Forty years after Dundas was twinned with the city of Kaga, Japan, organizers of the Kids for Kaga student exchange hope to find enough local youths to make this year's trip a reality.

Three of the required 10 spaces have been filled, and long-time Kids for Kaga volunteer Lan Whiting said she'd be sad to see the historic and successful program end now. In 1967 the Town of Dundas became the first North American municipality - and the first in the entire Western Hemisphere - to declare itself "mundialized," or a community of the world, working for international peace.

The push came from local activist Hanna Newcombe, with support from a group called Voices of Women. More than 500 children attended an official raising of the United Nations flag at Dundas Town Hall on June 13, 1967. One month later, town council passed a bylaw twinning Dundas with Kaga - because Japan was the birthplace of Mundialization after atomic bombs were dropped there in World War Two.

A few visitors went back and forth, and in 1970 Julie Ashcroft's Grade 6 students decided they should know more about their twin city. Letter writing between children eventually led to the first visit of Dundas youths between 13 and 18 years old. In 1971, the first group of Kaga children visited Dundas. Exchanges have continued every three years.

Watch the Dundas Star News over the coming months for coverage of the Kids for Kaga program and the twinning's 40th anniversary, as we tell just a few of the program's amazing stories.