Grace Hubbard helped birth a sister city

Grace Hubbard's 100th birthday celebrated last week in the Weekly News reminded me of the sister cities project we worked on together in the early 1980s. Grace has an excellent memory, which helped to jog mine. So I'm adding to her story.

I had returned from Peace Corps in the Fiji Islands a decade previously and birthed my first baby. Ronald Reagan was president, which worried some of us as to the saber rattling with the Soviets. I went to a Peace Corps reunion that was electric with creative ideas, enthusiasm and engagement for common citizens to help shape a more peaceful world. One idea that came out of the gathering was to promote a sister city program between similar cities in USA and USSR. Seattle paired with Tashkent and La Conner paired with O'lga in the far east Kamchatka Peninsula. It was a fishing village and had an indigenous population of similar size to us.

Grace Hubbard immediately tuned into this people to people approach and together with other likeminded friends we organized a photo album of La Conner, a petition favoring peaceful relations, a song composed by Holly Graham, "Song to a Russian Mother" and letters of welcome and peace from our mayor, Mary Lam, and many La Conner families individually.

Grace was instrumental in this organizing effort because she had organized projects before and I was fortunate enough as a neophyte to learn at her elbow. We sent off the package of photos, letters and petitions hoping but not expecting it would get through the censors.

Even so, we thought, the censors might also be interested. Seven years later we got a response from a teacher and his family! Several subsequent letters and photos were exchanged and we still think of O'lga as our sister city. One never knows whatever efforts are thrown into the Universe, which ones will land.

Longtime La Conner resident Joan Cross started Balance Point, served on town council and continues to support her community.