Gearing up for the CARP Convention

Hyo Jin Moon
November 1986

Almost all CARP members from all over America have been arriving in New York since August to help organize and campaign for the success of the Third Annual CARP Convention of World Students, scheduled for October 9-15 in New York.

The purpose of the convention is "to create an international forum in order to establish unity and provide a clear vision as a global student community." Hyo Jin Nim, as World CARP president, will be making his first public speech in America. An international student symposium will provide an opportunity for the discussion of several current world issues and the creation of vital task forces. A march and rally at the United Nations will emphasize the for all the nations of the world to tackle the international drug trafficking problem. As at the first two conventions, one of the highlights will be the World Student Olympics, and CARP members from all over the world have been training for this event for months.

Congratulatory remarks and best wishes for a successful convention have already poured in -- from professors and legislators, from the minister of education in Japan, and even from New York Governor Mario Cuomo.

Entries for the World Students' Arts Competition have been received over the past several months from many countries of the world. Essays, poetry, graphics, paintings, and sculpture relating to the convention theme "New Vision: Creating a New Student Movement:' have already been judged, and the best in each category will be exhibited at the main convention and festival on October 11 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

CARP members mobilized to New York have been divided up into crews to promote the convention, scheduled to be the biggest yet. They have spread out to all the major campuses and set up tables to tell students and professors about the convention and its larger purpose and to sell tickets to the Oct. 11 event.

An intense campaign spirit is being generated as CARP members gather every night in the Bamboo Room at the World Mission Center, the campaign headquarters. Most of the newest young CARP members working on the campaign joined in workshops in California and Hawaii, since CARP activities have been going on steadily in those areas for the last couple of years.

Members offer testimonies every night of their challenges and their victories in getting support for the convention. Afterwards there are spirited pep talks followed by intense prayer for the success of this monumental event. The collective gearing up for this exciting week is tremendously inspiring for the CARP members only a few months old in the family, who are catching the great campaign spirit the movement experienced in the early 70s.

Says Ann Vargas, CARP California, originally from Sweden, "This event is bigger than I am able to comprehend right now. I mean not even the conference itself so much, but the effect and the impact it will have and what comes afterwards."