Two Rancho Cordova residents discovered a need for computers in a school in Rancho Cordova’s sister city of Turrialba, Costa Rica. It was then that Sergio Diaz and Maria Lopez created a plan that would give 15 extra computers from the city of Rancho Cordova to the school in Turrialba. Mexicana Airlines has agreed to fly the computers free of charge to San Jose, Costa Rica. The only catch is that someone must travel with the computers. That’s when Sergio called a travel agency who, after hearing about the cause, then provided him with a free airline ticket.

The computers are extras that the city isn’t using and have been completely refurbished and are in factory condition. There is a desperate need in the elementary schools in our sister city. The connection with Turrialba, Costa Rica was made when a friend of Mayor Alfonso Perez Gomez came to the Rancho Cordova Sister Cities Council to share his friend’s desire to have a sister city in the United States. The goal of the relationship is to promote the exchange of people, ideas and information, encourage visits between the two communities. It is hoped that the sister cities program will contribute to a deeper understanding between citizens on the level of “people-to-people diplomacy.”