Correction: Telgte, Germany, collected 7,480 euros—totaling more than $8,700—not 6,350 euros as originally reported by the city, according to Kit Pfeiffer. As the Greater Tomball area continues recovering from Hurricane Harvey, the city of Telgte, Germany has pitched in to help its sister city. Residents, city officials and the sister city partnership association in Telgte collected 7,480 euros in September, said Kit Pfeiffer, member of the Tomball Sister City Organization. The gift totals more than $8,700. "All the way in Germany, people were concerned about Tomball [during Harvey]," Tomball Mayor Gretchen Fagan said. "They consider us family." Pfeiffer said the cities of Tomball and Telgte established a partnership in 2000 as a way to develop understanding between nations. "They want that money used to help the citizens of the Greater Tomball area," she said. "Tomball is very well known and loved in that city." Assistant City Manager Rob Hauck said relief funds will be shared between Tomball Emergency Assistance Ministries, TOMAGWA and Tomball residents and city employees affected by Harvey. "It goes to [show] the relationship that has really been fostered between the city of Tomball and the city of Telgte," Hauck said. "They go so outside of their normal cultural and social norm to say, 'We want to do something.' And what they could do from thousands of miles away was to [send funds]." In Germany, Pfeiffer said the cultural norm is disaster aid provided by the government rather than individual donations, which have funded a large part of Harvey relief in Texas. "Sister cities was begun [in 1956 by former president Dwight Eisenhower] for the express purpose of developing understanding and camaraderie between the peoples of other nations and ours," she said. "A lot of sister city relationships are political [or] are for business, [but] this one's personal. The peoples from these two cities love each other." The sister city organization in Tomball hosts the German Heritage Festival each spring and the German Christmas Market in December. Additionally, the organization facilitates student exchange programs between the two cities. Three exchange students are enrolled in Tomball ISD this semester, Pfeiffer said. Grady Martin, a member of the sister city organization, said representatives of the organization and city officials travel regularly to visit with Telgte residents. Martin visited Telgte most recently in mid-September. "[The sister city partnership is] not just like a plaque on the wall; it's a genuine like-family relationship," Martin said. "The buzz on the street [in Telgte] was Hurricane Harvey and Tomball." Telgte, located east of Munster, largely resembles Tomball albeit the town was founded in 1237—670 years prior to Tomball's beginning, Pfeiffer said. "When we first established the relationship, our motto here was 'Hometown with a heart.' Their motto was 'Town of heart and tradition,'" she said. Hauck said Harvey exhibited the close ties between the cities and their care for one another. "If Tomball, Texas can represent the United States of America to the citizens of Telgte, German, what a great representation it is," Hauck said. "For them to have that relationship be so emotional and so meaningful that they then reach into their pockets and say, 'We want to help those people in Tomball,' I think it's very tangible proof of what 17 years of relationship building has really done at its core." Read the letter from Telgte Mayor Wolfgang Pieper below.