This past week was Colorado Startup Week, and there were so many international visitors who came to Colorado, many of them spending time touring Colorado's innovation community with DEDO (Department of Economic Development) and OEDIT (Office of Economic Development and International Trade). There were conversations about startups, investment, technology and economic development, of course, but business relationships don’t develop in isolation. The social and cultural connections we make with people are often just as important as the formal business connections, and sometimes they are what make those business relationships possible in the first place.
There is an interesting parallel in Joze Petrich’s new book, Designing Thriving Communities: A Rural Pattern Language for Community-Led Revitalization. Petrich looks at patterns that have emerged in communities that are successfully creating places of belonging, turning ideas into action and strengthening their local economies. The premise is a simple but important one: thriving communities don’t happen by accident. They grow when people create opportunities for connection, participation and shared purpose.
That idea seems particularly relevant to what is happening across Denver right now. When people have opportunities to meet one another, learn about another culture, share a meal, work together on a project or simply become curious about one another, those connections can lead somewhere. They can lead to friendships and cultural exchanges, but they can also lead to new ideas, partnerships and economic opportunities. In many ways, that is the space Sister Cities has occupied for decades—creating the connections between people from which much more can grow.
That is really what Sister Cities has always been about, and this has been an especially good week to see it in action.
Japan, Takayama and a Very Busy Weekend
OurTakayama Committee has had a busy week, along with the broader Japanese community in Colorado. Gil Asakawa, journalist, author and longtime friend of Denver’s Asian American community, recently attended an event at the Japanese Ambassador’s residence and wrote about the experience through something Gil knows especially well: food. His writing about the art of Japanese food was a wonderful reminder that food is often one of the first ways we begin to understand another culture. We learn the history, traditions and stories behind it, but we also have the opportunity to sit together and talk.
Here in Denver, Jonathan Baer, Vice Chair and Communications for the Denver-Takayama Sister City Committee, has been organizing the committee’s biannual cleanup of City of Takayama Park. Volunteers are once again working with the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society, whose members help care for the trees. It is a small but very visible way of taking care of a place in Denver that represents a friendship halfway around the world.
There is even more happening this weekend, with Japan Fest and Spirit of Japan giving people throughout Colorado an opportunity to experience Japanese food, music, arts and culture. Taken together, these activities create many different ways for someone to become involved. You don’t have to begin by joining a committee. You might begin by attending a festival, hearing a speaker, trying a new food or spending a Saturday morning helping clean a park.
Celebrating the Colorado Dragon Boat Community
There was another wonderful recognition of community building this week when Colorado Dragon Boat received the Rex Morgan Award for Innovative Partnerships & Regional Cooperation from the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District.
That recognition is especially meaningful when you look at how Colorado Dragon Boat began. Founding members included Howie Solow, Ding Wen Hsu and the late John Chin, along with an early group of volunteers and committee members who helped launch the first festival at Sloan’s Lake in 2001.
Howie is also part of our Kunming community and has spent decades teaching and sharing Chinese martial arts and culture in Colorado through the Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu Association. Mary Lee Chin, another member of that original Dragon Boat organizing community, is a member of our Ulaanbaatar Committee and currently serves as Chair of the Denver Botanic Gardens Board of Trustees. These relationships overlap in ways that are sometimes easy to miss until you begin connecting all the dots.
Today, Sara Moore, Executive Director of Colorado Dragon Boat, is carrying that work forward. Sara has led the organization since 2017 and has helped expand its reach beyond the annual festival to include the Colorado Dragon Boat Film Festival, leadership programming, educational and community activities and the Dragon Boat Regatta. She was also named one of the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce’s 2026 Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business.
What began with a group of people who wanted to create something for the community has now grown into an organization that brings thousands of people together and is being recognized for exactly what its founders set out to do: create partnerships and connections across communities.
A Denver Connection in Brest
Meanwhile, Joanne Quirk, from our Brest Committee, has been in Brest doing the work of Sister Cities in perhaps its simplest form: meeting people.
Joanne’s visit coincided with commemorations surrounding the Battle and Liberation of Brest in 1944, and she has been talking with people there about Denver, our Sister City history and how we might re-establish more exchanges and visits between our two cities. She also had an opportunity to give a presentation about Denver and our efforts to strengthen the relationship. (You can read more about the Battle here:
Joanne wrote to us from Brest that she was trying to connect with as many people as possible while she was there. That is exactly how many of these relationships are renewed. Someone makes the trip, meets people, tells them what is happening back home and begins asking what we might do together next.
Ashenda and Our Axum Community
Our Axum Committee recently celebrated Ashenda, the Tigrayan celebration of girls, women, freedom and joy. It was another tremendous celebration in Denver, and it was especially nice to see members from several of our Sister City committees come together to participate.
Janet Lee, Chair of the Axum Committee, attended her first Ashenda in Mekelle in 2009 and has been helping tell the story of the celebration in Colorado ever since. Over the years that has included cultural programs, community celebrations and children’s books explaining Ashenda and its traditions. The committee’s work has also grown to include humanitarian efforts and its ongoing work with Project C.U.R.E. to send medical supplies to Tigray.
This year also brings another connection with Aksum through the Aksum Marathon. These activities may look very different from one another, but they all keep relationships between people alive, particularly during times when formal exchanges can be difficult.
Forty Years of Friendship with Kunming
Of course, there is a great deal happening with our Kunming Committee right now. This weekend a delegation from Kunming arrives in Denver to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our Sister City relationship.
Jeanie Johnson and Judy Constantine, co-chairs of the Denver-Kunming Sister City Committee, have been working for months with an enormous group of volunteers and partners to put together several days of activities. The September 21 anniversary dinner is now sold out, but the visit goes well beyond the celebration itself.
MSU Denver will host the delegation for conversations around education. The City and County of Denver will welcome the visitors for meetings and presentations. Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance will host a behind-the-scenes visit focused on conservation, sustainability and animal care, and Denver Water will welcome the delegation for lunch, conversations and a site visit.
Several people from the City have helped make this possible, including Victoria Aguilar and Heidi Rodríguez from Denver Human Rights & Community Partnerships, along with other City representatives and commissioners who will participate during the visit. Runing Zhang and others from MSU Denver have also been important partners in bringing the academic and educational pieces together.
The visit concludes with another kind of Colorado experience. Mary Nguyen, founder of Olive & Finch and a wonderful supporter of DSCI, will host members of the delegation for dinner at Olive & Finch in the Golden Triangle. Mary will talk with them about entrepreneurship, community-based service and some of the changes taking place in Denver’s restaurant industry.
Mary is also Chair of the Asian Leadership Foundation, which has just launched its first leadership program with 19 people from across Colorado’s business, civic and nonprofit communities. In October, ALF will host its Jade Circle Gala, this year built around a Streets of Asia concept. Rather than a traditional sit-down gala, guests will move through different regions of Asia through food, drinks and cultural experiences. I love the idea because it is another example of creating a setting where people who might not otherwise meet have a reason to start talking to each other.
The Kunming anniversary would not be possible without the many people and organizations supporting it. Our partners include Denver Sister Cities International, MSU Denver and the City and County of Denver, with support from Judy Constantine, the U.S. Heartland China Association, Buchalter LLP and Lok Jacobi.
We also want to recognize Steve Segal, Esq., of Buchalter, who has supported the Kunming celebration. Steve works with entrepreneurs, emerging companies, investors and established businesses, so his involvement is another nice example of the connections that can develop between Colorado’s international, cultural and business communities.
Where We Go From Here
We have people doing remarkable work, often quietly and sometimes without realizing how closely their work connects with what someone else in Denver is doing.
Colorado Startup Week brought international visitors here to explore our innovation economy. Our Japanese community is creating opportunities around business, food, culture and public spaces. Colorado Dragon Boat is being recognized for more than two decades of building community. Joanne is in Brest talking about renewing exchanges. Our Axum Committee continues to build relationships through culture and humanitarian work. And a delegation from Kunming is about to spend several days meeting people throughout Denver after 40 years of friendship between our cities.
There is a common thread through all of it. Strong communities grow when people have reasons to know one another.
For DSCI, the opportunity is to make more people aware of the many ways they can become involved and to make those connections easier to find. That means bringing more of Colorado’s entrepreneurs, universities, students, artists, nonprofits, cultural organizations and businesses into our Sister City communities, while also creating stronger connections among the committees themselves. Some of the most interesting opportunities emerge when these communities begin to overlap, bringing together people who may share interests and ideas but might not otherwise have a reason to meet.
Someone may first encounter Sister Cities by attending Ashenda, cleaning Takayama Park, meeting a delegation, attending a Dragon Boat event or sitting down for dinner with a visitor from another country. We don’t necessarily know where that first connection will lead, and that is part of what makes this work interesting.
There is already so much happening across our Sister City communities, and even more opportunity to build on the relationships that have been created over many years. By sharing these stories, creating new connections and inviting more people to take part, those relationships can continue to grow in ways we may not yet have imagined.
Become Part of the Connection
There are many ways to become part of Denver Sister Cities International. Membership helps sustain the cultural programs, exchanges, visiting delegations, youth opportunities and volunteer-led committees that keep Denver connected with communities around the world. Whether there is a particular Sister City that already has meaning to you, or you are simply interested in meeting people and learning more about the world, there is a place to get involved.
Financial support also helps DSCI continue this work and gives our committees the ability to create programs, welcome international visitors and build new opportunities for connection. Contributions to Denver Sister Cities International support the broader mission and help ensure these relationships continue to grow for the next generation.
And if you aren’t quite sure where you fit, that’s okay too. Come to an event, meet one of our committees, volunteer for a project or simply reach out. Sometimes becoming part of a community begins with nothing more complicated than showing up.
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