…reprinted article taken from the 6/21/96 issue of the Dixon Telegraph Newspaper (Mr. Clark Kelly, the writer, also serves on the Dixon Sister City Committee)

The community of Dixon will play host next weekend to a former East German girl. Danila "Dani" Boerner will visit Dixon June 29 through July 2 as a guest of the Dixon Sister Cities Committee. Dani is from a small community just outside Herzberg, Germany. She is a high school exchange student who is attending school in Kansas.

No one has had contact with residents of Dickson Siberia, Dixon's longtime Sister Cities friend, for over a year. Since the downfall of the Soviet Union, many people who lived and worked in Dickson left and returned to their native countries. Economic conditions in the country have made contact even more difficult because of Dickson's remote location.

THE DIXON Sister Cities group is not abandoning the Dickson exchange. Rather, it is putting it on the back burner and moving forward with the search for another community.

Don Snodgrass, with the University of Illinois Extension Service, did a search on the Internet looking for a community which was searching for a companion city. Snodgrass found a several but unfortunately all were much larger than Dixon.

Bev Shepherd, who is on the Illinois State Sister Cities Board, learned that a small community in Germany - Herzberg - might be interested in a Sister Cities exchange program.

Snodgrass searched the Internet and found an individual named Stefan from Herzberg. Snodgrass told the individual that Dixon's Sister City group was looking for a town of similar size. He noted that Herzberg, like Dixon, is a small town with a rural area surroundingt it.

However, Sister Cities Internation had no record that Herzberg was interested in finding a Sister City. As he explained, Dixon was interested in a mostly cultural, social and educational exchange. Stefan contacted the mayor of Herzberg and the mayor (or Burgermeister) has reportedly sent a letter to Dixon Mayor Donald Sheets' office. That letter has not yet been received.

An official of Sister Cities International (SCI) noted that with over 1,100 U.S. cities having relationships with other world cities, it is sometimes hard to keep track of communications. Even communities with relationships on record sometimes neglect to inform SCI.

Stefan, meanwhile apparently went to a newspaper in Herzberg and the paper ran an article saying Dixon might like to have a Sister City relationship with Herzberg. That brought an Internet response from Juergen Boerner of Ahlsdorf, who lives just outside Herzberg and works at a small firm in Herzberg. He also noted his daughter was attending high school in Topeka, Kansas.

Herzberg is a community about 150 km south west of Berlin and was established in 1184 and became a city in 1254. According to Juergen Boerner, the area has some industry but is mainly agricultural.

He contacted his daughter, Dani, on the Internet and she sent an Email to Snodgrass. "The people are great.... In the states everything always seems to be possible, no matter how crazy or unlikely it is, she told Snodgrass. "I think it is very important that people all over the world get to know each other and find out that we are all alike," Daiji wrote. "Herzberg is a nice little town, nothing big. But its people are very friendly and open to new things, especially after the (Berlin) wall came down. Everybody had to learn new ways to deal with life."

AS THE RESULT of Dani's Email, there were several telephone conversations between Dani and Snodgrass. She accepted his invitation to visit Dixon and to meet with the Dixon Sister Cities Committee. Dani will come to Dixon on June 29 and attend a Dixon Sister Cities reception on Sunday, June 30. She will also meet with Mayor Sheets on July 1, attend a Rotary Club meeting and the Dixon City Council meeting before returning to Kansas on July 2.

It is hoped that Dixonites will turn out July 1 to attend the Dixon City Council meeting and greet Dani.