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Thematic Timeline of Events

Visits • Humanitarian Aid Projects • Cultural Programs • Educational Programs • Local Outreach • Corporate History

(Visits shown in red lasted more than a month.)

April 1989. Peter Garrett, Jessica Garrett, and Natalia Kempers make an exploratory visit to Kotlas.

June 1990. A four-person delegation from Kotlas, led by Mayor Victor Zverev spends six days in Waterville. During the visit, the mayors of Waterville and Kotlas sign a sister city accord.

April 1991. Mary Coombs leads a citizen delegation, including four Winslow High School students, to Kotlas.

June 1991. A delegation of nine people, headed by the Waterville mayor David Bernier, goes to Kotlas.

February – December 1992. Kotlas exchange students Lena Vologdina and Natasha Tarasova attend Winslow High School.

April – May 1992. David and Patricia Hanson go to Kotlas to await the arrival of our cargo container of humanitarian aid and to assist with the distribution of its contents.

May – June 1993. Renee Coombs spends six weeks in Kotlas as an exchange student. Her parents, her sister, and four others join her at the end of June.

September 1993 – June 1994. Anya Yegorova of Kotlas studies at Winslow High School.

January – May 1995. Sasha Shubin, a Kotlas area school principal and physics teacher spends four months in the Waterville area. He visits schools and businesses, gives talks to school children and adults about life in Kotlas and Russia, teaches Russian, and spends time in homes exchanging views.

August 1996. A fifteen-person delegation visits Kotlas.

June – July 1997. Kotlas artists Viktor Korotayev and Andrei Ikonnikov spend six weeks in the Waterville area as part of an art exchange. At the same time, human rights activist Irina Dubrovina comes to Waterville for cataract surgery.

October 1998. Kotlas residents Yuri Tushin, Inna Tushina, Zina Yegorova, and Irina Reznichenko spend two weeks in the Waterville area.

February 1999. Twelve Kotlas students and two adult chaperones come to the Waterville area as a part of the Rivers Project.

June 1999. Eight Waterville area students and two adult chaperones go to Kotlas in the Rivers Project exchange visit.

September 1999 – June 2000. Kotlas students Marina Abakumova and Marina Zazhigina attend Waterville High School and Winslow High School, respectively.

June 2001. Two Waterville area residents attend the First International Scientific Conference of Young Scientists and Students in Kotlas.

March 2002. A Kotlas teacher comes to participate in the Russian Sampler.

August 2002. An eleven-member group visits Kotlas.

March 2003. A Kotlas teacher and two high school students come to Waterville to participate in Russian Sampler.

July 2003. A local artist, Milton Christianson, visits Kotlas to participate in an international art seminar.

June 2004. The mayor of Kotlas leads a five-person delegation to Waterville.

August 2005. Twelve area residents, including Waterville Mayor Paul LePage visit Kotlas.

March 2006. A Kotlas teacher, her husband, and two high school students come to Waterville to participate in Russian Sampler.

September – October 2006. Four doctors and a nurse from Kotlas spend ten days in Greater Waterville.

March 2007. A piano student from Kotlas and an English teacher from Archangel come to Waterville for Russian Sampler.

June 2007. Kotlas Connection Co-Chairwoman Ellen Corey goes to Kotlas to represent the Kotlas Connection at Kotlas's ninetieth anniversary celebrations.

January – February, 2008. Retired anesthesologist Ken Green spends three weeks in Kotlas teaching English.

March 2008. An two teenage girls from Kotlas and an English teacher/school principal from a nearby town come to Waterville for Russian Sampler.

July 2008. Six Kotlas Connection members go to Kotlas.

December 2008. The Kotlas Connection organizes a weeklong visit by five teachers from Kotlas.

(Note: There have also been numerous brief private visits in both directions by individuals or couples that are not included in the above listing.)

March 1992. The Kotlas Committee sends a 20-ft. cargo container of food, medicine, medical supplies, clothing, and school supplies to fourteen schools, two orphanages, one home for the mentally retarded and one hospital in Kotlas. Two members of the Committee travel to Kotlas to assist in the distribution of the aid.

May 1995. The Kotlas Connection sends $800 left over from the 1992 humanitarian aid shipment to the Waterville Committee in Kotlas for the purchase of medical supplies.

September 1999. The Kotlas Connection sends another aid shipment, destined for the orphans and the handicapped of Kotlas.

November 1990. The Connection sponsors a concert by the Northern Russian Folk Chorus from Archangel.

March 1993. The Kotlas Connection organizes concerts by and an overnight stay for members of the Archangel String Quartet.

Each December, 1993 – 2001, 2003. Kotlas Connection elves decorate a Christmas tree in a Russian theme for the Festival of Trees at the Good Will Hinckley School.

Each Spring, 1994 – 1999. The Connection organizes performances by the Liberty Balalaika Ensemble to raise money for various sister city projects.

January 1995. "Pearls of the Russian North," an exhibit of black and white and color photographs by photographers from Maine and the Archangel Region, hangs at the Main Street Café in Waterville.

July 1997. The Connection co-sponsors a concert of unaccompanied sacred and secular Russian music by the Slavic Male Chorus of Washington, D.C.

Each June, 2000 – 2006. The Connection runs a food and crafts table at the Voices of the Kennebec Festival.

Spring 1991, Fall 1992 – Spring 1994. The Kotlas Committee and the Kotlas Connection hold adult education classes (once a week for a whole semester) in Russian language and culture through the Waterville Adult Education Program.

February 1992 – July 2000. The Kotlas Committee and Kotlas Connection sponsors or encourage visits by five Kotlas teenagers for a full school year. Selected by the Waterville Committee in Kotlas or by Waterville area host families, the students enroll at area high schools, with their host families' paying their living expenses.

Each March, 1993 – Present. The Kotlas Connection and the Colby College Russian Program hold a Russian Sampler to expose area middle school students to Russian language culture, and history.

September 1998 – June 1999. The Kotlas Connection undertakes a yearlong student exchange on the theme of rivers. Students in both Kotlas and Greater Waterville study their respective rivers, the Northern Dvina and the Kennebec. The Russian students come to Waterville in February 1999, and the American students go to Kotlas that June.

Each September, 2005 – 2006. Modeled on Russian Sampler, the Kotlas Connection and the Colby College Russian Program offer a "Russian Day" of workshops, classes, and panel discussions for adults to learn about Russia.

June 1990 – Present. The Kotlas Committee and the Kotlas Connection hold public receptions for visitors from Kotlas.

September 1991 – Present. The Kotlas Committee and the Kotlas Connection publish a newsletter at least three times a year.

Each Fall, 1993 – Present. The Connection holds an Annual Meeting to which the public is invited.

Each Fall, 1994 – Present. The Connection holds sales of Russian-made Christmas ornaments.

November 1997 – Present. The Kotlas Connection maintains a web site.

Most Falls, 2001 – Present. The Kotlas Connection honors a volunteer at REM's Community Awards Ceremony.

December 1983. Peter Garrett and others found Our Peaceful Russian Connection to attempt to establish a sister city relationship with Kotlas.

December 1989. Outgoing Waterville Mayor Judy Kany appoints a "welcoming committee" to prepare for the arrival of an official delegation from Kotlas the following spring. This quasi-municipal organization becomes the "Waterville Area Kotlas Committee."

October 1993. The Kotlas -Waterville Area Sister City Connection succeeds the Waterville Area Kotlas Committee as an independent non-profit organization.

August 1995. The Kotlas Connection is awarded 501 (c) 3 status by the IRS.