It might not get done when she’s still here, but Rachael Martel has laid the groundwork for a Sammamish first.
As part of her Eastlake High School senior project, Martel has dedicated nearly a full year to finding the 13-year-old municipality a sister city.
“There’s so much to be gained from another culture,” she said, noting she first got the idea last spring when talking to a friend in passing.
That interest has turned into a passion for the 17-year-old, who has since organized a committee of community members and last week presented a list of five candidates to the Sammamish City Council.
Among that list were Cookstown, Northern Ireland; Grenada, Nicaragua; Bucaramanga, Columbia; Xi’an, China and Slough, England – all cities with connections or similar interests to Sammamish.
“It has never been to this point,” said Martel, who is now waiting on word from the council to take the next step. “A few people who have said we should do this, but have never done anything before.”
Martel, who first got her project approved last May, set things in motion in the summer at Sammamish Days.
Taking a map of the world, she asked residents to post push pins in cities they were originally from, where they had visited or where they wanted to visit, hoping to gauge public interest.
Martel was shocked at the number of red, yellow, blue and green pins that ended up in her map.
“I just hadn’t expected quite so many, so I was really excited about that,” she said.
She began attending Issaquah sister city meetings, trying to gain an idea of how the neighboring city established and has maintained its relationship with Chefchaouen, Morocco.
“Why reinvent the wheel if somebody already invented it,” Martel said. “I sat in on them and I learned so much.”
In January, Martel then formed a sister city committee, which included several influential community members like Sammamish Kiwanis president Doug Eglington and Sammamish Chamber of Commerce executive director Deb Sogge.
Both voiced enthusiasm for the project at the April 3 council meeting.
“I think that it’s really important that this effort is sustained,” Eglington said. “It’s necessary to continue our education as a community, our effort in commerce and maintaining our economic strength.”
Sogge pointed out Seattle and the success its had with sister cities.
“If they have 21 sisters cities, there must be something they’re gaining from it,” she said.
Martel, who maintains a 3.93 GPA, will be attending college next fall. She currently has her choices narrowed down to the University of Washington or Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa.
Wherever she goes, her involvement in the project helped her decide she will focus on studies.
Unfortunately for Martel, there is also the likelihood it could take more than a couple of months to finish the project.
She knows there’s a good chance she won’t get to see it all the way through. Spending well over the required 60 hours of work required for the senior project, that is a bit difficult to digest.
At the same time, Martel also realizes she has exceeded her own expectations.
“Last May, I was looking at it like even if I can get this word out I’ll be happy, but look what’s happened,” she said. “It’s been because of the help of the people who are on my committee, it’s been because of the help of the people who put these pins in during Sammamish Days. I couldn’t have done this without people looking at this and saying ‘I’m going to help.’”
