Alameda Sister City Association Honors Nancy Li, Jiangyin Committee Chair

Alameda Sister City Association Honors Nancy Li

ALAMEDA, CA (5/4/16) The Alameda Sister City Association(ASCA) hosted a thank you banquet for Nancy Li, the chair for ASCA's Jiangyin Committee on Sunday night at Chef Wok Restaurant. Ms. Li led the successfully effort to establish a Sister City relationship with Jiangyin , China, which is located in western China, on the southern bank of the Yangtze river, 85 miles northwest of Shanghai and 30 miles north of Wuxi.

Her efforts began in 2006, when she was recruited by Alameda community leader Stewart Chen to explore the possibility of a sister city relationship with her birthplace in Wuxi, China.

After a 2007 Alameda delegation of city council members and residents led by then Mayor Beverly Johnson attended a Wuxi Sister City conference, it was decided to select Jiangyin -- which is administered by Wuxi -- as Alameda's Sister City. The relationship was formalized on Oct. 1, 2008 during an official visit by the Jiangyin delegation to Alameda. In 2013, a commemorative plaque was created featuring side-by-side images of the Park Street bridge and the Jiangyin Yangtze River bridge to mark the 5th anniversary of the agreement. The following year, Jiangyin erected a friendship monument.

Under Ms. Li's leadership, members of the Jiangyin Committee of ASCA have established a scholarship fund which provides 20 scholarships for Jiangyin students every year. At the dinner, Ms. Li handed over her duties as chair of both the Jiangyin Committee and Wuxi Friendship City Committee to Robert Ju, who has personally sponsored two of those scholarships over the past three years. After nearly two decades living in Alameda and the East Bay, Ms. Li is moving to Hong Kong this month to be closer to family and friends, although she has promised to visit Alameda on a regular basis.

Mayor Trish Herrera Spencer presented Ms. Li with a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Alameda. In addition, she was presented with letters acknowledging her service from the cities of Jiangyin, Wuxi, and from the San Francisco Consulate General of the People's Republic of China. Mayor Spencer was also presented with a scroll from the Jiangyin Committee of ASCA.

Alameda's other active and most recent (2015) sister city is Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, Philippines.

Website: http://alamedasistercity.weebly.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Alameda-Sister-City-Association-1640170049589165/

Alameda Sister City Association is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to global friendship, multicultural understanding, and economic growth by developing lasting relationships between the Alameda area and Sister Cities around the world. ASCA's mission is to build our community as an international citizen diplomacy network by establishing people-to-people connections between our citizens and sister cities.

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