Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership – F.A.Q.

 
What is the Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership?
The Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership is a humanitarian organization, a cultural interest group, and an ethnic network. Members include people who were born in the United States and people who have immigrated here from Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union. Once a month, all gather for a shared pot-luck meal and a presentation on some aspect of Russian or Eastern-European culture. Annually, the Partnership hosts a festival which raises funds for its humanitarian projects in the city of Pushkin, Russia.
 
How did the Partnership get started?  Why was the city of Pushkin chosen?
In the early 1990's Janet Ferguson, then director of WMU's Council of International Programs attended a conference in St. Petersburg, Russia at which she met some officials from the city of Pushkin, one of whom said, "everyone comes here and says that we have great potential now that the old order is ending, and they promise to help us make changes to reorganize our lives, but they never do." Resolved to follow up, Ferguson arranged an invitation for these men from Pushkin to come to Kalamazoo and meet with city leaders here.
 
Soon after, Marie Stoline and Dr. David Flagler of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) received word about The Russian Project, PSR's effort to meet the immediate needs of health professionals in Russia who were working under difficult conditions as the Soviet supply chains collapsed. Because of the previous contact with Pushkin, the local chapter of PSR requested that their 40 ft. shipping container of supplies collected from the local medical community be sent to that city.
 
A 12-member delegation, which included Flagler and Stoline as well as Mark Ott (then City Manager of Kalamazoo), met the container in Pushkin. While there, these delegates created friendships with their counterparts at the Semashko Hospital, the Turner Institute for Orthopedic Surgery, and in Pushkin's city government. Many of these friendships continue to this day despite major changes in the economic situations of both nations and turn-over of personnel in the city administrations.
 
How many people are involved in the partnership?  What percentage (roughly) are Russian natives?
There are no dues and no membership cards in the Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership, so there are also no membership rolls, per se. Attendance at monthly pot-lucks ranges from 20-50 people, approximately one-third of who are immigrants to the United States. Over the last fifteen years, however, many people have joined the Partnership for specific projects, professional exchanges, or travel to Russia. Marie Stoline estimates that several hundred members of the Kalamazoo community have been involved in the Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership.
 
How does the Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership benefit the city of Pushkin?
After the initial success of the first shipping container, several more containers were sent including winter clothing, non-perishable food, and school supplies as well as medical supplies. Now that consumer goods are readily available in Russia and Russians can make international purchases themselves, the Partnership makes donations in cash to AIST (the local home for troubled youngsters), the School for the Deaf and a home for retired artists.
 
How does the Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership benefit the city of Kalamazoo?
The Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership's activities and its annual Kalamazoo Russian Festival shows the care and appreciation that Americans have for other people's culture and their compassion for the problems of the world. The Partnership and the Festival are unique in that neither is wholly an ethnic club or an ethnic event - quite the opposite! Not only Russians, but Americans from all over the Midwest - as far as Detroit and Chicago and Indiana and Wisconsin come in larger numbers each year to attend or perform at the Festival; meanwhile, the Russian Embassy and Russian school students take time to prepare for the Festival each year and travel from Washington, D.C. (the only location in U.S. to which they travel).  These activities show the uniqueness of the city of Kalamazoo and help to reinforce its reputation as an International City.