AGAWAM — The Agawam City Council recently voted unanimously to re-establish a sister city relationship with Reggio Calabria, a city at the southern tip of the Italian peninsula.
The two had already established a relationship in 1999, leading to the creation of a sister city committee in Agawam, but interest had faded since then and the committee became inactive.
“We’re optimistic that we can make it go this time around,” said Mayor Christopher Johnson, who sponsored the resolution to re-establish it, along with Council Vice President Anthony Russo.
Russo’s father, Louis Russo, then a representative for the Agawam chapter of UNICO, was one of five people Russo noted as helping establish the original sister city relationship. The others were Johnson — then serving in his first stint as mayor — Bill Euliano, John Negrucci and Anthony Bonavita. Also involved was Giuseppe Polimeni, the former Italian vice consul for Western Massachusetts.
Reggio Calabria was chosen because of its relationship to the large Italian community in town.
“There were a number of residents of Agawam whose roots traced back to that area,” said Johnson.
Russo said that Polimeni and him had talked about it in passing, but started working on re-establishing the relationship in August. That involved a slew of meetings to ensure everyone was on board, including with Paul Picknelly, the current Italian honorary consul for Western Massachusetts, and with representatives of Reggio Calabria.
“I’m back in office here, and the mayor of Reggio Calabria is the son of the mayor that originally established it 25 years ago. So there was kind of a feeling that everything kind of fell into place,” said Johnson.
Russo and Johnson said the program would be paid for by fundraisers and other forms of private funding, costing no money to Agawam taxpayers.
Russo said the town hopes to establish a student exchange program where Agawam students go to Reggio Calabria and Reggio Calabria students go to Agawam for a couple weeks. The students would learn about the art, culture, business, food, architecture and language of the city they visit.
“It’s really a great learning thing and broadens the horizons of the students,” said Russo.
Johnson said the relationship has cultural and economic aspects, as well. Those would involve trips between the cities and links between its businesses. For the latter, he noted that West Springfield’s sister city of Dingle, Ireland, has a booth at the Big E. He hopes Reggio Calabrian is equally interested in Agawam products.
Russo said the goal of the program was to broaden the horizons of each city’s students.
“We live in such a big beautiful world. Many people don’t even realize how much more is out there. This really helps get that information out there,” he said.
Johnson said the relationship would be beneficial for the city’s Italian community, and the Italian language program at Agawam High School.
At the City Council’s Oct. 21 meeting, councilors showed support for the resolution re-establishing the sister city relationship.
“I’m a huge supporter of this,” said Councilor Edward Borgatti.
He said Euliano, Negrucci and Louis Russo were “legends in town” and suggested doing some kind of dedication to them in the future.
Councilor George Bitzas also showed support and discussed the ties between Reggio Calabria and Greece, the country of his own heritage.
The council approved the resolution 10-0. Councilor Robert Rossi was absent.
A seven-person sister city committee would help establish the program. Johnson said he will try to appoint its members by the beginning of November. He encouraged anyone interested in serving on it to reach out.
