ROTARIANS PREPARE FOR STUDY TRIP TO CORNWALL, ENGLAND

Linda Puchbauer is excited about what she thinks will be the experience of a lifetime, a trip to Cornwall, England, for a Rotary Study Exchange.

Puchbauer, an assistant vice president at Bank of America in Jackson, will spend May studying England's banking industry through the Rotary Foundation that fosters international professional development.

The program is to further experiences of young business and professional people through a cultural and vocational exchange, said Dr. Dan B. Cotner, a Cape Girardeau dentist who will lead a five-person team from Southeast Missouri on this trip sponsored by Rotary District 6060.

Each team member will spend a month learning how people in their fields in England do their jobs and will answer questions of how those jobs are done in Missouri, Cotner said.

Rodney Kline of Jackson, a customer service representative at Pocahontas Lumber and Hardware Co. in Jackson, will study the retail industry.

Mike Lindeau of Ellisinore, a fiddler, private music teacher and school-teacher in Carter County, will visit with musicians and music teachers.

Donna Bruns of Union, a secondary social studies teacher in Pacific, will learn about Cornwall's education system.

Cotner, who has been a Rotarian for 50 years, is a quite bit older than the program participants, who must be between 25 and 40, but when he was asked to lead the group, he agreed so he could visit an old acquaintance, Dr. Gordon Mann of Falmouth, Cornwall. Cotner and Mann met when both volunteered with a Rotary International effort in the Indo-Chinese refuge program in 1984.

Cotner said Rotary International is paying for the trip and team members will stay with Rotary members in Cornwall.

Puchbauer was asked by a Rotary member to apply for the program.

"They knew about my community involvement, that I would be a go-getter who would fit in with the team, that I was adaptable and energetic enough to hunt for information and healthy enough to make it through the tour," Puchbauer said.

While touring Cornwall, Puchbauer plans on visiting several banks. At those banks she will ask questions about banking procedures in England. Then she will answer questions about banking procedures in the United States. Puchbauer hopes she'll even be able to work in a bank for some firsthand experience.

When the team returns, members will travel to Rotary Club meetings throughout District 6060, which covers much of the eastern part of Missouri, and talk about what they learned.

Puchbauer said it was hard to make the decision to be away from her family and her job for a month for this trip.

"But I had never been to Europe before and I may never get an opportunity to go again," she said.

Fortunately, she said, her husband and two children, a daughter who is a freshman at Southeast Missouri State University and a son who is an eighth-grader at Jackson Junior High, are all independent and can take care of themselves.

"The program is for 25- to 40-year-olds and since I just turned 40, this was my last chance to go," she said.