W.H.O. conference heading down the home stretch

Ken Johnston
editorial@RainyRiverRecord.com

All the world is our stage... well at least it will be when the World Health Organization holds a conference on safety in Fort Frances on May 5-8, 2002.
Jeannette Cawston, coordinator for the event, which is being hosted by the Rainy River Valley Safety Coalition, said that they are expecting between 350-500 delegates from at least 30 countries. As well they already have about 120 presenters lined up.
While much of the conference will center around Fort Frances, there is time slotted for delegates to venture out into the district to participate in safety related activities. Cawston suggested that perhaps the delegates would like to tour an area farm or Voyageur Panel. However van drivers are needed to shuttle the delegates to and from the activities. Anyone interested in volunteering some time to do this should call her at 274-3276. People with activities that they feel might be interesting for the delegates can also call Cawston or local contacts Kristine Brown (Rainy River) 852-4424, Dorris Dyson (Chapple) 487-2354 and Brenda Cook(Emo) 482-2378.
The conference theme is S.E.E.D.S. which stands for Safety Education Equality Dedication and Sustainability.
A pre-conference Youth Conference will be held Monday, May 6th. It will focus primarily on First Nations programs and include a community fish fry and some traditional Native dancing.
Tuesday concurrent sessions will be held all day and a community dinner will be held that evening. Most of the sessions will take place at the Memorial Arena in Fort Frances. Tuesday to Thursday there will be a youth safety production at the Townsend Theatre.
Wednesday is the district travel day with activities from Rainy River to Atikokan being scheduled. That evening there will be a culturama show in Fort Frances for the delegates. However, Cawston said that district communities may want to keep the delegates in their communities that evening and hold community dinners.
As for security for the delegates, Cawston said that the Ontario Provincial Police have been active in the two years of planning for this conference. However, she does not see there being any problems as there have not been any riots or other security issues at these WHO conferences in the past.
Members of the community are welcome to register for the event and can do so by calling Cawston.