Kenilworth will officially sign a twinning agreement with Sicilian town Roccalumera this Thursday (January 20) nearly two years after plans were agreed.

Having waited since February 2020 for a chance to sign the agreement in person, members of Kenilworth Twinning Association will instead join the Mayor of Kenilworth Cllr Peter Jones and Mayor of Roccalumera Dr Gaetano Argiroffi on Zoom this Thursday to make the twinning official.

Kenilworth, which is already twinned with Bourg-la-Reine in France and Eppstein in Germany, has held a Friendship Agreement with Roccalumera since October 2009.

Residents last travelled to the town on the north-east coast of Sicily in 2019 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the agreement.

And having waited such a long time to get the next stage finalised, KTA said it was "relieved" to have the signing day arranged.

"We have tried for two years to do it in person, but haven't been able to because of Covid," said chairman Tony Jones.

"It is a relief to get this over the line, we have had the ball on the line but haven't quite been able to get it into the goal!

"We have had a close friendship agreement with Roccalumera for the past 12 years, and this has developed into a strong relationship as with our other twinned towns in France and Germany."

Ties with the Sicilian town were first promoted by Kenilworth resident Gino Bonarrigo who originally hails from Roccalumera.

"A lot of this is very much down to his efforts," added Tony.

"Gino has been instrumental over many years in trying to get this agreement in place. We need to pay him credit for all the work that he has done in keeping the relationship strong over the past 12 years."

Over the past 24 months members of the association have kept in contact with all three twinned towns via Zoom calls, and plans have already been agreed to send representatives to Bourg-la-Reine in May to celebrate the 40th twining anniversary there.

Most importantly though, the KTA stressed how twinning continues to be important.

Tony said: "Twinning is about one word – friendship.

"Bearing in mind the UK is in a post-Brexit mood, organisations like ours, which maintain friendly relationships with foreign countries, perform a valuable service.

"We are promoting Kenilworth and Warwickshire as tourists destinations and in return they are promoting that coast of Sicily in the same way.

"Our emphasis now is also on getting younger people involved, particularly A-Level students that are studying foreign languages, we can help promote opportunities for them to experience life in those countries."

Anybody interested in finding out more about the Kenilworth Twinning Association can contact Tony at [email protected]

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(Header image by Jermome Bon via wikimedia commons)