Diane and I had a great time Saturday evening at the home of long-time Fountain Hills residents Dan and Jean Foster.

The occasion was a reception for newlyweds Jo and Katrijn Noyens. The Noyens aren’t related to the Fosters, but ever since young Jo stayed with them in September 1998, he has seemed like a son to them.

Jo was one of five young college students from Kasterlee, Belgium, who visited our community, mostly out of curiosity to see what this town was all about that wanted to join Kasterlee as Sister Cities.

It wasn’t an official visit, but we thought it would be good to show the boys a good time since Jo’s father was on the Kasterlee City Council.

A contingent of Fountain Hills Sister Cities Committee members, including myself as chairman, were accompanied by then Town Mayor Jerry Miles and Vice Mayor Marianne Wiggishoff, on a visit to Kasterlee in May 1998.

At the end of that visit, Miles and Kasterlee Mayor Walter Otten signed a letter of intent to pursue the process of the two communities becoming Sister Cities.

Our group came back from Kasterlee very much enthused about what we had found. Kasterlee has a very green landscape, yet its lifestyle feels similar to Fountain Hills. It relies on tourism for its local economy, and most of its residents work in nearby cities. The major port city of Antwerp is just a 25-minute drive from Kasterlee and it’s only an hour away from Brussels.

We eventually signed an official agreement making Fountain Hills and Kasterlee Sister Cities in Setember 2000.

Getting back to Jo, he and his four buddies had planned to stop in Fountain Hills during a cross-country vacation around the United States. After our visit in May, they wanted to see what life was like in the desert. 

The other four were Stefan Claes, Stefan Torfs, Walter Roels and Guenther Vandesande.  All five had attended the high school in Kasterlee and were going to be studying engineering in college.

Each of the young men stayed with a different family in Fountain Hills.

In the random selection, Jo ended up with the Fosters. Dan took them all sightseeing around the state.

I got to know the members of the group when I took them to an Arizona Diamondbacks game.

But it wasn’t the game that they most remember about that night. As Jo told his new bride Saturday night at the reception, “Alan took us all to Hooters before the game.”

I arranged to have a photo taken showing the five young men from Belgium being welcomed to Arizona by all of the waitresses at the downtown night spot.

I had an 8 by 10 made for each of them, and Jo told me that several of the guys had pinned their photos to the ceilings above their beds in their college rooms.

“We’ll always remember Alan for taking us to Hooters,” one of the Stefans told me on a later trip back to Kasterlee.

I don’t know if that’s one of those things I want to be remembered for.

Jo has since graduated from college. He originally went to work with an electrical engineering firm in Antwerp. Now he is working for a Kasterlee company four days a week, and he has started his own woodworking business.

This is his third visit to Fountain Hills, and the Fosters said he is always a welcome house guest. Dan said. “And we love his new bride.”

If they come back next year, they won’t be alone. Katrijn is expecting a baby that is due in February.