ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Teens from Rockford’s sister city, Ukraine, are visiting the Forest City this week, where they’ll tour the UW Health Sports Factory and enjoy a mini-concert at the Coronado Theater.
Ten teenagers from Brovary go to Rockford for 9 days.
Brovary became a sister city in 1995 after a visiting football team from Kiev proposed a sister city arrangement with Brovary, a suburb of Kiev.
Two years ago, when Russia invaded Ukraine, a group of teenagers were invited to Rockford to escape the tragic reality in their home country.
Mareea Zmloak, 15, said the trip was one of the best birthday presents she could have asked for.
“It was a surprise to me because my mom did it for my birthday. I told my mom I wanted to go to America. And she said, okay, I’m going to (do my best). And here we are,” she said.
Guide Olena Korovina said the trip is especially important for the group.
“Unfortunately, they lost their fathers who protected our beloved Ukraine. This is a great, great opportunity for our children, to make them forget for a moment what our reality is,” Korovina said.
Valeria Zinchenko said: “We are sometimes afraid because of the war, because of the risk of being attacked, it is not stable in Ukraine. It is stable and calm here and I like it.”
Zmloak said the experience in Rockford was better than she had hoped.
“(Rockford is a) beautiful city, an incredible city. And I like it here. I had a trauma when I was in Ukraine. But here I can kind of chill out, because there’s no war. There’s no scary noises and I can just relax here,” she said.
The group will stay in Rockford for the rest of the week before returning to Ukraine.
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