Cupertino Sister City - Toyokawa, Japan
Cupertino Raises $28,500 for Japan’s Earthquake & Tsunami Relief
Cupertino transferred funds totaling $28,500 in the care of its sister city - Toyokawa, Japan, following the devastating March earthquake and tsunami. The Cupertino-Toyokawa Sister Cities Committee served as the custodian and collection focal point for these private, small organization, and school community donations. Funds were collected through a variety of events including direct donations, school projects, T-shirt sales, and the annual Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival. Toyokawa was fortunate to not suffer the direct physical impact of the natural disaster and will assist in disbursing the funds to those in need. Read more.
Student Exchange Program
Each autumn, Toyokawa middle school students travel to Cupertino with their chaperones. They are guests of Cupertino and the Cupertino Union School District. Each spring, Cupertino seventh and eighth-grade students are chosen to visit Toyokawa, with their chaperones, in a similar exchange.
Cupertino -Toyokawa Annual Sister Cities Student Exchange 2010
Sixteen students and their three chaperones visited from Japan, as this year’s delegation for the student exchange program between sister cities – Cupertino, CA and Toyokawa, Japan.
The hallmark of the student exchange program is a “home stay” that allows the students to experience cultural immersion by living with a hosting family for a week of their stay.
The student exchange program in Cupertino is organized by the Cupertino Toyokawa Sister Cities Committee, who also conduct the annual Cherry Blossom Festival held at Memorial Park each Spring. They work with the City and with the Cupertino Union School District (CUSD) to create a program that includes touring and attending a CUSD Middle School. This year’s program took the visiting delegates to Sam H. Lawson Middle School, the newest of the CUSD Middle Schools. With a student leader assigned to each of the six pairs of Toyokawa students, the Japanese students visited classrooms, enjoyed creating projects in three of the elective programs: art, cooking and woodshop, performed in a school assembly, and received souvenir sweatshirts that were especially designed for this year’s delegation. The chaperones visited Homestead High School and Hyde Middle School in addition to touring Lawson Middle School.
Seventh and eighth grade students of all CUSD schools are eligible to apply for the program each February. Once selected, the students meet weekly until leaving for Japan late June, bonding as a group, learning about Japanese language and culture, and preparing a short group performance to give at the Japanese host school and reception banquet. In the fall, these students serve as hosts for the visitors from Toyokawa. For more information about the Cupertino Toyokawa Sister City program, now celebrating its 32nd year of sisterhood, visit: www.cupertinotoyokawa.org.
The 2010 Student Delegation from Cupertino consisted of:
Katrina Chan, Nandika Donthi, Malka Kausar, Somya Khare, Blake Nishimoto, Sanika Puranik, Tanaya Puranik, Kailash Sundaram, Janaye Sakkas, Bhavna Thakar,Illina Yang, Edie Ye
Chaperones: Laurel and Scott Henderson
The 2010 Student Delegation from Toyokawa consisted of:
Haruka Adachi, Azusa Hashimoto, Suzuna Hashimoto, Mikado Hayakawa, Ryo Kato, Saya Kokubo, Ayaka Matsumoto, Masami Miura, Misuzu Mizutani, Wataru Murata, Michitaka Ono, Kenta Sano , Ikuma Sugiura , Natsumi Sugiura, Soshi Tosa, Manami Uchida
Chaperones: Kiyotaka Ono, Kaori Kawamura, Mami Nishizawa