All,
We went from the girls soccer training school to the Mayor’s office to give him the key to the city. Erie and Chornomorsk are both ports and earlier this year became Sister Cities. The Mayor even put on a sport coat for the event 😉
It was an easy meeting. I told Mayor Huliaiev that I am here representing the Mayor and City of Erie, though I am not in government/just business, and that I used to be a truck driver.
He looked very pleasantly surprised and said, “ME TOO!!!”
And I told him that I had a big mouth and kept getting fired so I started my own company.
And he said, “ME TOO!”
So…good bonding point :). We then exchanged keys to the city.
Gordie, Andriy, the Mayor, Sasha and Ole
Exchanging keys!
Here is the city of Erie key
We also gave him one of the hockey jerseys from the camps for Ukrainian kids we have been sponsoring along with Vorex and Lilly Broadcasting, in Erie, Buffalo, and Romania since the start of the war. The Mayor is a big sports fan. He went into a closet and came out like this 🙂
Mayor Huliaiev greeting Ole (the Professor looking sharper than all of us actually 😉)
A great day in Chornomorsk. The sister city designation is mostly symbolic, I know. But in 1812, Erie played a major role in the continuing struggle for independence for America, so our heart reaches out to this port city doing the same today.
Hopefully, we can begin to have exchanges–medical, educational, cultural, sports between our two cities, and that will knit us closer together 🙏