WPSCA stands for Western Piedmont Sister Cities Association. WPSCA was officially organized in 1992 and incorporated as a regional non-profit in 1993. On March 19, 1997 during an official signing ceremony , WPSCA made international history by connecting four counties located within the Western Piedmont region of North Carolina (Alexander, Burke, Caldwell and Catawba), together with the Altenburger Land, a region located in the central part of Germany in the former East German Federal State of Thuringia. WPSCA chose to pursue its first relationship with Germany because of the Western Piedmont’s strong cultural and business ties to Germany along with its rich Lutheran heritage. This signing created the first region-to-region partnership for Sister Cities International (SCI). Sister Cities programs promote peace and understanding through joint exchanges that focus on arts and culture, youth and education, business and trade, and community development, all of which are essential in creating, growing and maintaining people-to-people relationships and diplomacy around the world.
WPSCA is guided by the following goals and objectives:
- To develop ways for diverse aspects of sister communities to come together and enjoy a mutually beneficial cultural program
- To initiate dialogues and exchanges with people of different cultures in hopes of finding unique solutions by sharing best practices to improve the quality of life for all sister communities
- To better understand our communities and cultures by sharing our way of life with people of other countries and cultures
- To include and involve diverse people, ideas and cultures in a variety of educational, institutional, professional, technical, governmental, social and team building exchanges
- To encourage the people of the region it represents and the people of similar cities of foreign nations to understand one another as individuals, members of their communities and countries, and as global partners
- To offer opportunities for people to experience, explore and immerse themselves into other cultures through long-term international partnerships and exchanges created at local grass roots levels