Local students selected to travel to Hanamaki, Japan, in 2020 continue to wait for their long-delayed trip, but on Wednesday they will get to virtually visit Hot Springs' sister city via the Garland County Library, and the public is welcome to tag along.
"We're going to get the students together that were originally supposed to travel to Japan last June, and then this June, and then it looks like it will probably be next June before they can actually travel there," Mary Zunick, executive director of the Hot Springs Sister City Program, said.
"Normally the student delegation travels to Japan in the summer, and there's kind of a normal itinerary of the schools that they visit and the sites that they see, so I was talking with the International Department in Hanamaki, kind of brainstorming what the library program could be this month," she said, referring to an ongoing virtual series she has been doing with the library that explores the Sister City Program.
"And so we decided it would be a great opportunity to introduce the students to what they have to look forward to next year when they ultimately get to go, so we are going to do a virtual tour of Hanamaki," she said. "They'll get to see a little bit of what they have been looking forward to for two years."
The program will show photos from previous trips students have made to Japan, Zunick said, noting, "It'll be kind of the highlights from past years."
As it is part of the library's series, the virtual tour will also be available to the general public.
Video not playing? Click here https://www.youtube.com/embed/qOF0vvQB55c
"This program, the public can enjoy the tour of Hanamaki along with the students at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, or they can go back to the Garland County Facebook page or their website any time in the future and see this same footage," Zunick said.
The series at the library has been a success, she said, "It's kind of fun to watch how many people see these videos. You know, when you're watching them, you have ... 70 people view them live, but then you end up with several hundred who view them over time."
These students have been working toward going to Japan since 2019, and Zunick said they will eventually get to go.
"The students were excited to travel in June of 2020, but that didn't happen, so we said we will do it in 2021, and again the pandemic raged on, I am just so grateful and appreciative of the resilience of the students of just sticking with it and hopefully all of them will be able to go," she said.
Some of the students will have already graduated by 2022. Under normal circumstances, the program is only open to students in grades eight through 11, but Zunick said they are making an exception for the graduates.
"These students, it's no fault of their own that this has happened and so we absolutely want them to be able to have the opportunity to travel to our sister city," Zunick said.
