When you hear the word diplomacy, you may envision national leaders and global summits, but that's only part of the equation.

Soft diplomacy fostered through personal interactions and cultural education, is a core part of a global society, too.

It's a charge that Lexington's sister cities takes to heart.

Sister cities is a long term formal partnership between two cities in different countries.

This is a program that was started by President Eisenhower in 1956.

Shortly after World War Two had ended.

He called for cities around the world to find yourself a sister city.

Get to know each other.

This was his way of of trying to get world peace.

Lexington actually was one of the first cities to find a sister city of Deauville, France, in 1957.

So that's our oldest sister city.

But we have three others now.

It's County Kildare, Ireland, and Sinn Haddock and Japan and Newmarket, England.

All of our sister cities have our horse areas.

Lexington wanted a common bond with all of their sister cities, and of course, it was natural to choose the horse, since bats are one of our main industries here.

So all of our sister cities are horse areas of those of the countries that they're located in.

We have annual programs every year that will send about approximately 50 students every year.

High school, middle school.

And it's an exchange.

So our students go over there and then their students come here.

They're all matched and so they stay in host families.

And so that's that's a very ongoing, important program that we have.

We want the students and the younger generation to learn about this, and we want to give them the opportunity to teach, to visit other countries and and see other cultures.

I can't tell you how many students that are now adults that are now married, that are now that have kids that I will meet along the way.

And they they'll they'll make a point of coming up and saying, hey, you changed my life.

That program changed my life.

Lexington Sister Cities was recently awarded the 2020 for Sister Cities International Best Overall Award, recognizing their work to advance cultural understanding and citizen diplomacy.