The Montebello-Ashiya Sister City Association is a non-profit organization; although the association works closely with the city, it is a community-based volunteer organization that does not receive monetary support from the City of Montebello. Rather, the non-profit raises all funding for the Montebello student ambassadors exchange program and educational scholarships.

The work of the Montebello Sister City Association Affiliation is supported by tax deductible contributions made by Montebello residents, individuals, local businesses, and others who support this program with Japan.

The benefits provided to the youth of Montebello, their education and development, is matched by the valuable public service that the Sister City Association provides to the larger Montebello community.

The association provides a vehicle for community volunteerism, and it gives the city a program for which it can be justifiably proud. Few international sister city agreements will match the Montebello-Ashiya program for longevity and contributions to the local community.

As a result of the long history of the sister city affiliation, many ties have been formed through the student ambassador exchange program and the formal exchanges of city delegations.

In addition, apart from the formal delegation exchanges, several unofficial visits have occurred over the years. Members of Montebello’s Sister City Association, both young and old, have traveled to Japan, met residents of Ashiya, and established lasting friendships that have developed a wonderful reality of President Eisenhower’s “people to people program.”MASCA members have also hosted visitors from Ashiya and welcomed them into their homes.

This bond of friendship across the Pacific has existed for over half a century between Montebello and Ashiya, and 2021 marks the 60th anniversary of the Montebello-Ashiya Sister City Association, a monumental date for both MASCA and the City of Montebello.