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2000 Events, Indianapolis-Cologne Sister City Committee

2000 Roundup from Sven Schumacher, committee chairman

The 2000 Cologne-style Karneval at the Athenaeum was a great success -- over 300 friends attended. I wish to extend special thanks to Dr. Giles Hoyt, George Wehrle, and all the others who helped make it such a memorable event. Plan now to attend the next Karneval, which is scheduled for 10 February 2001 in the Athenaeum.

Sad news arrived shortly after the Karneval. The committee was informed that the newly elected Lord Mayor of Cologne, Harry Blum, had become gravely ill and died on 17 March 2000. Lord Mayor Blum began his tenure only 6 months before he passed away.

On 23 June 2000 the long awaited Donie Band with more than 35 members and chaperones arrived from Cologne. The band played at several venues including German Park, the Athenaeum and Lutherwood Children's Home. More than 500 people enjoyed a good mix of German and Ameican tunes. At this point I want to thank our host families, especially Gloria Webster, for their hospitality and friendship. A heartfeld "thank you" also goes to the Indianapolis Fire Department and Deputy Chief David Grider. The department and their volunteers opened IFD Station 12 to our guests as a "youth hostel". This worked out great and our guests had a lot of fun at the station.

Earlier in the year, the Indiana Humanities Council awarded a grant to the Indianapolis-Cologne Sister City Committee for the Indianapolis-Cologne Media Project. Their generous support was made possible by the Lilly Endowment through the GERMANY IN US program.

Sabine Laubach, a music student from Cologne, arrived in the city on 30 August. Sabine is taking courses at Butler University this fall.

In September, Angela Gilmer from Channel 16 and I traveled to Cologne, where we spent five intensive days of filing that laid the ground work for a 20-minute video portrait of our Sister City, Cologne. We will use the video to promote our Sister City Relationship to new audiences more effectively in the future. We could have used the video at a recent talk I gave to the Sertoma Club North at the Scottish Rite Cathedral. The project will be completed at the end of January 2001. I would also like to say "thank you" to our friends in Cologne for their support and flawless organization during our stay, especially Volkmar Schultz and his daughter, Klaus Martin Finzel, Juergen Schumann and Frank Stobbe.

On another note, during our stay in Cologne, a new Lord Mayor was elected. We hope to welcome Lord Mayor Fritz Schramma to Indianapolis in the near future.

At this point you may wonder what the plans include for next year. Frank Stobbe from the Cologne Fire Department is organizing a group of about 12 Cologne firefighters to participate in the World Police and Fire Games in Indianapolis 8-16 June 2001. We plan to mobilize host families for our friends from Cologne during this event. Please let me know if you are interested in becoming a host.

In October 2001, the Köln-Indianapolis Freundeskreis is planning a four-day visit to our city. Under the leadership of Volkmar Schultz, the group will visit Indianapolis as part of a trip that will take them from Chicago to Boston. It is our plan to have time for tours, parties, get-togethers and presentations in Indianapolis. As usual, this will be a time of great fun that will give us the opportunity to renew our friendships.

In the last few months I have developed and mailed funding proposals for new and on-going programs. I want to thank the DeHaan Family Foundation for their generous support of the Multi-Media Project and other Cologne projects.

On 4 December 2000 you are invited to an Advent coffee and organizational meeting at 4:30 p.m. at Lutherwood Children's Home, 1525 North Ritter Avenue. I hope you'll plan to attend this meeting, and I look forward to seeing you then.