We are delighted to support community groups across Cupar and the town’s rural catchment – and have received this update from the Cupar & Howe of Fife Twinning Association, bringing us up to speed on the history behind twinned towns and how you can get involved locally …

Exchanging facts …

John Vaughan, one of the founders of the local twinning association, offers these interesting stats: “17,000 communities across Europe are linked.  However, the Council of European Municipalities (CEMR) indicates that this is as high as 40,000. The UK has at least 2,000 with a large proportion of these being with France and Germany.” But John highlights a decline – primarily driven by challenges from Covid and lockdowns, saying: “In 2019, there were 9,830 overseas school exchanges and visits across Europe.  By 2023, this had dropped to 6,908.”

Why Have Twinnings with Towns in France?

Post Brexit it seems more important than ever to have good relationships with some of our nearest European neighbours – appreciating another culture and learning about our similarities as well as our differences is worthwhile for people of all ages.

Our twin town, Ste Ménehould, was chosen for its similarity to Cupar: both towns are in the centre of an agricultural area, both steeped in history. There’s a lot of learning to be done from each other. In an age when social media has a huge influence, especially on the young, the Association hopes to promote interactions, communications, and visits/ exchanges among the younger generation.

They work hard and fund raise to ensure that all interested can benefit from the twinning arrangements, irrespective of income.

Pauline Galloway, chair of Cupar Twinning Association for many years has this to say: “In 2004 we had our initial meeting and various exchanges have taken place over the years. The lockdown and Brexit have had a knock-on effect of sending us back to square one. This could seem like a negative, but it’s given us the opportunity to reboot.” Pauline adds: “We can recreate our organisation having learnt what works well and be open to new ideas. I think it’s extremely important that we maintain the friendships we’ve built so far and look to create more connections in the years to come.”

She concludes: “Twinning is even more important now when powerful people seem intent on war. After all, it was set up after the second world war to try and create friendships and get to know people so that we won’t go to war with them.”

Vive le jumelage!

Need more?

You can follow the Association via their Facebook page on this link.

Want to get in touch? Drop them an email via this link.

You can watch the town’s promotional video on Facebook by clicking on the image below …

Want to visit?

We are sure the Association ca  help in your plans: for some background research, click on the image below to explore via Trip Advisor …

An invitation to subscribe …

All the work delivered by CuparNow results from subscriptions and contributions of support – from businesses, organisations and groups as well as individual readers, followers, listeners and viewers of our channels.

We are offering businesses the opportunity to subscribe to packages of support – starting at just £100.00 + VAT per year. Subscribers – and any business in Cupar and across the town’s catchment – also has the opportunity to advertise with us by buying space on our channels to engage with our ever-growing audiences.

Interested?

You can subscribe and read more by clicking on the image below …

You can also watch a short video on our YouTube channel that runs through all of the options – from free listing to paid packages: just click below to view …

Just as in 2018 when we created our unique ‘hub and spoke’ model, we want to continue breaking molds – hence the launch of our Crowfunding page. So to all of our fabulous followers, readers, listeners and viewers, if you like what we deliver in support of Cupar, please do consider supporting our work. As stated, we are NOT a charity but we support the work of many local charities and cause and – as a small, local business – we are dedicated to creating a sustainable model of support for Cupar, its amazing community and the town’s rural catchment.

Thank you!