Mary Watters says she feels like at home on both sides of the border with Canada-United States, but this was not always the case.
Born in Duluth, Minnesota, Muda Fort Frances, Ontario, at age six and spent much of her childhood in the community of the northwest of Ontario.
“I went to high school in [International] Falls and my friends from Fort Frances called me ‘traitor’ and my new international friends called me ‘Canuck’, and I was a teenager without a country for a while, “said Watters, who since then settled in the nearby Koochiching County, Minn.
At a time when many feel divided in the middle of climbing the trade of Canada-United StatesWatters came up with an idea to unite people.
Look | Fort Frances and International Falls residents connect through the border
On Saturday, some 150 people gathered at the Falls International Bridge. They set their hands, hugged and linked to form a line that covered in both countries.
“These two communities, we are on the edge of the country in the middle of nowhere, so we are really tight,” Watters said.
Precaping subzero temperatures, Canadians and Americans collectively sang “We are family,” says a song Watters talks about the close ties between border cities.
“There are so many mixed marriages. There are so many friends from one place to another, people who work together from one place to another,” he said. “It was about extending goodwill and having a feeling [moment]”
Watters said that both sides border staff was cooperative during the event, which was partially inspired by Similar meetings between Windsor and Detroit.
“I felt at home at that bridge where we all stopped,” he said.
‘We have such a strong connection’
Mary Ann Woods Kasich used social networks to help run the voice on the weekend event. Years ago, the Ranier resident, Minnesota, sold ads in Fort Frances and got involved in the Fort Frances Rotary Club and the French French Chamber of Commerce, explained.
Days after September 11, she helped organize a race between the two countries, where participants took a boat to Ranier.
“Every year, on July 1, we enjoyed the Canadian fireworks on the coast in Ranier and we celebrated,” Woods Kasich told CBC News. “The Americans on this side meet in Ranier or in boat to the historic cantilever bridge for fireworks.”
“My point is historically, we have such a strong connection with our Canadian friends. Our entire world increases on both sides of 100 percent!”
From September 11 to Pandemia Covid-19, said Watters, Fort Frances and International Falls have gone through challenges similar to those of border cities.
In times like these, he said that people remember their similarities instead of differences.
“I just want love to be stirred, and I think it will.”
