2010 Winter/Spring Newsletter
About Us
What is a sister-city?
A sister city or twin towns are two terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties. The global concept that promotes peace and understanding, community and economic development, volunteer action and long-term tourism.
Strategy
Since 1991, when the former Soviet Union began to move toward a revitalized economy and a democratic form of government, the Alliance has facilitated exchanges with citizens of Tula in several areas. Our ever-widening partnerships with both people and institutions have led to mutual improvement in the quality of our personal and professional lives, and in the celebration of our common humanity.
Mission Statement
We are a grass-roots, not-for-profit volunteer organization composed of citizens of Albany and the surrounding Capital Region of New York State, partnered with citizens of Tula, Russia. We have come together to provide mutual support and inspiration and to carry on a long-term program dedicated to the growth and well-being of both communities.
In this era of dramatic change on a global scale, we have learned that the most powerful tool for the improvement of humankind is the direct sharing of knowledge, resources and trust among communities and individuals. This is the guiding principle of the Albany-Tula Alliance. Long before "globalization" was a buzz word, the Albany-Tula Alliance embarked upon building a foundation of trust leading to a shared future.
Our active organization thrives on inventiveness and creative problem-solving. We have a proud history of mobilizing widely disparate resources to collaborate on projects that improve people's lives - including our own - in the process of working with the citizens of Tula.
We also serve as a model of how a group of citizens, with modem technology and old-fashioned hard work, can be productive members of the global village and contribute to the internationalization of our regions.
Tula Fast Facts
Mayor: Vladimir Mogilnikov
Country: Russia
Country Location: European part of Russia about 120 miles south of Moscow on the river Upa.
City Population: 481,216 (2002 Census)
Geography: Located in Russia's Central Federal District and borders Moscow, Ryazan, Lipetsk, Oryol, and Kaluga Oblasts.
Natural Resources: Iron ore, clay, limestone, and deposits of lignite (coal).
Economy: Metalworking, engineering, coal mining and chemical industries.
Culture: The Tula accordion is named for the city and also renowned for samovar production and gingerbread cookies called pryaniki.
Historical Industry: In 1712, Tula was visited by Peter the Great, who commissioned the Demidov blacksmiths to build the first armament factory in Russia. Several decades later, Tula was turned by the Demidovs into the greatest ironworking center in Eastern Europe.
Did you know? World famous writer Leo Tolstoy lived, died and was buried within the Tula Oblast. His estate is called Yasnaya Polyana and is open to visitors.
Breakdown
6:00-7:00 p.m. Cocktails and a cocktail buffet
7:00-8:00 p.m. Performance
8:00-9:00 p.m. Coffee and finger desserts
Reserve Your Place Now!
For the past several years this event has not only sold out, but has had a waiting list, so assure yourselves good seats for an outstanding evening.
Honorary Committee Seating
With your gift of $150 or $125 per person you will not only be recognized as members of the Songs at Sunset Honorary Committee, but you will have the best seats at the event, and most importantly, you will help the continuing work that people of the Capital Region and Tula perform.
General admission $75
Your ticket purchase is a tax-deductible donation to Albany Tula Alliance, a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) organization.
Songs at Sunset
Sunday, September 12, 2010
6:00 to 9:00 pm
Richard (Rich) J. Miller, Jr
Leading the performance of songs of travel with John Hargraves
Please join us for this elegant evening fundraising event Albany-Tula Alliance's at the home of Charles and Charlotte Buchanan.
An attorney by day with Morris & McVeigh, LLP, one of the oldest law firms in New York State Rich Miller is also a fabulous tenor who has sung with professional and amateur companies in many places from England to New York City as leads in Gilbert and Sullivan productions to other Songs at Sunset for the Albany-Tula Alliance, singing numbers in Broadway show tunes to operatic arias. Rich has recently expanded his extensive volunteer contributions in various legal, arts and civic organizations accepting the position of President of the Metropolitan Opera Guild.
Young Essay Contest Winners Tour Tula
An essay contest sponsored by the Albany Tula Alliance sent two high school students to Tula this summer. The contest asked area students to voluntarily submit a 1,500 word essay about an issue they believe U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian Presi-dent Dmitri Medvedev should work on together.
Twenty entries were received and judged by a panel of three Board Members, two of whom are educators and one a professional writer. The judges said there were many fine entries, but it finally came down to the two winners: (right) Charlotte Storch, who will be a senior this year at Bethlehem Central School District, and (left) Rachel Augustine, who just graduated from Shenedehowa High School.
The girls spent two weeks in Russia, staying part of the time with host families and part of the time in a dormitory at Tula Polytechnic State University. They learned a lot about life in Russia, and also got a chance to travel to Moscow. They were accompanied en route to Tula and back by ATA Board Member Dawn Stuart Weinraub, a retired Russian teacher from Emma Willard School in Troy.
The Alliance is grateful to all who made this contest and trip possible, and to all of the students who participated. We look forward to offering this contest again in the future.
ESSAY BY RACHEL
Russian afternoons are blanketed with a mind numbing warmth in the afternoons. The gentle breezes call in exhaustion and if you ever find yourself still for a moment it's so easy to drift asleep and to drift deeply. Snatches of Russian conversation drift through the open window of the dormitory with laughter the only thing universally understood. Russian words are so foreign and complicated to me. Each word has what seems to be an impossible number of consonants, with each sound similar to the next until the outcome reminds me of deep, garbled child's babble. For me, Russia is a country where language runs out of your head and down your cheeks like drops of disgruntled necessity, softly caressing your shoulders before slipping out into a cigarette smoke oblivion.
It was strange for me to step into Russia, a country deemed 'A Man's World' by its own citizens. My first impression was marveling at the amount of very attractive women dating very unattractive men. Flashy, slender, absolutely gorgeous women were everywhere, walking fluidly in 4 inch stilettos, the staccato sidewalks almost drowning out Tulan traffic. Russian men are less brazen towards women than American men. Any subtlety of interest is all they need, for there are plenty of women and far fewer men. Russian women are fully aware that they have ruined the quality of men themselves, often pointing out that they work hard to spoil them while lamenting their loss of chivalry.
Russian men still carry a sense of European demeanor with them. The men walk with their backs so straight it causes their hips to sway slightly when they walk, a trait for which wide-stanced, shoulders-curled-in, arms-held-out, masculine Americans would ridicule. It's also not uncommon to see men sporting capris and cropped pants, a defining clue that the wearer is not American. The fashions for men are an updated version of the mullet and a well fitting pair of acid washed jeans. Russian men also seem to have a higher feeling of entitlement, an outlook undoubtably cultivated by the Russian women.
Russian medical care is also different from America, as I have come to know relatively well due to my unfortunate illnesses in my two week stay. Although Russia has free clinics, I was advised to go to an upscale clinic, but even then the fees were unbelievably cheap. The first difference is that you are asked to wear blue plastic foot coverings everywhere you go, roughly translated as 'bahili' (I've noticed that Russians are very particular about feet, asking you to take off your shoes and wear house slippers in their homes). The doctor's office looked a lot like a business office, her desk and paperwork were in the room along with the general medical equipment you would expect to see. I also noticed that when you had to have small procedures done, unlike the wheelchair insistent American nurses, Russian nurses give you a room number and ask you to meet them there. The medical care was almost as modern as America, as I was extremely relieved to find out, however almost all of their medications are still administered in glass bottles rather than plastic.
However, the people you become close to in Russia will leave an impact on you forever, as I'm sure Americans leave as well. I had become particularly close to the organizer of our trip, a beautiful young woman named Irina, who had gone out of her way multiple times to make sure that I was healthy and happy. Her friend Svetlana, whose maternal instincts were always watching out for me and who could always make me smile. And one of the English students there, Martin, who took us out to his favorite places in town and gave us an inside look into Tula. There were plenty of adventures, memories with new people, and medical mishaps that made this trip the opportunity of a lifetime. I would like to personally thank Dawn Weinraub, contest judge and our chaperone, Mary Emerson and Barbara Webster, head coordinators of the contest, and everyone at the Albany Tula Alliance for allowing me to experience the world and giving me a new outlook on people from different backgrounds.
ESSAY BY CHARLOTTE
My first sense of Russia as a place came through the window of an old Volga as we idled in dusty traffic outside of Moscow. I saw summer-browned earth and bright pink flowers, an endless blue sky hovering low over the houses and fields. The dry highway wind was whipping in through the open window, blowing my hair back from my face and carrying the scent of car exhaust and warm water and hot, sunny grass.
In those moments, as we finally got free of the city and took off down the road to Tula, all I felt was joy. For once, I couldnt feel the exhaustion of travel tugging at my muscles. I didnt feel overwhelmed or homesick or isolated, as I sometimes do upon arrival in a new place. Instead I was simply sitting still in the back of the car, watching the countryside and breathing slowly, feeling as if I must have been glowing with happiness.
Tula is a really, really beautiful place. The sidewalks are extremely wide and lined with thick trees, each one leafing out with such abandon that together they all seem to create a solid roof of shade running alongside the city streets. The buildings are all Easter-egg colors, bright, minty turquoise and pale, creamy yellow. Some have courtyard gardens and elaborately worked iron gates, and no two are alike.
We developed a kind of rudimentary map over the next two weeks, a system of determining where we were and the direction we were facing based on the buildings near which we found ourselves. This came in handy on days when we took the city bus to the central market to browse smoothly carved wooden cutlery and chic sunglasses, and on the afternoon when a new friend showed us his favorite bookstores and banana smoothie sources.
At the center of town sits an astonishingly well-preserved brick fortress, centuries old and strikingly beautiful. While our tour guide spoke of battles fought and invasions repulsed from within these walls, I stared around, amazed, at the elegant towers and beautifully decorated chapel.
Our journey into the areas fascinating history continued over the next several days, as we visited a full-scale replica of a traditional cottage and walked along the paths of Tolstoys estate. A dessert factory served us sweet tea and delicious pryaniki, and children at a summer camp practiced their English with us and painted watercolor tattoos on our arms.
An instructor at Tula Pedagogical University taught us the Russian alphabet and explained the proper usage of the prepositional case. In Moscow, we posed for pictures at Red Square and stared dumbfounded at the treasures of hundreds of years of history.
Our experiences were wonderful, but it was the people we met and the dinners we had, the bowling games we played, the evening walks we took in the park that really made the trip special. Our host sisters and their families and friends welcomed us with open arms and made the local excursions and trips to Moscow absolutely delightful experiences. The English department staff at the university went out of their way to ensure that we were happy, healthy, and involved in local life.
So thanks, everybody. Thanks for sharing your city, your favorite restaurants and the secrets of the public-transport system. Thanks for translating the third Twilight movie and the stories of the beautiful paintings at the art museum. Thanks for adopting two confused American girls and making them feel like they belonged.
Thanks are due closer to home, as well. Thanks to our wonderful chaperone, Dawn Weinraub, who took us shopping for flowers and was there when we needed her. Thanks to Mary Emerson, Barbara Webster, and everyone else at the Albany Tula Alliance, for giving me one of the most extraordinary opportunities of my life. I have never had a travel experience like this. I have never been so involved in the life of a city, and I have never felt so welcome in a place so far from home.
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Your donation will be help to support a wide range of Alliance programs, including exchanges in the fields of business and trade, culture, education, healthcare, social services, environment and technology.
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Make checks payable to: "Albany Tula Alliance"
Albany Tula Alliance
A Capital Region Alliance
5 Morningside Drive
Delmar, NY 12054
Current Contributors
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Contact Us
Alliance Administrator:
Mary Austin Williams
Business Phone: 518-439-2627
Founding Chair:
Charlotte Buchanan
Chair:
Gerald Shaye
Vice Chair:
Peter Thomas
Treasurer:
Lawrence Shore
Secretary:
Susan Jacobsen
Press Room
Schenectady Educators Visit Tula
Click HERE to read the blog prepared by three local educators who have just returned from Tula.
“Students can write own ticket to Russia”
Times Union Newspaper, February 4, 2010
High school students in the Capital Region will have an opportunity to win a trip to Russia for two weeks this summer through an essay contest sponsored by the Albany-Tula Alliance. Students ages 16 to 18 who wish to compete will be asked to write a 1,500 word essay identifying and discussing an issue that presidents Medvedev and Obama can work on together that will improve the lives of both Russians and Americans in terms of knowledge, resources and trust. The two winners will receive an all-expense paid trip to Albany's sister city, Tula, Russia, which is south of Moscow.
In June 2007, Benita Zahn and ATA board member Sonja Stark of PilotGirl Productions were invited by the Albany-Tula Alliance to videotape a special for WHMT-PBS TV and WNYT-NBC TV. The NBC pieces shown here focus on the healthcare system. While the PBS special includes improvement in education, infrastructure, capitalism, the environment and tourism. The PBS show won a New York State Emmy Nomination.
Total Run Time = 3:30
Part I is an introduction to Tula, Russia and the purpose behind the Albany-Tula Alliance sister city collaboration. Partnership is improving the healthcare industry including hypertension, cardiac care, infection control and medical equipment.
Part II talks about the legacy of the Chernobyl catastrophe and how that still affects citizens of Tula. Screening for respiratory ailments and treatment has helped patients at the polyclinic.
Part III talks about the results of investing in the Albany-Tula Alliance. The Valeo Center helps mothers with children with autism and keeping kids from substance abuse.
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