When Dorcas Dorow was a small girl growing up in Eagle Grove, Iowa, she often spent time at her grandfather’s general store. One of her favorite areas of the store was near the back, where her grandfather had “this wonderful, huge, roll-top desk,” Dorow, 89, recalled.

“I loved to pretend. I would sit at that desk and it wasn’t long before my grandfather had a special slot in that desk, just for me,” Dorow said, smiling, as she sat in her Osage home. It would be the last time that Dorow was limited to just one slot.

The small-town girl with the world perspective was honored Saturday for her 25 years of leadership and dedication to the Sister Cities program in Osage.

“I have worked with a lot of people who deserve a lot of credit,” said Dorow. “We don’t do anything without each other.”

The award represents just one of the impacts Dorow has had on her world — a world Dorow approaches with optimism, faith, and an unwavering interest in the people who populate it. The daughter of farmers, she loved the connections of small town life. She also loved to read and remembers being impressed when her church sent a missionary overseas. Adventures seemed to be in her blood; her great-grandfather was part of the California gold rush. Another fought in the Civil War.

Her departure from Eagle Grove was carried by music — she attended both Waldorf College and then St. Olaf, where she earned a degree in music. She taught music in Spirit Lake, Iowa, where she met her husband, Edgar, who was Dickinson County’s Extension agent. She couldn’t take her eyes off the guy who took her on a date to hunt night crawlers, she recalled with a laugh. When he took a similar job in Osage, Iowa in 1952, she followed him to town after landing a part-time music position in the middle school, in 1953.

Raising four children kept her busy and she withdrew for a time from teaching, using her talents as director of church choirs. She later taught voice at Waldorf, served as interim choir director, and then became director of alumni relations at Waldorf until her retirement. She also served on the Board of Regents for the college for 12 years — the first woman to do so.

Her first step into the world of international travel came when Edgar took a group of farmers on a People to People agricultural tour of Russia and China in the 1980s. It was a watershed trip for Dorow, who became fascinated with the cultures that on the surface were so different from the U.S. — but whose people, she said, were similar in many ways.

“This interaction with People to People showed me that when you get the clutter of politics out of the way we’re really all alike. Like them, we have concerns, like them, we have failures — but we all have hope.”

Extending a local hand to other cultures became her mission. She took more trips, first as the chairwoman of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Iowa Task Force on Peace and Reconciliation, and then as a member of Osage Community Sister City, a partnership she helped to establish, in 1993. Sister Cities International, an organization first conceived by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, works to promote municipal partnerships with other countries to exchange information and ideas about economic, cultural and community development.

The group and community extended its hand to the city of Lermontov, located in the Stavropol region of Russia. Lermontov officials traveled to Osage on the “maiden voyage” of the partnership in 1993 and, in subsequent trips, education exchanges took place, and Russian delegations visited Osage at different times to study local government, hospital care and agriculture. The most recent delegation, a group of doctors, came from Chechnya earlier this year.

“When I think of Dorcas, the three words I think of are peace, justice and understanding,” said Sister City Co-chairwoman Judy Champion, who attended those first meetings. She said she could not quite believe a partnership could be formed. She was hooked after listening to Dorow.

Richard Lunde of Osage was another who became a member right away and has served as assistant chairman ever since. He praised Dorow’s diligence in researching ideas and investigating the possibilities proposed.

“And Dorcas was a member of Iowa Sister States,” another organization seeking cultural understanding, he said. “Those contacts were really valuable. When you wanted to do something, or find out something, she knows the people to ask. And she has been wonderful in keeping us together.”

Dorcas Dorow was honored for her 25 years of leadership and dedication to Osage Community Sister States on Oct. 19, 2014, during the annual meeting of the Osage Community Sister City.