Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - The Santa Barbara Puerto Vallarta Sister City Committee elected a new board on April 6, 2015 at a special dinner at the Mesa Cafe in Santa Barbara, California. This year's president is Raul Navarro, a long time Sister City member. The 1st Vice President is Jacqueline Duran, and the 2nd Vice President is Carlos Velasco.

This year's SB leadership team was also inducted, and they have already started planning activities for the Puerto Vallarta membership's visit to Santa Barbara, which will take place from July 21 through the 28th. One such activity is the El Fandago dinner and dance for the PV delegation as they arrive in Santa Barbara during the city's biggest event, 'Old Spanish Days.'

"When they come here, we house them in our homes. We have a lot of activities. We take them to our churches. We taken them to our businesses. We show them so many places they have not seen before. We want them to be involved in our community like we want to be involved in their community," said Navarro.

Established in 1972, over the years the Santa Barbara Puerto Vallarta Sister City Committee has, among other meritable works, helped to build a medical clinic in Puerto Vallarta, has worked on environmental issues and has set up an exchange program for young people - and they are planning more cultural, social, and political collaborations in the coming year.

This Sister City Committee won an international award for its work in 2014, and the delegation from Santa Barbara has many new goals for 2015, both locally and for the SB members' annual Puerto Vallarta visitation in November.

These goals include raising money to help fund the building of a small factory to employ the graduated students of the Sewing Seeds program in Colonia Volcanes, in conjunction with the Volcanes Community Education Program, the City of Puerto Vallarta and the Banderas Bay Rotary Club.