Partnership

The cooperation of sister towns is managed by The Sister Cities Commission in Roselle, a department of the Sister Cities organization operating in the USA from 1960. The organization aims at establishing direct contacts between  American society and the international community. Americans and people who have found their second homeland in the USA are involved in the work of Sister Cities Roselle – Bochnia.

The contacts with Roselle were started thanks to an initiative of the American partner. In 1999 Tom Koczur came to Poland with a mission to find a partner town for Roselle in the region of Małopolska (Lesser Poland). A delegation from Roselle, lead by the mayor Gayle Smolinski, came to Bochnia at the invitation of Bochnia’s authorities. The guests took part in “Partnership Days” organized in April 2001 when the representatives of Roselle attended the signing of the partnership agreement with Bad Salzdetfurth. A declaration to sign a similar agreement between Bochnia and Roselle was made.

The cooperation between towns focuses mostly on organizing youth exchange.

In 2010 the cooperation was extended to cultural activities. Representatives of two of Bochnia’s cultural institutions visited Roselle: Dorota Rzepka,  the director of the District and Municipal Public Library, and Jan Flasza the director of S. Fischer’s Museum.

The partnership between Bochnia and Roselle is not limited to an experience exchange between educational and cultural institutions. Thanks to the efforts of Roselle’s authorities Bochnia received 50 wheelchairs to allocate to the needy. The funds for the wheelchairs were collected by Roselle’s inhabitants during numerous charity events.

In 2013 the mayor of Bochnia, Stefan Kolawiński, visited Roselle at the invitation of the town’s authorities. During his stay, a fund-raiser for Dorotka Botkowska, an inhabitant of Bochnia suffering from cancer, was organized.