Loughborough Twinning Association

and a Community Link with Bhavnagar in India.

If you want to join download this form and return it to David Hogg.

Twinning Activities Epinal     Secretary: Hazel Meredith Phone 01509 212008 Three representatives from the Town Hall in Epinal, Councillor Françoise André, Stephane Wieser and Karine Mougin, visited Loughborough June 15 - 18 to meet with the Mayor, Borough and County Council officials with a view to promoting educational, commercial and cultural links. They were hosted by members of the twinning committee. Useful contacts were established and we enjoyed some convivial social events There are 37 active members of this group. New Members are always welcome Schwäbisch Hall:     Secretary: Pauline Hallam Phone 01509 646 847 2010 Visit to Germany : 29th July – 3rd August 2010 The visit was a great success and involved a welcome feast, a guided tour of the town, a visit to the Steiff teddy bear factory, a visit to the local airport with time in the hangars, and inside the planes and in the control tower. A reception in the Town Hall where the Mayor explained how much Schwäbisch Hall appreciated Twinning and gave an annual grant of 7,000 Euros to support twinning activities. After visits to historic houses, magnificent churches and an interesting car museum we had an excellent farewell get together with a buffet prepared by our hosts and with music led by Karl Ulreich. Date of the next meeting:-20 Oct 2010, 7.30 in Southfields. There will be a skittles evening at the Griffin Inn in Swithland 17 November 2010 Th Christmas meeting and social event will be on 15 December 2010 There are 48 active members of this group. New Members are always welcome Gembloux     Contact: Jenny Carter Phone 01509 233189 Our Belgian visitors were here 20th-25th May 2010. The group is posing by their Belgian coach after spending an afternoon at Belton House. Our next visit to Belgium will be in May 2011. Date of the next meeting:15 Sept 2010 7.30 in Southfields There are 30 active members of this group. New Members are always welcome Zamość     Secretary: Sue Holownia, phone 01509 214056 We have just had a visit from our Polish Friends The visit was from 13 to 18 August 2010. We had several parties at hosts homes, visited the National Memorial Arboretum with the new and magnificent memorial to the Polish contribution in WW2, visited Lichfield and Derby and played croquet, bowls and pub ten pin bowling. An important feature of the visit was the unveiling of the Zamość plaque in the market square. This was an official event and you can read the press release here Date of the next meeting:-23 Sept 2010 There are 43 active members of this group. New Members are always welcome The Importance of Twinning Wars have plagued Europe for thousands of years, culminating in massive destruction and many millions of deaths in the wars of the 20th Century. A determination to prevent the recurrence of the horrors of 1939-1945 war inspired the leaders of the nations of Europe to work for economic and political co-operation, which led ultimately to the formation of the European Union. Similarly the leaders of the towns and cities of Europe formed links with Twin Towns across the continent to encourage an appreciation of the civic and personal lives of our fellow Europeans. The EU has supported and sponsored Town Twinning since 1989 and supports around 11,000 twinning partnerships involving over 80,000 people. Find out more about EU support here Never again will a British Prime Minister be able to say: "How horrible, fantastic it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing." (Prime Minister Joseph Chamberlain in September 1938, talking about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by German forces.) Loughborough was one of the first Twin Towns, linking with Epinal in France more that 50 years ago, ten years later a link was formed with Schwäbisch Hall in Germany and later with Gembloux in Belgium and finally with Zamość in Poland following the expansion of the EU after the collapse of the communist government. Our main activity is a programme of family exchanges. Each twin town sends a group to visit Loughborough and hosts a group from Loughborough in alternate years. In addition we send and receive young people who seek work experience, there are official visits by the mayors and civic leaders, there are school exchanges, and sporting exchanges. There have been numerous bridge competitions between the twin towns, as well as visits by choirs and country dancing groups. We have helped young people from our twin towns to see something of the UK. Tomek Kossowski and Marcin Grabski from Zamość spent six months working in and learning from our local authority and now hold senior positions in the administration of Zamość Laura Moczarska has graduated with a degree in Finance and Accounting at Warwick University in the summer of 2008. She has now obtained a Master's degree at Maastricht University, and has a good job as a tax advisor with Ernst and Young in the city of London. Agnieszka Słiwa is now in her second year of a similar course at Nottingham University, both have been assisted by the Twinning Association. Contact Sue Hunt Phone 01509 210852, email soohunt@hotmail.com for further details and an application form. More details of Twinning activities can be found in the Newsletter January 2010 Edition © Loughborough Twinning Association. Last updated 31 August 2010 This information is supplied by David Walker, 337 Beacon Road Loughborough, on behalf of the Loughborough Twinning Association. David can be contacted by email: David.Walker@BNC.Oxon.org