Rotary Bonaire's 25th Anniversary Celebration

In April, 2007, the Rotary Bonaire celebrated its 25th Anniversary with two weeks of special events to commemorate this landmark:

The Dutch Dixies returned to Bonaire once again to offer a series of free concerts around the island. Concerts were given at Buddy Dive, Rumrunners Restaurant, Kontiki Restaurant, City Cafe, and the Hangout Beach Bar. (See images of final concert in yellow sidebar.)

Rotary Club Bonaire printed an authentic Netherlands Antilles postage stamp in conjunction with Nieuwe Post, N.A. The series of stamps for local mail or postcards came with a certificate of authenticity. What a great way to get word out to the region about Rotary's 25th Anniversary!

And for Bonaire's children, Rotary Club Bonaire reprinted the story of Wichi i e Kontrabandistanan, originally printed back in 1984, and distributed the book in the Papiamentu language to Bonaire's children to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Police of the Netherlands Antilles.

The story and illustrations are by Dick Eisley, with translation by H. P. A. Toré. Printing was done by Flamingo Communications, N.V., and special thanks go to Frans Booi.

The first edition was nearly 25 years old and Boi Antoin was delighted to adapt the text into Papiamentu for this year's edition. Images show the cover and opening page.

And lastly, we had to enjoy ourselves, too! This was the official reception held by Rotary Club Bonaire on April 26th 2007, the exact anniversary of our founding 25th years ago.

Presidents from Aruba Rotary Club, Curacao Club and Willemstad Club were all present. Also attending was our Lt. Governor of Bonaire, Herbert Dommacassé, Commissioner of Education, and the School Directors, who are our partners in the Breakfast-in-Schools program. Past Bonaire Club Presidents and Founding Members joined in.

Henk Schrijver was honored that night with a Paul Harris Award; he now joins Bonaire's other four Fellows from the Bonaire club.