Each year the
Mt. Pleasant Area International Relations Council (MPARC) raises funds to help local area high school students spend almost two weeks in Mt. Pleasant’s sister city, Okaya, Japan. The cultural experiences and relationships they build are priceless, says Keith Tollenaere, the board president for the MPARC.
The nonprofit, volunteer-run organization has been around for 59 years, and facilitates the sister-city relationship between Mt. Pleasant and Okaya, Japan.
Tollenaere says many sister city programs were established post WWII as a way to establish relationships between the citizens of former enemy countries.
“It’s pretty common that a lot of the older sister city programs were with Japanese cities,” he says. “Although, since then, they’ve been established with countries all over the world. It’s a way to have a cultural exchange between different countries.”
Tollenaere’s duties include leading board meetings, planning interactions with Okaya, assisting with planning and logistics of hosting students, and facilitating fundraising for the program.
![]()
Photo Courtesy Keith TollenaereStudents in front of Mitsuba after a tour of the plant.
“There’s been a number of different activities we’ve done, but our primary role that we continue at this point is the student exchange program,” Tollenaere says. “Every year, we’ll either host or send high school students to Japan or receive them from Japan.”
The student exchange program has been going on for about 30 years, says Tollenaere.
Throughout that time, there have been a few different cultural installations put in across the Mt. Pleasant community that reflects the sister-city relationship. Every 10 years, there’s a different celebration—from adult exchange programs to a rock and plaque in Nelson Park featuring cherry trees from Okaya.
Typically, five to 10 sophomore or junior high school students from Mt. Pleasant and surrounding areas participate in the student exchange program, where they are able to spend time and experience culture in Okaya, Japan for about 10 to 12 days in August. Students spend time with host families, visit City Hall, meet the Mayor, explore local museums, parks, mountains, lakes and Matsumoto Castle.
![]()
Photo Courtesy Tami MeltonStudents visiting the sister city exhibit at the Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum.To make this cultural experience possible, the Mt. Pleasant Area International Relations Council
does fundraising throughout the year to provide scholarships that typically cover about half of the cost to the student.
Although it costs up to $2,000 per student, Tollenaere says the benefits of the experiences and relationships built are even more valuable.
“Personally, I’ve been involved for a little over 20 years, and I still keep in contact with individuals that we met early on,” he says. “This summer, there were several separate groups of students that had been here in the past and came back to America to visit their host families on their own.”
“There have been other students that decided to come back and go to Central Michigan University,” he continues. “We’ve had a number of our Mt. Pleasant students that we’ve sent who have decided to learn Japanese or who have moved to Japan to teach English.”
“It’s kind of another world that’s opened up to people,” Tollenaere explains. “There’s some percentage of students that fall in love with it, and it’s really life-changing—even changing the direction of their life and career.”
Tami Melton, a violin teacher, has lived in Mt. Pleasant area for the last 17 years with her husband who is an instructor at Central Michigan University. Around 2015, her friends reached out to her asking if she’d be interested in hosting a student exchange participant.
“I’m Japanese-American, and I was interested in giving our kids an opportunity to learn more about their Japanese ancestry,” Melton says.
Her family hosted a female high school student from Okaya in 2015 for 12 days. Hosted by the International Relations Committee, the students went on field trips to Mackinac Island, to Dow Gardens and a Great Lakes Loons baseball game, they toured CMU campus, and explored the tribal area in Mt. Pleasant. During the evenings, students spent time with local families from around the county, enjoy dinner and the day-to-day life of American culture.
In hosting, Melton was a bit apprehensive about a language barrier initially between her family and the student, Fuka.
“I don’t speak a lot of Japanese; I wasn’t raised learning the language although I was very familiar with the culture,” she says. “I was a little bit worried to have someone in our home that we wouldn’t be able to communicate with, because her English was very limited, but we found so many ways to communicate that it wasn’t a problem. Just having that time to get to know somebody at that level was really an incredible experience.”
Just last fall, the student even returned to Mt. Pleasant to visit again, and their relationships remain strong today. The Melton family has hosted participants three times over the years, including host chaperones. Her son, Spencer, has even participated and visited Japan last summer.
“Spencer is Japanese, so he has a natural curiosity for it,” she says. “We traveled to Japan in 2017 and had a great experience as a family. I think he was really excited to go back again. It was a big adjustment being on his own in another country.”
Spencer shared a love for soccer with his host family, plus they sang karaoke together, and enjoyed Japanese cuisine during his time there.
Melton says this type of program helps people open up their minds to a new perspective, language, and can be a unifying experience.
“Traveling helps us learn to be a lot more appreciative of different languages,” she says. “It’s a great experience to broaden our perspective and to also realize how similar we are, even though we are so very different. There are so many things we as humans share, and it’s not that hard to make a connection with people when you really are coming from a place of understanding.”
![]()
Photo Courtesy Keith TollenaereAt the Isabella Sportsman’s Club following an opportunity to learn and practice archery.
During the pandemic, the Mt. Pleasant Area International Relations Council had to
put the student exchange program on hold, and Tollenaere says they’re still trying to rebuild after a loss of momentum.
The organization is interested in having more community involvement, and is seeking out residents who are interested in hosting students, being a board member, a donor, or helping with fundraising efforts.