Upcoming in February 2012
The Kostroma Committee has again been chosen to receive an Open World grant through The Library of Congress.The dates have been postponed from December 2011 to the beginning of February 2012. This time the theme is Accountable Governance/Local Government.
Kostroma citizens will nominate delegates, and ultimately 5 delegates and a facilitator will be chosen by the Open World office at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. The Durham Rotary Club will be working with the Kostroma Committee on this project. We are hoping to help Kostroma establish a Rotary Club there.Just Completed!
In April 2011, 8 students from Gymnasium #1 accompanied by Principal Valery Ivanaov, Vice Principal Elena Serednichuk and parent Sergeir Morosov visited Durham. They were hosted by Kestrel Heights Charter School.
THANKS! from Co-Chair Anne Berkeley, April 2011 For your assistance with the latest exchange visitors to Durham!
Ann E. and Margaret Neely-- for all the work they did on the pot luck dinner and other aspects of the visit.
Richard and Scott Hill were lifesavers in many ways. They both also worked on setting up and cleaning up the dinner, and Richard drove on 3 days. We couldn't have done it without him!
Mary Carter from Kestrel put in an incredible amount of work recruiting the host families and helping to set up the schedule.
To all, I'm sure I must have left someone else out, so please remind me :-) The dinner was wonderful with old friends and committee members showing up to greet our guests.
September 2010 visit to Russia
4 Durham librarians paid a reciprocal Open World visit to their colleagues in Kostroma:
(1) Elsa Woods (member of the Durham Library Board and also representing the Friends of the Durham Library),
(2) Robin Lapasha (Slavic acquisitions at Duke),
(3) Kim Mayo (Media Coordinator, Riverside High School and Lecturer, School of Library and Information Sciences, NCCU), and
(4) Patricia Dew (Reference Librarian, Durham County Library).
Also part of the group were Maureen Johnson, who has hosted for three Open World visits, and Ann Evangelisto.
They visited different types of libraries as well as Kostroma sights, with homestays for several nights to experience Russian life. Each delegate also made a presentation about their work.
Then they spent 3 days touring Moscow, including the Library of Foreign Literature. Their guide there was Anastasia Kornienko, the coordinator of Library of Congress projects in Russia and a facilitator of Open World projects.
[Photo of the group taken on arrival at the Volga Hotel in Kostroma. Back row left to right: Elena Golovan, Elizaveta Bogacheva, Patricia Dew, Maureen Johnson, Elsa Wood, Kim Mayo, and Ann Evangelisto. Front row: Robin Lapasha and Tatiana Podvetelnikova.]
Also in September 2010, Ann Evangelisto presented our $2000 gift to the Kostroma Municipal Art Gallery for the bronze re-casting of Vladimir Smirnov’s sculpture “Plastics" for posthumous recognition of his talent! His work has been part of a traveling exhibition this fall.
[Photo of the sculpture both in bronze and in plaster.]
Kostroma Public Holidays
