U.S. Girl Travels to Moscow With a Song in Her Heart

MILWAUKEE —  A 12-year-old girl who caught Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s attention with a song she composed called “We Can Walk in Peace” left Sunday on a good-will trip to the Soviet Union and a possible meeting with the Soviet leader.

Sherry Lynn Biedrzycki of suburban St. Francis and her parents, Thomas and Judith, are to visit the Soviet Union for two weeks on a trip sponsored by the Soviet government.

“I’m very excited,” Sherry said at Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee before departing. “It’s a dream come true.”

She and the others were scheduled to arrive in Moscow this afternoon aboard a Scandinavian Airlines flight.

Sherry in 1985 sent a cassette of the song she wrote to Kremlin leaders, and Gorbachev’s office in return sent four record albums to the young girl.

Last year, an official of Radio Moscow’s North American Service was in Milwaukee, and he contacted Sherry, who had become a pen pal of his 14-year-old daughter, Katya Smirnova.

The song Sherry wrote has been played on Radio Moscow, and her mother said Katya and Sherry are scheduled to perform it together Friday during a concert in Moscow’s Gorky Park.

“They were trying to arrange for Sherry and Katya to meet with Mikhail Gorbachev, but we don’t know if that will work out,” Judith Biedrzycki said.

The family’s air fare is being paid for by the Seattle Goodwill Games of 1989, which will display posters created for an art contest inspired by Sherry’s song.

The song includes these lyrics:

Come and take my hand and follow me through the land.

Look around and give a helping hand. . . .

Come and walk in peace. We can walk in peace.