For eight days we had the honor of hosting an Open World delegation from Russia on a program hosted by the U.S. Library of Congress. Open World enables emerging political and civic leaders from participating countries to work with their U.S. counterparts and experience American-style democracy and free enterprise at the local level. The five-person delegation which arrived in Pensacola included four regional representatives from Tomsk, Siberia, and one facilitator from Moscow. The focus of the project was economic development.
Their time in Pensacola was filled to brim with informative professional meetings, cultural exchanges, and interactions with local community members. These were complimented with downtime so that the visitors could experience such Pensacola pleasures as its beaches, downtown cultural districts, Gallery Night, and, of course, everyone’s favorite: shopping; and while most of our international visitors stay in local hotels, the Open World Program requires its participants to stay in homes to receive a close-up view of American life. This project would not have been possible, therefore, without Randy and Sunaree Bullock, Enid and Sam Wilson, and Pat Windham. Their generosity and openness was felt by the delegates who each remarked on their host family’s kindness.
In order to introduce the visitors to the area, their week began with a Saturday visit to Historic Pensacola Village and a lunch at a local home. This was followed by an afternoon attending the Blue Angel’s Air Show and an evening social and dinner at the home of Vanessa Mayes which was sponsored by The Global Learning Corner.
Their first full day of appointments began at Helen Caro Elementary School where The Global Corner was teaching school children about Russia. The visitors enjoyed meeting Lee Hansen & Jeanne Hooper and helping to lead the classes in their native language. Following this, they met with Tonya Green at Escambia County who gave an overview of economic development incentive programs in the area. Next, they met with Scott Luth and Kelly Reeser of the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and Andrea Moore of Enterprise Florida to discuss support mechanisms and innovations for economic development.
The appointments for their second professional day concentrated on the building blocks of economic development, transparency and accountability. Council President Maren DeWeese and her husband Jeff DeWeese got the day started by welcoming the group to the city with a historical overview and a presentation of honorary citizenship. The Russians then met with Escambia County’s Ryan Ross and Kelly Cooke who gave an overview of the state’s Sunshine Laws and discussed local government media policy. Following this meeting, they were treated to an amazing lunch at the home of Allan & Andrea Ford. The day concluded with a meeting at Congressman Jeff Miller’s Office with Joanne Mullins who talked about the role of a district office and highlighted citizen access to congressional representatives.
The next started with a fantastic tour of the National Flight Academy by the always welcoming Mark Curley. To continue with the theme of workforce training, the group then toured George Stone’s Adult Technical Educational Center thanks to the coordination efforts of Assistant Principal and Curriculum Coordinator Cynthia Miller. While there, the delegation enjoyed a gourmet meal prepared by the school’s culinary students center and were interviewed by a local news station. Next, Laurie Winterburg of Pensacola State College’s Career and Technical Education Services made sure that they received an enlightening tour of that school’s Warrington Campus medical labs.
The following day, the delegation met with Cindy Anderson at Team Santa Rosa to highlight regional efforts at economic development. Next, they joined the Pensacola Women’s Alliance for lunch at McGuire’s and then headed to O’Sullivan Creel to discuss the U.S. tax system with Larry Hicks, CPA. Kim Kimbrough of the Downtown Improvement Board met to discuss small-scale urban development, and the day concluded with an observation of the biweekly Escambia County Board of County Commissioners meeting where the delegates were presented with county pins at the start of the meeting by County Administrator Randy Oliver.
The group’s final day focused on economic development and the environment. Chips Kirschenfeld, Manager of the Water Quality Division of the Escambia County Community & Environment Department discussed the interplay between economic development and the environment and then gave the group a site tour of Project Greenshores. Mary Gutierrez of the Bay Area Resource Council then discussed how regionalism can promote the general environmental welfare of an area.
Our council would also like to extend a special thank you to Dreamcatcher Shuttle which, in its support of citizen diplomacy, provided several hours of transportation to this group without charge. 
