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1984: Burlington City Council votes to establish sister city relationship in Nicaragua to protest Reagon administration policy of support for Contra war; Puerto Cabezas on Atlantic Coast becomes sister city. 1986: Burlington sends "Pdeace Ship" with 560 tons of material aid to Puerto Cabezas for war relief 1987: Ballot initiative leads to referendum in Burlington condemning US support for Contra war; Brigade of Vermont plumbers and carpenters work at Grey Hospital and construct public playground in Puerto Cabezas; Health kits sent to Nursing College from UMH. 1988: Publication of book "Sister City Side By Side", following exhibition of photographs at Casa de Cultura in Puerto Cabezas and at various sites in Vermont. 1990: Establishment of Vivero Comunal Community Tree Nursery on 30 acres of land on outskirts of Puerto Cabezas,to establish a genetic bank of quality fruit stock and train personel in agroforestry techniques. 1993: Vivero Comunal Tree Nursery celebrates its third anniversary with tens of thousands of seedlings and Nicaragua's largest citrus germ plasma bank 1994: 14 member delegation of Vermont teachers, social workers, dancers and artists travels to Puerto Cabezas; folk singers Remigio Hodgson and Tiger Omer from Puerto Cabezas sing at Ben and Jerry music festival and tour Vermont. 1995: University of Vermont student delegation spends Alternate Spring Break working at Vivero Comunal Tree nursery; Vermont delegation washes and paints Casa De Cultura and Dan Higgins sets up photo postcard studio and exhibits "Puerto Cabezas Portraits"; Abenaki storyteller Wolfsong travels to Puerto Cabezas; Champlain Valley High school begins educational exchanges with school in Puerto Cabezas; World Bank 50 Years is Enough campaign is launched with Sister City support. 1996: Theater delegation travels to Puerto Cabezas and produces collaborative theater event with youth; ongoing advisory and grant writing support for Vivero Comunal and Conades; work with "50 Years is Enough" campaign to educate North Americans about oppressive relationship of World Bank to development in Third World countries. 1997: Environmental Justice Delegation tours communities affected by multinational timber and mining operations on the Atlantic Coast; an environmental justice solidarity campaign is launched in response to massive foreign logging concessions; a former University of Vermont student collects outdated computers from UVM 
and takes them to Puerto Cabezas, establishing a community computer
training
center; Burlington Fire Department sends outdated equipment to Fire
Department
in Bilwi.
1998: Vermonters visit Atlantic Coast for Elections to Autonomous Government positions; Two students from Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua travel to Burlington for a three month internship focusing on sustainable agriculture at the Intervale Foundation's Green City Farm in Burlington; $1800 is raised to launch the Municipal Compost Project at the Vivero Comunal site in Puerto Cabezas; $2000 is raised for Hurricane Mitch relief on the Atlantic Coast; A shipment of 6 used computers is sent to the Puerto Cabezas Municipal Computer Center serving low income residents; a shipment of sports equipment is sent with the Pastors for Peace caravan. Delegation from Puerto Cabezas visits Burlington, visits Living Machine technology center; young Nicaraguan baseball player serves as bat boy for Vermont Expos baseball team. 1999: 12 Vermonters, including Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle, 
participate in Spring Delegation to Puerto Cabezas and Rio Coco area;
30
students graduate from the Burlington supported Computer center in
Puerto
Cabezas; The Vivero Comunal launches an organic compost production
project;
Delegation from Mayor's office in Puerto Cabezas visits Burlington;
Bilwi
fire chief trains with Burlington Fire Department.
2000: Sister City board members Dan Higgins, Jane Kramer, Howard Jaentschke and CCTV member Nat Ayer spend three months in Bilwi offering video training to 18 students through URACCAN to produce local community video programming. Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle and 4 families visit Bilwi in March to work on community construction projects. In June Jaime Ruiz of PuertoVision Cable TV visits Burlington and meets with Public Access television channels in Vermont. PuertoVision continues to show local videos being made by the URACCAN students. Also in June 4 residents of Bilwi receive scholarships arranged by David Hutchinson of Johnson State College to participate in a drug counselling workshop as part of the Institute for Addiction Studies. 2001: Delegation of Burlington Little Leaguers travel to Bilwi for a week of baseball in April. In August Burlington is visited by a delegation of 14 young baseball players from Bilwi, their coaches, and President of baseball federation Rudolfo Jaentschke. Along with the baseball players came the Mayor of Puerto Cabezas Guillermo Espinoza, the Chair of the City Council Sebastian Morales, the Secretary for the City Council Glennis Escobar, and the Chief of Police Gregorio Aburto. Bringing the delegation to 25 (the largest ever) was Julio Bordas, member of the URACCAN community video project, who will be working with Dan and Jane on the video project in "Port" this fall. 2002: Dan Higgins and Jane Kramer offer video workshops to URACCAN teachers, Lynn McNicol fundraises for Maureen Courtney School of Special Ed, Charley Delaney brings Rodolfo Rivera Hill to United Nations conference of Indiginous Peoples, firetruck packed with fire fighting supplies and video equipment donated by Public Access Channels for shipping to Bilwi. 2003: Visit to Burlington by Myrna Cunningham, support for URACCAN Video Project continues, Delegation of Johnson State College students travel on work brigade to "Port" in May, firetruck shipped in July. Mayor declares Aug 8 Puerto Cabezas Day in Burlington as part of Latino Festival. 2004: Video training with URACCAN's Preparatorio students living on Kamla Campus, culminating in student making of movie "Sisimiki". 20th anniversary celebration in Burlington with Neko and Dancers from "Port" who tour Vermont towns and give workshops in the schools. Performance at Contois Auditorium. 2005: Sister City conference in Managua, BilwiVision established, video exchange project -UVM and Charlotte High schoool students and Kamla Preparatory students 2006: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz launches "Blood on the Border", Video training in Bilwi, Miskito man trained at Burlington Tech school |