March 30,2007 – The weekend Kicks-Off with “Music on the Square” at the Old Historic 1912 Courthouse, which will be organized by Co-Chairpersons Kathryn Selvester, Kings Bay Rotary, and Kathy Thrumston, Director of the Inverness Olde Towne Association

Music on the Square will start at 3 P.M. Friday with the closing of the streets around the old courthouse. Entertainment will be provided by several different types of musical groups such as a military style band and, the southern rock style of Bullwinkle, and Easy Listening and Pop by Kathryn Selvester's Uptown Sound (who recently completed recording her first CD of original songs in Nashville).

The U.S. Title Series (USTS) Boating Association has agreed to display one of each class of boat that will be competing in the weekend races around the courthouse along with a driver that can answer questions for the public. The specialty shoppes around the square will remain open for extended hours until the 9:30 P.M. ending of the evening’s festivities. The Inverness Olde Towne Association members will be selling raffle tickets for items donated by the merchants and will also be selling 50/50 tickets for a drawing to be held towards the end of the evening. The diversity of the entertainment will attract a diverse group of people (i.e. veterans, country enthusiasts and retirees and young folks) throughout the early afternoon and evening to celebrate the Kick-Off of the Boat Racing weekend.

The Citrus County Historical Society has joined in this event by holding an “Antique Outboard Motor Show” inside the courthouse museum to provide an additional venue to draw yet another sector of the public. It is expected that between 3,000 and 5,000 people will attend this event.

March 31 & April 1st 2007- A Boat & RV Show will open at 10 A.M. in Liberty Park just down the street from the Old Historic Courthouse and on the shores of Big Lake Henderson where the Boat Races will be held starting at 12 noon.

Kings Bay Rotary Member Shelby Weingarten is chairing this event.

The Kings Bay Rotary conducts a very successful Boat & RV Show each year in early February and has polled those who display to see if they would want to participate in the show to be held at the Boat Races in Inverness. All of those contacted have signed up to reserve a display space.

Inverness Rotary Club Member Charlie Richer will Chair the Food Court and Children’s Play Area. The Children’s area will include things like a Rock Wall

and Slot Car Racing to name but a few activities to entertain the children while the parents watch the boat races. The Food Court will contain vendors licensed by the Rotary to sell Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Sausage, Funnel Cakes and numerous other food items. Both Liberty and Wallace-Brooks Parks will have their own Food Court. The City of Inverness is in the process of changing an existing ordinance to allow Rotary to have a Beer Garden that will be operated in an adjacent Italian Restaurant to the parks.

The Central Citrus Rotary of Black Diamond is overseeing the production of a slick 24-page program (magazine) that will have stories about the racing as well as a program of the 2 days of the event itself. Advertising space is also being sold to raise additional funds. The program is being organized through the efforts of Central Citrus Rotary President Steve Sachewicz and Marketing Company Owner, Citrus Life Magazine Publisher and Rotarian Bob Crowley.

Homosassa Rotary with members Gordon Smith and Ivan Jones as co-chairs have developed a VIP Sponsorship Program. Sponsorships will be offered at Gold, Silver and Bronze levels and include a VIP Tent that will feature complimentary food service by Cody’s Roadhouse in Crystal River on both days of the racing. Cody’s will also provide soda’s, Beer and Wine on a limited basis as well. Each level of sponsorship receives a different number of tickets to the VIP Area and those persons are provided wristbands to give them access to the best viewing location for the races. This viewing area is from the dock at the end of Wallace-Brooks Park and provides an unobstructed view of the entire race. The boat race organization actually calls the race from the end of the dock and this will afford interviews with VIP Sponsors. Certain levels of sponsorship also get their company’s name on the boats in several of the larger classes. VIP’s will also have reserved parking close to the VIP Tent.

The Rotary Clubs have contracted with The United States Title Series racing organization to sanction and conduct the two days of Power Boat Racing on Big Lake Henderson in Inverness. The USTS who also conducted the inaugural event in April of 2006 was so excited to return to Inverness that they have reorganized the dates of the two other sanctioned races in Florida (Haines City and Lake Wales) to immediately follow Inverness on consecutive weekends. This will provide racers from as far away as Oregon and Michigan the opportunity to bring there boats the long distance and stay three weeks to get as many points as possible towards winning the 7 Race USTS National Championship for 2007.

A 32-inch LCD Big-Screen TV has been donated by one of the sponsors as well as a gas-powered motor scooter that will be raffled off during the event to raise additional funds. T-Shirts bearing the “Thunder in the Hills 2007 Regatta” logo will be sold as another source of income. One of the sponsors has also donated $1,000 towards production of the T-Shirts.

The Citrus County Chronicle has signed on as a Major Sponsor and will be providing newspaper coverage before, during and after the races in addition to $5,000 in advertising

The City of Inverness is also a sponsor and is donating use of the parks as well as trash hauling, Porto-potties and numerous other items of assistance that facilitate making the event possible.

All the proceeds of the event will be deposited in the Crystal River Rotary Foundation account at SunTrust Bank. After all expenses are paid the remaining proceeds will be divided equally among all 5 Rotary Clubs. The money will be used to fund the budgets of the clubs, which historically supports numerous charities throughout Citrus County. Approximately $100,000 annually is given by the 5 Rotary Clubs to non-profit organizations like United Way of Citrus County, Boys and Girls Club’s of Citrus County, Citrus United Basket, Nature Coast Junior Achievement to name but a few (A complete list is available upon request). The Rotary Clubs also contribute to The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International that funds such projects as “Polio Plus” that since 1986 has funded $650 million to the World Health Organization to help eradicate Polio from the face of the earth, which is a goal that is expected to be reached by the middle of 2007.

The Motto of Rotary is “Service Above Self” and these clubs are made up of senior managers and business owners from local businesses that have the ability to control their own work schedules to enable them to participate in fundraising activities in order to help others that are less fortunate.