District Conference Delivers!
With the theme: Revitalizing your commitment to World Peace & Understanding, Preservation of the Planet, One Child at a Time and Rotary Within You! this year's District 5170 lived up to it's promise... and more.
The event was very well attended with more that 500 Rotarians in attendance from among the 59 Rotary clubs in our district.
The fantastic lineup of speakers included Jean-Michel Cousteau (Jacque's son) on Friday evening speaking about the failing health of our oceans and practical ideas for what each of us can do to reverse the trend. Saturday's festivities were launched at 8am with the outrageous wit and wisdom of our very own Ari Symons. She entertained, educated and engaged the room with grace and aplomb. Saturday lunch was the humorist and humanitarian Michael Pritchard. If you ever have the opportunity to see this uproarious gentleman perform, don't miss it! Saturday evening was headlined by the American journalist Roxanna Saberi who, in January 2009, was arrested and held for espionage by the Iranian government.
Throughout the day on Saturday there were also a number of excellent seminars and workshops on topics ranging from Social Networking to various Rotary topics.
All of that was amazing, but the highlight of the weekend had to be the Santa Cruz Sunrise Rotary's House of Friendship booth assembled by Darlene de la Cerna and Keith Henderson. Keith had a full ShelterBox tent erected with all of the fixin's displayed, and Darlene put together a massive display of icons depicting the amazing array of projects and activities in which our club is involved. Darlene did the lion's share of the work, but couldn't have pulled it off without the able assistance of her helpers: Don Payne and his son John, Steve Strong, Loren Kinczel and Kerry Nehls.
If you're not among the few of us who were in attendance and are feeling like you might have missed something terrific... well, you did! Remember that feeling when it comes time to sign-up for next year's conference!