The Nelson Izu-shi Friendship Society welcomes new members who support the goals of the Society:
To join and become involved contact us via our contact page
- To deepen friendship and mutual understanding between the sister cities of Nelson, Canada and Izu-shi Japan through educational, cultural and economic relationships.
- To promote world peace and prosperity.
To join and become involved contact us via our contact page
Our purpose is to deepen friendship and mutual understanding through educational, cultural and economic exchanges and to promote world peace and prosperity through cooperation and goodwill between the sister cities of Nelson and Izu-shi.
Since 1987, our society has organized many visits and exchanges between our two cities. Local families have made new international friends by visiting Izu-shi and by welcoming Japanese visitors into their homes.
Building on the vision and work of volunteers, generous donations, and the support of the two cities, our society created and helps to maintain the ‘Friendship Garden’ in Cottonwood Falls Park. That work continues with our new gate, lighting, and landscaping project in 2018.
A farewell message from the original webmaster, Malcolm Fitz-Earle:
In June 2016 the Society secured the new domain www.nelsonizushi.com and web hosting. Sections of the website were developed for Community Events, the Friendship Garden and About Us. In 2017, the thirtieth year of the sister city relationship between Nelson and Izu-shi, a delegation from Nelson went to Izu-shi in March, and a delegation from Izu-shi came to Nelson in August. Coverage of the relationship between the sister cities, and the delegations to and from Izu were added to the website. As well as background to the two sisters’ relationship, extensive photo montages of the events surrounding the delegations may be found in the delegation pages. Two unexpected features of the delegation from Izu-shi, were the display of the Celebratory Quilt produced for the 15th anniversary of the sister city relationship, and the presentation of a mug (yunomi jyawan) crafted in Izu-shi in the 1960s by a Nelson resident (thus informally the sister city relationship goes back more than 50 years). The 2017 Obon picnic event was part of the program for the delegation from Izu-shi and included dancers from Izu and Nelson. Under Friendship Garden you will find pages related to the building and inauguration of the new Friendship Gate at the west end of the bridge over Cottonwood Creek. It was a busy year and from time to time we had hundreds of visitors to the website.
As a means to increase exposure of the Society, in 2017 we launched the Facebook Group ‘Nelson Izu-shi Friendship Society’ and currently we have approximately 80 members, of whom about a third are from Japan. The FB group serves as a way to promote events and direct viewers to the website. The website itself is a contact point for the Society, and a permanent repository of the activities of the Society, and could serve in the future as a payment portal (‘store’) for fund raising (e.g. selling tee shirts).
As my term as webmaster closes, I would like to thank all those members and non-members of the Society who have contributed to the website and FB Group by providing copy and photos for posts and stories. I would also like to give a thank you to members of the local media who permitted me to use their material (with acknowledgements!). I would like to thank Keiko Fitz-Earle, who has helped me with almost all the items I have posted over the last year and a half.
As a means to increase exposure of the Society, in 2017 we launched the Facebook Group ‘Nelson Izu-shi Friendship Society’ and currently we have approximately 80 members, of whom about a third are from Japan. The FB group serves as a way to promote events and direct viewers to the website. The website itself is a contact point for the Society, and a permanent repository of the activities of the Society, and could serve in the future as a payment portal (‘store’) for fund raising (e.g. selling tee shirts).
As my term as webmaster closes, I would like to thank all those members and non-members of the Society who have contributed to the website and FB Group by providing copy and photos for posts and stories. I would also like to give a thank you to members of the local media who permitted me to use their material (with acknowledgements!). I would like to thank Keiko Fitz-Earle, who has helped me with almost all the items I have posted over the last year and a half.