Scottsdale has eight sister cities, and most residents couldn’t name two. That is partly because the program has no building, no line in the tourism brochures and no festival on the Civic Center lawn. It runs out of a post office box, P.O. Box 4563, Scottsdale 85261, under the Scottsdale Sister Cities Association, a volunteer nonprofit whose mission is to promote “the City of Scottsdale and the Scottsdale Sister Cities Association, Inc., as ambassadors of international friendship and goodwill.” What it actually does, year in and year out, is put Scottsdale teenagers in other people’s houses on other continents and bring their counterparts home with them.
The eight cities
Dates below are the association’s own, from its “Our Sister Cities” page.
- Álamos, Sonora, Mexico: 1969
- Cairns, Queensland, Australia: 1987
- Kingston, Ontario, Canada: 1994
- Interlaken, Switzerland: 1999
- Haikou, Hainan, China: March 2010
- Marrakech, Morocco: January 2012
- Uasin Gishu County, Kenya: 2013
- Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland: 2020 (see below)
Álamos came first, in 1969, and it still has its own committee and a spring-break student exchange. The association describes it as a colonial silver-mining town in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The current president, photographer Bob Rink, keeps a house there and, with his sister, started an annual photo festival with the Sonoran Cultural Institute in Álamos. Scottsdale and Álamos renewed their vows in 2019.
Cairns marked its 35th anniversary with Scottsdale in 2022 with an art exchange called “In and Around Our City.” Urban sketchers in both cities drew their own towns, and the show traveled from Cairns to the Scottsdale Artists’ School in early 2023. Kingston posted a video for its 30th anniversary. Interlaken has the longest-running student exchange. One past president taught there for nine months as a Fulbright teacher and helped coordinate twelve exchanges. Uasin Gishu, the Kenyan county around the city of Eldoret, was signed during George Hartz’s presidency of the association, 2012 to 2014.
The Killarney discrepancy
Killarney’s date depends on the source.
- The association says Killarney’s “relationship with Scottsdale started in 2015, and we officially became Sister Cities in 2020.”
- City historian Joan Fudala, in her 2026 “Remember When” anniversary column, lists “Killarney, Ireland, was established as a twin city to Scottsdale by the Scottsdale Sister Cities Association in 2016.”
That gives three years, 2015, 2016 and 2020, for one relationship. The likeliest reading is a first contact in 2015, an association agreement in 2016, and formal sister-city status in 2020. But that is our inference, and no source lays it out. A City Council resolution, if there was one, would settle it; the City Clerk’s office can search for it. Until then, this site follows the association’s 2020 date and notes the others, as our quiet calendar does.
What the association actually does
Youth Ambassadors. The core program is a reciprocal homestay. A Scottsdale student spends one to two weeks in a sister city living with a host family and a counterpart, and the counterpart then spends one to two weeks in Scottsdale. As of this writing (fall 2026), the association’s schedule lists:
- Interlaken: Swiss students in Scottsdale September 19 to October 2, 2026, and the return trip over spring break, March 13–23, 2027. Applicants for this round have been chosen, and the next exchange is 2028–29.
- Álamos: Scottsdale students go over spring break, March 13–20, 2027, and Álamos students visit around March 29 to April 2. Applications open in fall 2026.
- Marrakech: Moroccan students visit in October 2027, Scottsdale students go over spring break 2028, and applications open in January 2027.
- Kingston: planned for the 2027–28 school year.
- Uasin Gishu: Kenyan students were due in April 2026, and the visit was canceled after a visa denial.
Some exchanges are limited to Scottsdale Unified students. The association’s page marks which, and dates move, so check scottsdalesistercities.org before planning around them.
International Clubs and the Junior Board. The association runs international clubs, each with a volunteer adult liaison, at Arcadia, Chaparral, Coronado, Desert Mountain and Saguaro high schools. Club officers sit on a student Junior Board, a teenage version of the association’s own board, which runs events such as an international food fest.
The Young Artists & Authors Showcase. A yearly art and writing contest for teenagers, run with the Scottsdale Public Library, Scottsdale Artists’ School and Scottsdale Unified, with an exhibit and awards at the Civic Center Library, in recent years each April. Scottsdale winners go on to Sister Cities International’s international competition. The 2023 edition was billed as the 35th annual showcase.
Everything else. Online silent art auctions raise money. The association runs public events, including “Around the World in 80 Minutes” at the Civic Center Library in 2022, and as of this writing it has a walking tour of the Civic Center and Old Town scheduled from City Hall, 3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd., on November 4, 2026, 3:30 to 7 p.m. It also has a voice nationally: vice president Dr. Freda Hartman was elected to the Sister Cities International board in July 2025. The Rotary Club of Scottsdale lists Sister Cities among the causes it supports.
What we couldn’t find
The association’s website doesn’t say when it was founded, who negotiated the 1969 Álamos agreement, or what formal role the City of Scottsdale plays beyond the association’s thanks to “our City Administrators who have shown continued support.” Those are basic facts for a program that has run for more than half a century, and they should be easy to find. The places to look:
- The City Clerk, for council resolutions establishing each relationship, starting in 1969.
- Sister Cities International in Washington, D.C., whose member directory records affiliation dates.
- The association itself, at sistercitiesscottsdale@gmail.com. Its board includes past presidents back to at least 2012 and committee chairs for each city.
- The Scottsdale Progress for 1969, on microfilm at the Civic Center Library, for coverage of the Álamos signing.
How to get involved
The association takes membership applications and renewals on its site. The practical ways in are an exchange itself, since each Scottsdale student’s family hosts the visiting counterpart for a week or two, volunteering as an adult liaison for a high school club, or the November walking tour, where you can meet the people who run it. If you have a teenager at one of the five club high schools, the club is the front door. Its members hear about exchange trips first.