West Chicago Sister Cities Announces February Featured Speaker

The featured speaker for the February meeting of West Chicago Sister Cities will be David Sabathne, who will speak about the Sister City relationship between West Chicago, Illinois and Taufkirchen (Vils) Germany. His topic, “So you want to talk about my Sister,” will explore the family relationship that has developed between our cities and what makes our communities so wildly different and interesting and so unbreakably linked.  The meeting will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 6, 2014 at the Western DuPage Chamber of Commerce, 306 Main Street, West Chicago.

Sabathne was born and raised in West Chicago and is the President and CEO of the Western DuPage Chamber of Commerce. He is married to Diane (32 years) and takes great pride in saying his son attended the same schools in West Chicago that he did. Sabathne served as an Alderman for ten-years and has served on many not-for-profit boards and commissions.

Sabathne was a Councilman when Sister Cities began and it was not long before he took his first journey to Germany. In 2001, he spent ten-days visiting businesses from electronics and furniture to the brick company and the brewery. His interest in business and the local economy gave way to some very interesting comparisons. Sabathne said, “For all of the beautiful little communities and villages that I visited and the wonderful way the families come together for each other and their neighbors; the fact is, here in America we would go crazy if we had to live by the same rules that they do in Bavaria.”

West Chicago Sister Cities, whose mission is fostering peace through education, culture and people-to-people exchanges, meets the first Thursday of each month. To learn more about the organization, visit the website, www.westchicagosistercities.com.