• World Festival 2012 General Registration
• World Festival 2012 Performers
• World Festival 2012 Marketplace Vendors

Registrations will be forwarded to the following persons responsible for coordinating the individual areas.

• Terri Allred (Performances, Friday and Saturday)
• Steve Baumgartner (Food, Saturday)
• Liz Parry (Children’s Activities, Saturday)
• Katy Chia (Market Vendors, Saturday)
• Nelpha Malibago (Cultural Displays, Saturday)
• Herta Matteson (World Festival Chair)

View more information about our World Festival volunteer needs or visit our World Festival page for the latest information.

• January 11, 2012, 11:45 am – 1:00 pm,  Terri Allred will talk about Middle Eastern dance.
• February 8, 2012, 11:45 am – 1:00 pm,  A doctor from Libya will talk about current events there.
• March 14, 2012, 11:45 am – 1:00 pm, Krista Lance will talk about teaching in Korea and Chile.
• April 11, 2012 and May 9, 2012 are still OPEN. If you wish to be a speaker, please contact Herta Matteson.

I am sending out a request for help in locating a mentor for a wonderful High School Senior that is going to major in International Business. She has already pursued three local mentors and all have fallen through. Her emphasis in her college career will be International Business, though her mentorship doesn’t need to be specifically in that area. She has experience tutoring, is self-motivated and extremely pleasant and easy to work with, reads Spanish, is conversational in French, is studying Arabic, Greek and Latin. Her goal is to get into Yale. She is needing a commitment before the end of the semester on January 23rd. The project she need to work on with a mentor will need to take a minimum of 60 hours or thereabouts. If you are willing to discuss the possibility with her or know someone that can help, please let me know ASAP and let me know how you wish to communicate with her initially. Phone, email or personal interview. She is willing to communicate online if necessary for all projects and conversation if she cannot find someone locally. I will work with our tech support to see if we can Skype here at Century High School. Thank you for your consideration, I really appreciate it!
~Leslie McGillivray Rivas (Century Library Media Center 507-328-5097)

Vietnamese New Years

Ticket price: Adult ticket (13-65): $10, Children and senior ticket (4-12 and over 65): $5, Admission free for children 3 and under.

Last year, more than 42,000 donors logged on to GiveMN.org and gave over $10 million to Minnesota charities in 24 hours during Give to the Max Day. Together, we have the power to raise millions of dollars for thousands of nonprofits. Rochester International Association, together with GiveMN.org – a first-of-its-kind giving website for nonprofits in Minnesota – is working to create a stronger nonprofit community for Minnesota.

GiveMN’s Give to the Max Day amplifies your giving impact in a number of ways. First, a $1,000 “Golden Ticket” will be given to a random donor’s charity every hour.  You could be that donor!  Donate by going to our page.  Also, your donation on November 16, could put us on the leaderboard. $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000 prize grants will be awarded to the top three nonprofit organizations (colleges and universities excluded) which receive the most dollars in 24 hours during Give to the Max Day. New this year—$15,000, $10,000 and $5,000 prize grants will be awarded to the top three small nonprofit organizations – with budgets under $750,000 – which receive the most dollars on Give to the Max Day. Also new this year—$15,000 and $5,000 prize grants will be awarded to the top two Minnesota colleges or universities which receive the most dollars on Give to the Max Day. Help us get “on the board!”

By giving online with GiveMN, Rochester residents have the opportunity to make a huge difference for nonprofits in our area. We hope you will help support our community by logging on to www.GiveMN.org on November 16 and giving to your favorite charity. Be a part of this historic event and join this “Great Minnesota Give Together!” You can now also fundraise for your favorite causes—like us!—on GiveMN too by creating a fundraiser page.

If you were already considering making a donation to Rochester International Association, please do it on GiveMN on November 16!

Sincerely,

Herta Matteson
RIA President

We encourage you to subscribe to our email newsletter, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and check out our events like the upcoming World Festival 2012 (April 13, 14). UPDATE: Some of you may have received an inadvertent email that incorrectly showed the dates as April 15, 16.

IMPORTANT: You have to make reservations! We only have room for 180 people. Make a reservation, cancel, or inquire by sending an e-mail to: hmatteson@hotmail.com. Please put “Thanksgiving reservation” in subject line (otherwise it will be deleted) and indicate country of origin, names of all guests and a phone number and address. If you have a musical or performance talent you can share at the event, please call!

If you have to cancel, please call to make room for other people. This is a festive sit-down dinner. We want guests to socialize and meet each other in the spirit of Thanksgiving, so please plan on staying a while after dinner. Make your reservations before November 17. To cancel (or to see if room is available only after November 20) call Herta at 280-8319 (please don’t call after 9pm). If you don’t hear from us, your reservation is okay. You need not call to confirm.

More information | Catalog of all the movies | Ticket info

Check out the World Festival 2011 Talent Show photos taken by photographer Lei Sha. If anyone else has photos or video of the Friday or Saturday events that you would like to share, please go to our Facebook page and post them there.