Scandia celebrates its first official sister city with Mellerud, Sweden | News
It’s official: Scandia has a sister city.
On Wednesday, April 20, 2022, members of Scandia’s City Council hosted a historic charter signing ceremony at the Scandia Community Center. This is the first official sister city in Skandia’s history.
Scandia merges with four other local communities with Swedish sister cities: Lindström, Chisago City, Shafer and Center City.
The purpose of Sister Cities International is to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation one community at a time.
During the ceremony, Scandia City Council and Mellerud’s 30-member council simultaneously signed the Sister City Charter via live broadcast at each location.
Scandia chose Mellerud because many of Scandia’s founding families came from the Mellerud region. Names like Abrahmason, Dahlin, Edström, Kuno, Enquist, Karrman, Scholström and Anderson.
During the ceremony, Mayor Christine Maefsky, council member and co-chair of Scandia’s sister city committee, Patti Ray, and Lynne Moratzka spoke to the audience about how special this day was. Maefsky, Ray and Moratzka are all part of the sister city committee that has devoted its time and effort to establishing a sister city with Mellerud, Sweden. Other committee members include: Dave Bakke, Sue Dickens, Cindy Higgins, Darlene Holtgreve, Sue and Paul Rodsjo and Lynnette Welsch.
Skandia’s sister city committee has already established links between the two communities such as: ancient classic car clubs, Lions Club, elementary schools, driving groups, a farm exchange, tourism and exchange programs, museum and ancestry information, commercial trade, arts, crafts and quilting.
“We are so happy to be here with the good people of Mellerud,” said Ray. “Thank you to Mellerud for agreeing to be our sister city, we feel very honored. Scandia has a well-established reputation for valuing its Swedish heritage but did not have an official Swedish sister city until today. ”
“We believe in connecting globally and thriving locally. By connecting our schools, we can promote better global citizens with a greater understanding of the things we have in common. By connecting through music and festivals, we can both enrich our communities. Through to connect our Swedish museums, we can learn more about our history both then and now, Ray explained.
“By connecting our Lions clubs, more ideas to help people will be exchanged. By connecting farm programs, more environmental and sustainable agricultural ideas will be shared and implemented. And exchanging ideas through arts and crafts will bring wealth to both our communities.” , she said.
At the end of his speech, Ray informed the audience that Mellerud, which is a community about the size of Scandinavia, receives about 200 Ukrainian refugees.
“We applaud your kindness. The world needs more societies with Mellerud’s generosity.”
Scandia will help support Mellerud by putting special donation boxes in Scandia’s operations during May and June.
“We hope this will help the refugees and let them know they are in our thoughts and prayers,” Ray said.
After the ceremony, the guests stayed for Fika.
“Coffee is between meals. It is a time for people to visit, catch their breath and take a break and at the same time enjoy a cup of coffee or tea and eat sweets such as Swedish cakes, cookies and other sweets, says Moratzka.
“Krumkake – a very thin recipe in crepe style. Krumkake is cooked on a hot iron and rolled into a conform when it is pulled from the grill. ” The Taste of Scandinavia prepared a traditional princess cake – which is a delicious sweet cake made with almond layers and covered with marzipan, “explained Moratzka,” it is considered a very festive cake. “
There was another special treat called Gingerbread, which are spicy gingerbread cookies. Moratzka explained to the crowd that in Swedish tradition, “you should hold the cake in one hand and with the other hand use a fingertip to press in the middle of the cake. When you do this, make a wish. If the cake breaks into three parts is that your wish is to come true, she said.
“But if the cake crumbles, it’s also OK because that way all the calories will come out!”
After a few giggles, Moratzka asked everyone to wish the people of Ukraine.
Donation boxes had been placed on the tables and were quickly filled as people filled their plates with the special treats.
Scandia’s award for good neighbor
In addition to the charter signing ceremony between Scandia and Mellerud,
At the most recent City Council meeting, Mayor Christine Maefsky handed out the Scandia Good Neighbor Award to locals Andrea and Greg Sandager and Susan and Paul Rodsjo.
The award honors individuals, companies and citizen groups that make society a better place to live. Councilor Patti Ray nominated Andrea, Greg, Susan and Paul for their generous contributions to spread goodwill to Skandia’s sister city Mellerud Sweden.
Last autumn, Sandager’s donated a box with its wine from Rustic Roots and Rodsjos’ coordinated delivery. Paul flew the bag of wine to Sweden on his jet plane to personally deliver the wine to the government in Mellerud.
From there, Mellerud donated the wine to a nursing home that was served on New Year’s Eve.
Rodsjo returned to Scandia with bottles of Mellerud’s own Pilsner beer and apple cider that were shared at Scandia’s Winterfest celebration.
Mayor Maefsky expressed appreciation and gratitude to Sandagers and Rodsjos. “This exchange was only possible through the generosity and creativity of the four. The Rodsjo family also gave their time, talent and financial support as members of the sister city committee.”