As Councilmen Chip Henderson and Russell Gilbert darted in and out of doors after Tuesday's City Council agenda session last week, they waved to a group of two dozen visitors standing around Chattanooga's seal imprinted in the ground. They had just finished a tour of City Hall.
But they weren't school children, which became apparent from the brusk accents and nods. The visitors were from Chattanooga's sister city, Hamm, Germany.
As a part of an adult exchange program with Hamm, the group visited Chattanooga and hit some of the tourist favorites, but most importantly got to connect with America through her people, said Karen Claypool, president of the Chattanooga Sister Cities Association.
After a long absence, she's happy to have the adult exchange with Hamm back.
"It had been passed along to a school exchange, and I wondered why we didn't have the adult exchange," Claypool said. "So we finally restarted it, and now we'll alternate between them coming here and then us going there [each year]."
Annette Daelman, Claypool's German counterpart, said she's enjoyed all of her trips to Chattanooga in her lifetime and is glad to be sharing the city with fellow Germans.
"No matter who we bring over here, we aim to make connections and bring people together," she said. "We want to meet people and learn new things about America and life."
While Chattanooga has hosted and exchanged students with Germany for years, welcoming adults further fulfills the mission of the Sister Cities Association: developing global friendships while traveling.
Chattanooga became a sister city with Hamm in 1975 after Dr. Robert Collins of Chattanooga transferred to Hamm to work for DuPont. He formed a friendship with the mayor of Hamm, which lead to the partnership.
Hamm, like Chattanooga, is an industrial city that is divided by a river. The two are also similar in size, and still today, transfer employees between DuPont here and in Hamm.
Next year, Claypool will accompany a group of Chattanoogans to visit Hamm.
"This is completely open to the community. All you have to do is be a member of the Sister Cities Association and we'll let you know when we're organizing our next trip," she said. "We do a lot of fun things throughout the year, too."
Chattanooga is a sister city to five other cities: Wolfsburg, Germany; Wuxi, China; Givatayim, Israel; Nizhnii Tagil, Russia; and Gangneung, Republic of Korea.