I left.

Now I am retired, doing some freelance work on and off to keep my brain in practice.

The positive look on life, the openness and tolerance and the willingness to always help are the qualities I could always count on both in my real family in Crailsheim and my foster families in Worthington.

The teachers at Senior High reinforced these attitudes.

This true humanism paired with the love and fun I was allowed to share with my friends in Worthington gave me my positive, caring , and forgiving look on life and people. These values I experienced during my exchange year are deeply engrained in my personality – not surprisingly am I often referred to as “our American.”

The last years changed much in the society and political believes in the US, but extreme egotism is rising all over the world. Therefore it is important never to forget the basic values of life, social equilibrium and to live in balance with a certain altruism, because only then can a society survive.

Despite of all the aggressiveness publicly voiced, these basics still exist in the U.S. And it makes me very happy that the sister of my godchild currently studying at Harvard is experiencing the same as me. It makes life a lot easier and happier not to always think of the worst.

I am sure that many of the other exchange students of this program both here and in the U.S. share these feelings with me. At least I hope so for the benefit of our society as a whole.

MIKE BULLERMAN

Exchange student from Worthington to Crailsheim 1981-1982 Looking back, I’d sum up my year in Crailsheim with a Dicken’s quote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness….” I was less than a month past my 15th birthday when I left for Crailsheim, and off on an adventure of a lifetime! Traveling to Italy, and exploring East and West Berlin were a couple highlights.

Mike Bullerman

I attended the Berufsfachschule, (the vocational school). Mondays meant eight hours of metal shop. I made some friends, and lost some friends. I still keep in touch with five today, one of whom lives in South Carolina!

I grew a lot as a person, taking on a global perspective, and learning tolerance, but I would still have much growing to do.

I am forever grateful to my Crailsheim supporters and friends for taking me into their homes, and being patient with teenage me.

Today, I work as a Food Safety Technician for Holiday Stationstores. I have a (47) store territory.

I live in Woodbury, MN. I keep up my German skills.

I’m a veteran, vegetarian, and animal rights activist.

Sometimes, I dream I’m back in Crailsheim. It was a positive experience, and I’d love to do it all over again. It was a far, far better thing I did then, than I had ever done.

Daily Globe

CHAD BALSTER

Exchange student from Worthington to Crailsheim 1993-1994 The exchange program between Worthington and Crailsheim has inspired a creative path that I still follow to this day. Being an ambassador was an honor, and I will always consider Crailsheim a second Home.

During my year abroad I became active with the “Alliance of Sister City Artists.” We had a traveling show exhibiting Art from each one of Crailsheim’s five Sister

MELANIE METZGER SEGUEDA

Exchange student from Crailsheim to Worthington 1994-1995 I must have looked scared when I stepped out of the plane on an early summer morning in 1994: all pale and tired, my first long-distance flight, first jet-lag, landed in a foreign country, foreign language, foreign people.

From the very start, however, my new family made it so easy for me to feel at home. I felt so much at home, in fact, that I quickly neglected my own family: my mother still delightedly tells the story of receiving Christmas greetings from me written on a post office advertising flyer, as I had forgotten – until the very

MIRANDA GASOW ROBERTS

Chad Balster Cities. I had the honor of showing in and travelling to Pameirs, France and Marienbad, Czech Republast minute – to write a Christmas card to my own parents! When my year in Worthington ended I was so sad to leave that my only ray of light was the thought of coming back soon.

Now, more than 20 years later, it has been a while since I have been back. But it doesn’t take much to remember. I still think a lot about my family (or rather: families!) and friends in Worthington – many of them now also spread throughout the country.

Being an exchange student in Worthington has, without doubt, changed my life journey.

It has given me a hunger for knowledge and for the world, that has influenced my career choices. I went on to study political science and international development, in universities in Germany, Australia

out on the typical “senior year” activities like friends, sports, prom and graduation; the benefits of my decision however, have certainly proved to Exchange student from Worthbe more numerous and ington to Crailsheim 1998-1999 Accepting the nomina- longer lasting.

The sister city exchange tion to spend my senior year of high school as the allowed me not only to another lanWorthington-Crailsheim perfect exchange student was one guage but introduced of the best decision I have me to the German culever made. At the time, ture and greater Europe the decision was difficult through my travels. The as it would mean missing friendships made with

lic. I was first exposed to bohemian glassmaking during this trip to the Czech republic. Little did I know this planted a seed for my future career.

Through this program I was able to connect with my Balster-German relatives in our home city of Steinfeld in Lower Saxony.

We were able to connect the dots in our Family’s heritage via the Archives in the Church there.

Shortly thereafter, in 1996, I began an apprenticeship in a Glassblowing Studio in Minneapolis.

This was to be the start what is currently 20 years of working with glass. I

Attended the University of Minnesota, studying Fine Art, attaining a BFA Summa in 2000.

In 2003 I moved to Louisville Kentucky as a Resident Artist at The Louisville Glassworks. I taught glassblowing and built a mobile glass studio into a Hot Rod Van, named “Juicy Lucy”. Since then I have also taught at the Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, New York from 2010-2016.

I founded my own glass studio, “Chad Balster Glass”(www.chadbalsterglass.com) in 2012. Here, in Louisville, Kentucky, I produce my own fun and

NICK BALSTER

Melanie Metzger Segueda and England. I have been working in international development now for a couple of years, both abroad and in Germany.

Currently, I live in Bonn, Germany’s former capital, working for a non-profit organization providing consultation and qualification for organizations and individuals working in development. classmates and my host families are still going strong 17 years later! The year abroad provided me with many opportunities to learn and grow as a person and as a result, I developed a new, more global perspective.

In addition to great memories, lasting friendships and increased appreciation for world cultures and languages, the exchange opportunity also had a major influence

Exchange student from Worthington to Crailsheim 1994-1995 During my Junior year of High School, I was selected to represent Worthington in Crailsheim for an unforgettable year. During this time I had opportunity to gain perspective on my identity and who I am in relation to the world. This cultural exchange allowed me an insight to the globalist multiculturalism that is a new reality for large and small communities around the planet.

This helped me complete a BA in German & International Studies at Macalester in St. Paul (2000). I worked with Habitat for Humanity in the Twin Cities for on my career path.

Upon completion of my exchange semester, I attended Augustana University

In a photo taken in 2015, Miranda Gasow Roberts (second from left) is shown with the Gerhard Munzinger family from Goldbach, Germany.

• Monday, August 8, 2016 • C7

functional blown glasswork, exhibiting my work from Vancouver BC to Hollywood Florida, USA. I have an upcoming exhibition of my artwork at the Nobles County Art Center in Worthington, Minnesota. The opening is August 4th.

I have had a chance to represent my current city of Louisville, Kentucky, in another sister city relationship. Perm, Russia, invited my Fire Performance troupe, “The Phoenix Collective” (http://thephoenixcollecti.wix.com/home) to attend their 2014 City Celebration Art and Music

Festival.

Immediately I experienced the same universal friendship I’ve been missing since my last trip to Crailsheim.

People doing good work as citizens; making face to face, real connections that last a lifetime.

Much has happened since Crailsheim, and I value the lessons and experiences that have shaped what has happened since then. I look forward to returning to Crailsheim for Volksfest 2017 with my partner, Gretchen Andres and celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Worthington/Crailsheim

2 years, then began tenure working as a Foreman & Construction Manager for Black Rock City, NV (Burning Man 2005 – 2013). In 2014 I moved to Portland, Oregon to begin working with Turner Construction – a North America based Nick Balster internationthis planet, regardless of al construction company. Here I spend political/religious/cultime hiking the Pacific tural/language barriers, Northwest with my wife all people basically want and puppy, collaborating the same things: enough with large scale art instal- nutritious food for their lations, and working to family, fulfilling work, a build complex commercial safe place to live, and a structures (most recently better life for their chilLEED Platinum project - dren.

Vital Lesson #2 Hassalo on 8th).

Vital – A smile is understood Lesson #1 - Throughout around the globe.

in Sioux Falls, S.D., where I majored in German and International Studies. I was fortunate to go abroad again during college spending a semester at the University of Potsdam in Potsdam, Germany. It was in college where I realized that a person could specialize in helping others have transformational experiences through study abroad.

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ROBERTS From Page M7

I have worked passionately in the field of international education in higher education ever since. I am currently the Director of International Programs in Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. I have the best job, as I get to “pay it forward” to more than 650 college students who pursue international experiences around the world doing research, service, study or work each year.

My position requires that I travel frequently to visit our university partners abroad. On a trip last summer, I was able to return to Crailsheim for a long weekend. I was welcomed back as though I never left, even stayed in the same guest room from when I was an exchange student.

My advice to others is to get out there and experience the world, there is so much more that brings us together and in what we share than that which makes us different!

KAYLI KUHL

Exchange student from Worthington to Crailsheim 2011-2012 I just graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Medical Biology at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion South Dakota in May. Two weeks after graduation, I moved out now to where I am living in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. I am one month into a Masters of Physicians Assistant program at Thomas Jefferson University. It is a two year rigorous program that so far has been extremely diffi-

ELENA “ELLIE” FERNANDEZ

laugh and they celebrated with me. They also tried my tears or took care of me when I was sick. To them and to the Crailsheim Committee, I give all of Exchange Student from my thanks because they Crailsheim to Worthington 2004made my exchange year an 2005 experience I’ll never forIt’s been a wonderful get. experience for me, and Ever since I returned after living in Worth- back to Germany, there ington for a year I had has always been a confound a second place to nection to the U.S. in some call my home. I was able way and to Worthington in to stay with four incred- particular. ible and wonderful famI started working ilies: the Mammens, the for a local company in Vargases, the Soderholms Crailsheim, and part of my and Don and Beth Hab- internship was to work at icht. All of them welcomed their subsidiary in Cincinme into their families and nati for 3 months. After I opened their homes to me. finished my training back They’ve all been part of in Crailsheim, I worked my life during that year. as a sales rep supporting giving me strength and subsidiaries in the U.S., support and advice when in South America and in I needed it. They made me Spain. The English-speak-

the Fourth of July, waiting for Jeanne Mammen to pick me up since I was about to spend the weekend at the cabin with the whole Mammen family, and Beth asked me what I thought I want to do when I return to Germany. I said I think I want to become an English teacher.

It actually took me almost another 10 years to finally get on that path of becoming an English teacher, but I never forgot Elena “Ellie” Fernandez about this conversation.

This spring I started taking ing skills I acquired during classes at the University of my exchange year helped Education in Schwäbisch me a lot during that time. Gmünd, studying to I don’t know if Beth become a primary teacher.

Habicht still remembers, I’m studying English, Gerbut before I had to leave man and mathematics.

Worthington in summer I visited Worthington 2005, we were sitting out- twice since my exchange side of their house, and I year, and I am also still think it must have been a member of the Worth-

ington Committee in Crailsheim. I got to meet so many wonderful people from Worthington throughout the last years because of that.

Once you’ve been an exchange student, the experiences you make during this year will always have an impact on your future live. It’s the little stories you remember or share with friends at home that make you smile even after years. And it’s the big hugs you get when you return for a visit and immediately feel like you’ve never been away.

Sending lots of greetings to my host families and friends, to the members of the Crailsheim Committee and the citizens of Worthington.

NICOLE JANSSEN

where I will be returning for a second year. Last fall I met one of the exchange students, Sandy, who is originally from Cameroon, Africa, but has been studying energy management in Germany for the past two years. She came to Platteville on exchange for a semester and God crossed our paths the first weekend she was there.

We were able to establish a friendship, speak German and English together, Nicole Janssen compare life as exchange And better yet, while I students, and walk in our faith together. am on a pilgrimage this

summer I am going to be staying with Sandy for a couple of days by Frankfurt before I head down for a Crailsheim visit (August 10-17)! This is just one of hundreds of stories I have shared with people about how blessed an opportunity this exchange program really is and how this experience will truly continue to impact my life for years to come. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have made and who make this sister city relationship possible, thank you and God bless!”

former exchange students!

There have been several spontaneous opportunities while running into Exchange student from Worthpeople while traveling ington to Crailsheim 2009-2010 to use my German, and I had the privilege of perhaps the most unique representing Worthington has been this past year. as the exchange student I am currently working to Crailsheim in 2009- for an organization called 2010. This year provid- FOCUS - the Fellowship of ed me with opportunities Catholic University Stuthat I couldn’t even at the dents - where we strive the time imagine it would. to bring college students And you just never know into a personal relationwhen you’re going to use ship with Jesus Christ and your experiences from I am serving on a team your year throughout your of four at the University life or cross paths with of Wisconsin - Platteville, cult and time consuming.

I was partially inspired to go to graduate school in a large city because of the many opportunities that exist here. It is amazing that right with in a 5 mile radius of where I currently live, there are nationally recognized Children’s Hospitals, Cardiology/ Neurology Centers, Trauma centers you name it.

Another thing that inspired me to leave the midwest for a few years was because my desire for travel after being an exchange student. I actually think of my experience as moving here to Philadelphia very similar to that of when I

spent the year in Germany. Because of my German exchange experience, I feel like moving to Philly was a breeze despite not knowing anybody living on the east coast. Also, the extreme diversity of living in a new place, reminds me of that initial culture shock I felt after first moving to Germany. Although, here everyone speaks english, it is still quite the transition living somewhere new.

As for my future plans, I have no idea as to where I will be after I get my masters. I already have formed many friendships here on the coast just as I did during my year in

VANESSA PAZUREK

Kayli Kuhl Germany. Either way, I am very grateful for the experiences I have had, and the new ones I am making.

visit to Crailsheim. Martha and her mother, Theodora Cashel, started the whole exchange program. This Exchange student from meeting and the WorthCrailsheim to Worthington ington – Crailsheim story 2014-2015 My biggest dream came inspired me even more!

When you start an finally true with being selected in Crailsheim by adventure like this, you the Worthington commit- don´t know what is waiting for you and what you tee!

Before I started my big can expect, especially if adventure, I was sure about you have never been in making memories that will this country before -- new last a lifetime. Already two language, new people, new years ago by now, I started lifestyle. But I was conmy big adventure, and I stantly looking forward to all of that, and I’m so would always do it again!

At the beginning of 2014, glad that I was one of the I got the opportunity to lucky ones who were able meet Martha McCarthy and her daughter during their PAZUREK: Page M9

Daily Globe

PAZUREK From Page M8

to experience that!

Two years ago, when I started my exchange year, it was much more than that! With the Sternke, Johnson, Moore and Shreiner families, I became a part of different American families. And they all made me feel at home.

Besides all of that I got to know “the American daily life” as well. “Busy,

busy, busy!” It didn’t matter if I was at school, at the youth group, in the gym, at the friend’s house, on a sightseeing tour or just in town. There was constantly something new to experience.

I visited lots of big American cities in different states – in the North, South, East and West. I gained many new impressions and memories which I will never forget.

Because of all the new friends and lovely experiences I have made, I’m going to come back to

Worthington this summer! That is another great part concerning this exchange: it makes foreign people and a foreign country to your second home!

Right now I attend the academic high school in Crailsheim. I’m in my senior year. This upcoming school year I will take my final exams in order to graduate. The graduation is called the “Abitur” in Germany. Afterward I would like to spend some time working or travelling abroad.

Vanessa Pazurek

• Monday, August 8, 2016 • C9

Last but not least, I want to thank everyone who makes this exchange possible again every year.

Switching the home country for one year offers you experiences and possibilities which you will never be able to experience in other ways. This exchange made me more independent, self-confident and more cosmopolitan. It will accompany me throughout my life in many ways.

I’m quite sure that the English language will help me a lot in my future life. I could improve my

English skills during the exchange visit so that I can speak more fluently now, and my vocabulary has increased a lot.

I really appreciate the work of the Worthington and Crailsheim committees and thanks again for what they do and how they care about every single exchange student!

This exchange wouldn’t be still possible without them, and we all know it is important to keep this relationship alive! I´’m looking forward to many more years!

THE BIG EXCHANGE

Choir visits were first large-scale undertakings by sister cities MARY BETH BLEGEN Daily Globe EDITOR’S NOTE: After several decades of a student exchange program between Worthington and Crailsheim, Germany, larger-scale choir exchanges were undertaken in 1980-81 and 198586. This article was written by the late Mary Beth Blegen, then wife of Worthington High School choir director David Blegen, in the wake of the first such visit in the summer of 1980.

It had been a short visit, but there were tears when the Worthington Senior High School Choir boarded buses for the trip home.

One host said, “If we know each other as friends, how could we ever fight in a war? That is why the exchange is so important.”

A standing-room-only crowd had applauded and stamped their feet on July 15, 1980, as the choir and the Albert Schweitzer Gymnasium Choir performed in Jahn Halle, Crailsheim’s performing center. PHilo Stenz, 197879 exchange student, said, “How do you say better than great?” With huge bouquets of flowers, Joachim Schaar, Gymnasium choir director, thanked David Blegen and the choir members. The concert was

another high point in the exchange trip.

Selections from “Fiddler on the Roof” found the crowd clapping along. By demand, the choir repeated the “Creation,” previously performed Sunday night.

Applause had echoed through St. Johannes Kirche for the first time Sunday, July 13, 1980. A capacity crowd including 13 of 21 former exchange students greeted the choirs with unexpected applause.

Experience after experience had already shown that Worthington, Minnesota, is important in Crailsheim, West Germany.

It was with a little apprehension that the choir set up drums and guitars for the “Creation.”

At an earlier church service on Sunday, the song “Shepherd Me Lord” brought the response, ‘It was nice, but we are not accustomed to such sparkling rhythms” in a formal church setting.

But it was the “Creation” that brought the largest response from the host audience.

The concerts came to the end of nearly a week of the visit.

For many of the stu-

dents, their German host became “Mama und Papa.” Feeling a little guilty, two girls admitted that they had told their hosts that “Ya, ya, Americans all drink Coke for breakfast.” They explained that they just did not like the warm milk fresh from a cow and could think of no other solution.

Students were never allowed to go hungry, each time they left home, they left with a lunch of sandwiches, fruit and pastry.

“One is never enough,” groaned a student.

The choir gave an impromptu concert in the Dinkelsbuhl cathedral on Friday, July 11, 1980. The singing in a church nearly 700 years old climaxed a rainy day of sightseeing in nearby Rothenburg. The rain had fallen in sheets, but students wielding borrowed umbrellas followed the guide.

“And we think 100 years is old,” more than one choir member said.

Crailsheim hosts apologized daily for the weather. South Germany is experiencing an unusual summer. Although flowers abound, crops are wasting in the fields because of the lack of sunshine.

A radio announcer made note of a spectacular event Saturday, July 12. The sun shined for 20 minutes, the first time in four weeks.

Arriving at Langenburg Castle on another

sightseeing trip, Blegen spotted three small children leaving the area in a small car driven by their mother. Feeling a tinge of loneliness, he stuck his head in the car to greet them. When they had passed, our hosts said, “You know to whom you have spoken, don’t you?

That was the Princess of Langenburg Castle and her children.” It was too late for Blegen to bow appropriately.

Another impromptu concert in front of St.

Michael’s Cathedral in Schwabisch Hall brought city hall workers to the windows on the side of the city square. The choir climbed 90 steps to sing an American spiritual and “Thine Forever,”

written by Glenn Evensen, Worthington High band director.

On Wednesday, July 16, the city of Crailsheim hosted the choir members on a boat trip down the Rhine River following a formal reception at Heidelberg. The choir sang for the mayor of Heidelberg, who is the brothers of the mayor of Crailsheim.

At a final dinner on Friday evening, Mayor Zundel introduced Johannes Feuchter, the new exchange student, and said goodbye to Brenda Luing,

who admitted that she looked forward to going home, but said she also felt she was leaving home.

A booster band complete with accordion and drums accompanied the host families and choir members as they joined arms and swayed to the music.

The feelings of 90 Worthington visitors are impossible to sum up, but a choir member perhaps said it best: “My best dreams never told me it would be like this.”

Three Germans who remember the gifts Worthington gave.

“Fish and visitors smell in three days,” David Blegen commented when inquiring of the German hosts if it wasn’t a burden to entertain nearly 90 American guests for 12 days.

“Our only regret is that you cannot stay longer,” was the reply again and again.

“You must remember what you have done for us,” said Isolde Matthes, a leader in the Worthington-Crailsheim partnership and initiator of the

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EXCHANGE From Page M9

choir exchange. Frau Matthes officially retired from teaching at the Albert Schweitzer Gymnasium last September, but has taught regularly as a substitute since.

You were there when no one else was,” she said.

“My father was Dean of St. Johannes Kirche at the time of the war. The deanery was spared from bombing, but I’ll never forget opening boxes of German Bibles sent from Worthington. My father set up tables at the back of the church. A special service was held to give thanks for Worthington and to distribute the Bibles. It was a very emotional time.”

Isolde worked tirelessly during the choir’s visit to take care of the students’ and chaperones’ needs.

She led the students in their tours of nearby sites and was always in front, putting the American group to shame with her energy and durability.

“When I heard Hitler speak in the stadium at Munich, I could not applaud,” she said. Her eyes revealed that the past is easily uncovered.

“I sensed that something was in error.

“But you must remember that people had no jobs. Any national pride

that remained after World War I had been stripped away by the Treaty of Versailles.

“Hitler restored the national pride for a time.

He gave people jobs. It is difficult to be political if you are hungry.

“The German police sat under my father’s pulpit, recording every word, listening for any word that went against the state. It became difficult to trust anyone. On every school staff there was an informer. Children were asked to report on their parents.

“We did not know what was happening to the Jews until the end of the war. We heard rumors, but rumors were rampant during those years.”

Crailsheim had been deserted by the SS troops in 1945. American troops returned to capture the city, not realizing that the Germans had retreated.

“It was American bombs that destroyed Crailsheim, but we felt such relief that it was over that we never blamed Americans,” Isolde said. She said, however, that her father never recovered from the guilt that he had not stood at the town gate with a white flag to indicate that the Germans had gone.

Lore Fach, a sports teacher at the Gymnasium and also a leader in the Worthington-Crailsheim partnership, as 7 years old at the start of the Hitler movement. She was a

member of the Hilter Jungen (youth). “We thought it was fun — we didn’t know.”

She was 18 when Crailsheim was destroyed.

“Any youthful idealism I had disappeared.”

Lore’s home was entirely destroyed. All that remained was a clock that hangs in her home today.

“My family hesitated to take things from the Worthington donations because my father had been elected mayor, and we didn’t want to be thought of as greedy.

You must realize that the war had ended in 1945.

It was 1947 that Worthington sent us help. For two years we had worked and scraped to exist in a bombed-out city. When the boxes arrived, it was like heaven.” Ears filled her eyes when she recalled those days in 1947.

The television special “Holocaust” was shown in West Germany via satellite.

“I could not watch it,” said Lore. “To watch it was to relive the horror.”

As her voice trailed off, she said, “When I was a little girl, my father used to slap my hand when I mentioned HItler, but I was too young. I didn’t know. … The people didn’t know.”

Luise Frank, 83 years old, sat at a table in the back room of her family’s cafe, Cafe Frank, and visited with American visi-

tors about the days when she received curtains and clothing from Worthington, MInnesota.

“I still have those curtains,” she said. “I always will.”

Luise has the original lists of clothing distribution.

“It was important that everyone got something,” she said. The first goods went to those who had lost everything in the air raids.

“You cannot imagine what it was like to hold something in our hands that was not burned or destroyed.” The Cafe Frank had been wiped out, but it has been rebuilt and is one of Crailsheim’s finest eating places.

“The contributions filled our kindergarten building to the ceiling. We guarded the shipments through the night until we could get them distributed. For two years we had barely existed, had worn only old uniforms. Then came the packages.”

Speaking through an interpreter, Mrs. Frank said that the townspeople had had no soap for several years, only a rough mixture of sand and soap.

So bars of soap were in great demand. “And chocolate pudding. What a treat! We were overjoyed.”

WHS choir director David Blegen gets his feet wet in the Rhine River during the 1980 visit of the group to Crailsheim, Germany.

Mrs. Frank left the room for a few minutes and returned with a charred bottle of wine that had survived the bombing. The American

visitors passed the bottle around and understood a little better why Worthington will never be forgotten in Crailsheim, West Germany.

The choir from Crailshem, Germany, performs in 1981 at Westminster Presbyterian Choir directors Joachim Scharr and David Blegen raise their hands together in Church in Worthington during the second phase of the first choir exchange between triumph at the conclusion of a 1981 concert at Westminster Presbyterian Church in the two sister cities.

Worthington.

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Willkommen zu Worthington!

Welcome to Worthington!

We hope you enjoy all of the things our fine city has to offer. We are proud to call Worthington home and proud to have Crailsheim as our sister city.

Fifty Years.

Leaders in quality.

ETY SAPFIG

One Mission.

Leaders in service.