Bend Belluno Sister Cities Cultural Exchange
BEN ARRIVATA DI EVENTI SCAMBI METTE IN EVIDENZA CONTATTO
Later as we headed for dinner, Bill circled back, found us, and said he had come up with the idea for a sister city plaque in the Old Mill District. Two days later, we met in the Old Mill District, and Bill pointed to the spot he had picked out for the plaque with Angelo and Marco. Next year Bill had Neil Huston design and fabricated our Bella Bend Beautiful Belluno Plaque and had it placed next to Greg’s Grille.
"Sister" Rotary clubs - Belluno, Italy and Bend, Oregon.
Oran and Jane Teater were the early founders of our Bend-Belluno exchange. Oran Teater presents at the first Bend-Belluno Sister City celebration at “The Plaque.” Bill and Trish Smith are at the edge of the group to the right.
“At the Bend-Belluno Plaque” has been the site for our annual Bend-Belluno Sister City celebration for a number of years. Each year the event has grown and allowed us to introduce our summer exchange students to our Bend community.
Bill points to where he envisions the future plaque with Marco and Angelo from Belluno.
"Ciao for Now" to our good friend, Bill Smith (1941 - 2022)
From Black Butte Ranch to the Old Mill District to the beautiful and colorful flower beds on all of his projects, Bill Smith, has left his mark on our community forever.
Bill was an early and constant supporter of our Italian sister city of Belluno. It was just like Bill to be involved with many small but creative and important projects in our community. Our Bend-Belluno sister city experience was one of many projects he quietly and successfully supported.
In 2010 after a signed sister city agreement between our cities, Belluno sent a delegation to Bend to help us celebrate our international friendship agreement. At that time, we had the honor of introducing Marco Parole and Angelo Paganin to Bend.
As with all of our cross-cultural exchanges with Belluno, we wanted to share “our community,” both the common elements but also differences. As volunteerism is one of our commonalities, we invited Marco and Angelo to one of our famous Bend Fundraisers. The event was Central Oregon Community College's annual fundraiser at Anthony's in the Old Mill District. Over cocktails, we introduced Bill and Trish to Angelo and Marco. Trish, our Italian ambassador, immediately spoke to Marco and Angelo in their native Italian. As Bill smiled, Trish, Marco, and Angelo had a friendly, energetic exchange about Italy, Belluno, and our hopes for our new sister city relationship.