FREEDOM FORUM TO DRAW 206 STUDENTS FROM ACROSS MISSOURI; CHAMBER OF COMMERCE EVENT BEGINS SUNDAY AT UNIVERSITY

More than 200 Missouri high school students will participate in this year's Missouri Freedom Forum, to be held Sunday through Tuesday at Southeast Missouri State University.

Linda Minner of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, which is co-sponsoring the event, said students will learn the basics of the American economic and governmental systems, the economic systems of other governments and the philosophy of private enterprise.

"It gives the kids the opportunity to meet kids in their own age group and talk about free enterprise," Minner said. "They learn a lot."

The event is also sponsored by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation and the university.

Students from Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Chaffee, Sikeston, Dexter and Charleston will participate in the three-day forum, along with students from other areas of the state.

The forum is held each year in Mexico and Cape Girardeau. Last year's Cape Girardeau forum drew 135 students. This year, Minner said, the forum has grown to 206 students.

"We've outgrown the one in Mexico, which used to be bigger," she said.

The forum will begin with registration Sunday at 2 p.m. Topics of discussion include "Freedom: Do We Take it for Granted," "Our Unique Political System," "Can Our Political System Survive Another 200 Years?" "Critical Issues Facing Leaders in the 1990s," and "Ethical Decision Making in the Workplace."

Speakers include David Lankford, vice president of education for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce; Allan Brownfeld, a Washington D.C. journalist, author and political analyst; Richard Hardy, dean of the department of political science at the University of Missouri-Columbia; Blair Moran, special agent for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Sikeston; Mindy Hawkins, a Chillicothe, Ohio, motivational speaker and Linda McKay, PREP coordinator for The Network, St. Louis.

Small group discussions and mixers are also scheduled.

Students are selected for the forum by their school principals or guidance counselors, Minner said. Participants will stay in university residence halls during the event, and seminars will be held in the University Center on campus.

Local sponsors have paid the $85 per-student fee for attendance.

Students from Cape Girardeau schools attending the event are: Mala Ahuja, Angie Askew, Chris Askew, Gwenda Bennett, Evelyn Leigh Beussink, Ken Cantrell, Heather Case, Deborah Chung, Ricky Cotner, Ben Glaus, Gabe Hinkebein, Amanda Ing, Sarah Lah, Marty McCormack, Sheila Millburg, Jennifer Lynn Peters, Amy Rellegert, LaRoy Roper, Matthew Sander, Takara Stanley, Tracy Stevens, Robin Thompson, Christy Vandeven, Jeremy Welch, Linette Welter and Sara Wencewicz.