The City of Riverbank is reactivating its Sister Cities Committee, seeking to re-establish contact with them, and recruiting volunteers.
And they took advantage of an opportunity on the last weekend of June to raise funds to help residents of one of the towns in Mexico.
The Vive la Expo Mexico Magico held at the Riverbank Community Center, both indoors and out, on Saturday and Sunday, June 24 and 25, included a booth inside that was holding a drawing for a flat-screen TV and stereo sound bar, as a fundraiser for the citizens of Tamazula de Gordiano, Mexico. The committee is trying to accumulate enough funds to help Tamazula buy a new fire engine.
The committee intends to strengthen the relationships with its sister cities, to help “expand, fortify, and bring benefits to both cities, through arts, culture, friendship and economic support.”
Riverbank also has Sister City relationships with Fürstenfeld, Austria and Fuyang, China.
The city has had a Sister City Committee that was active in the past, but the current City Council is working to “revitalize a new direction and build a new framework with new committee members,” officials said.