DE PERE — Look closesly around town and you may find traces from De Pere's sister city in Sweden.
Much like De Pere, the town of Åmål, Sweden has a focus on the water. De Pere is split by the Fox and uses the river as an economic and recreational driver for the city.
Åmål is a similarly sized town located on the country's largest lake which also helps to impact the economy.
It's a relationship that goes back to 2007 and was recently renewed last year by Mayor Boyd.
This week, the relationship writes a new chapter with a delegation from Sweden in town to continue to strengthen the partnership.
Kim Thompson is the president of De Pere's sister cities board. She says that there are three main areas that the two towns focus on in their partnership
"Our goals were to exchange information in the areas of education, culture, and economics," said Thompson.
The educational aspect can be found in De Pere's schools.
"One of the great things we've done at the high school level is we have a high school who zooms with a class at De Pere high school," said Thompson.
In recent years exchange students have come over from Sweden to learn about American culture and teach local students about their own culture.
Delegates from Åmål also said that they've learned a lot from De Pere's economic success over the last few years.
Åmål has looked at how De Pere has worked to reinvigorate the downtown business core and used it as a model to fill vacancies in their own town.
