CONFERENCE FEATURES ROTARY’S INTERAMERICAN TIES

The musical group “Mariachi Sol Jalisiciense” will be the featured entertainment at noon, Saturday, April 8 during the joint Rotary District Conference

An estimated 450 Rotarians from the northern half of Indiana will convene April 6-9 in Muncie for their annual district conference. The convention will be held at Muncie’s Horizon Convention Center, with the Hotel Roberts as the official hotel.

Special guests include young professionals from Brazil and Mexico participating in a Rotary Group Study Exchange.  Featured speakers include Sergio Aguilera, the Indianapolis-based Mexican consul and Patricia Vela de Crespo, representing Dra. Olga Santos de Devlyn, 2005-06 district governor from Mexico City.

Interact club members from over 15 clubs are expected to participate in a first-ever joint district leadership conference, and members of Rotaract Clubs at Purdue and Ball State University will be introduced.

Four major plenary sessions offer outstanding themes. Past Rotary Director Mike McCullough will report on Rotary projects assisting central American children whose livelihood depends on scavenging from public dumps. Columbia City Rotarian Scott Helmkamp will show how Rotarians can continue to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina. Past RI General Secretary Herb Pigman will relate Rotary’s three decade involvement in polio eradication worldwide. Special guest Ray Klinginsmith, representing RI President Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar, will discuss how his Rotary-sponsored scholarship changed his life.

While Rotarians are choosing from among seventy breakout sessions, spouses and family members can visit the over 30 exhibit booths in the House of Friendship or take free tours to the Academy of Model Aeronautics, the BSU campus, PAWS, Inc. or FB Fogg.

Honorary Rotarian Garfield and his sidekick Odie are expected to make an appearance at the conference.

 For more conference registration information. For a review of the draft schedule of events, 2006 Joint District Conference Program.  For hotel reservations, call 765 741 7777.