Jill Schramm/MDN Shown at the Sisters City document signing Wednesday in Minot City Hall are, from left, Rolf Haugen of Skein, Norway; Minot Mayor Tom Ross; Minot Area Chamber EDC Board Chair Cassidy Hjelmstad; and Norsk Hostfest Executive Director Searle Swedlund. The screen shows representatives of Skien who joined the Minot representatives virtually.

Representatives of Minot and Skien, Norway, picked up their pens to offer their signs of good will and cultural exchange on Wednesday.

Gathering at Minot City Hall at 8 a.m. to renew a sister city agreement that has been in place since 1981 were Minot Mayor Tom Ross; Cassidy Hjelmstad, chair of the MInot Area Chamber EDC Board; Laura Dokken, business manager with Minot Public Schools; Dr. Steve Shirley, Minot State University president; Searle Swedlund, Norsk Hostfest executive director; and Rolf Haugen, a former city manager from Skein who is visiting Minot this week for Norsk Hostfest.

Joining them virtually from Skien during their mid-afternoon were Mayor Marius Roheim Aarvold; Guro Honningdal, head of the Skien Cultural Department; and Rune Eide, Cultural Department adviser.

“Our sister city agreement really is a testimony to what this week here in Minot is all about. It’s about people coming back home. It’s about reuniting with friends, making new friends and sharing what we all share and that’s the culture, tourism, traditions that we celebrate every year here with Norsk Hostfest,” Ross said.

Roheim Aarvold said it is more important than ever that countries come together in a more difficult world.

“We need a friendship like ours, and I think that the world needs more of these agreements. We are a bright light in these sometimes dark times,” he said.

Shirley told of the Skien hospitality to students who traveled there last year, mentioning another trip planned by the university choir next May.

“It’s just such a wonderful time, a wonderful opportunity for our students to get a chance to see where many of their grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents came from. With all of the ties and connections to Scandinavia, and specifically to Norway, we look forward to many more years of exchanges, opportunities for our students, for our professors and folks at Minot State University,” he said.

“On behalf of the Minot Area Chamber EDC, we are just so grateful for the sister city agreement,” Hjelmstad said. “This partnership has been in place since 1981, celebrating culture, celebrating economic development, sharing business, and the relationship just continues to grow stronger and stronger each year.”

The agreement renewal is for three years.

Swedlund spoke about hundreds of volunteers coming together to transform the North Dakota State Fair Center into a space that welcomes people into another world. Norsk Hostfest kicked off Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. The festival runs through Saturday.