Fountain Hills Sister Cities (FHSC) paid tribute at its annual meeting Monday, Jan. 9, at Mountain View Kitchen, to Enrique Melendez, Ambassador at Large of the Diplomatic Corps of Arizona, for “bringing countries together in peace” to promote mutual respect, understanding and cooperation between countries.

“One individual, one community at a time. He led the way,” read the citation presented by FHSC President Christine Colley.

In 2005 Melendez was appointed by El Salvador’s president as Consul representing El Salvador in Arizona. He became executive director of the Consular Corps of Arizona, serving with four different chairpersons over 15 years. He resigned from the diplomatic corps at the end of last year.

After a long hiatus due to COVID, FHSC is renewing its student exchange programs to Dierdorf, Germany, and Zamosc, Poland. Sister Cities donated $1,000 last fall to Fountain Hills PTO to help support the local exchange activities.

Three donations were sent during 2022 to Zamosc to assist with Ukrainian refugees. The humanitarian assistance totaled nearly $40,000, said treasurer Chandra Merica. A $3,000 check was sent in February to Sister City Ataco, El Salvador, to provide disaster relief for severe flooding that damaged the municipal water and sewer systems.

Also last November, the organization severed relationship with Kasterlee, Belgium, after several attempts without a response to rekindle the relationship. A committee will be formed soon to develop guidelines for selection of the next Sister City.

Christine Colley was re-elected to the board of directors, along with other officers. Joining the board for the first time was Joanne Colella, owner of Colella Communications.

An updated website made its debut during last year at Fountainhillssistercities.org.

ASU student Michal Suchanek reported to FHSC that he is a semi-finalist for the Fulbright program. He completed an internship last year with the city of Warsaw, Poland.