Home » AARP to sponsor Centre College 2012 Vice Presidential Debate Festival, watch party

AARP to sponsor Centre College 2012 Vice Presidential Debate Festival, watch party

The 2012 Vice Presidential Debate will be conducted at the Norton Center on the campus of Centre College.

DANVILLE, Ky. (Sept. 14, 2012) – AARP will be the prime sponsor of the 2012 Vice Presidential Debate Festival at Centre College next month.

The free festival, Oct. 11, is open to the public beginning at noon with live entertainment and closing with a performance by the Marshall Tucker Band on Centre College’s Festival Lawn in Danville.

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AARP also announced its plan to host a series of intergenerational, nonpartisan activities in Danville and on campus leading up to the nation’s only vice presidential debate. www.centre.edu/debate A series of community conversations at the Debate Festival are designed to raise the level of discussion among candidates and voters on issues including Social Security, Medicare and financial security.

“We are excited about this partnership between Centre College and AARP to sponsor the 2012 Debate Festival,” said Centre President John A. Roush. “ … the Centre Debate Festival provides an appropriate venue for AARP to engage issues of retirement security, allowing our campus community to see firsthand how such issues become a part of the national conversation.”

AARP will bring its ‘You’ve Earned a Say’ TourMobile, part of AARP’s national conversation on the future of Social Security and Medicare, to the Debate Festival to engage Americans with information – the pros and the cons – of policy options being discussed in Washington and on the campaign trail allowing voters to send a message to the candidates.

Festival attendees will enjoy hours of free entertainment from local, regional and national music groups, including The Marshall Tucker Band; Ben Sollee, a Kentucky cellist and singer/songwriter; Aly’An, a country pop duo featuring Centre alumna Alyson Burke; The Kentucky Ensemble, a popular Centre student-faculty music group; the Danville Children’s Choir; and others.

“This is history in the making,” said AARP Kentucky State Director Ron Bridges. “I’m proud to be a partner of such a distinguished Kentucky institution like Centre College at such a crucial moment in our nation’s history. Social Security and Medicare are vitally important for older voters and especially for our Kentucky seniors and their families.”

The Vice Presidential Debate and pre-Debate remarks will be shown on via a live televised broadcast on the on the Festival Lawn beginning at 8:30 p.m.

Policy discussions

AARP’s series of intergenerational policy discussions are free and open to the public on Centre’s campus. The conversations will take place in Centre’s Ewen Room, 2nd floor of the Campus Center: Septe. 18 at 6 p.m.; Oct. 3 at 7 p.m.; Oct. 8 at 10 a.m.; and Oct. 8 in Downtown Danville at the Boyle County Public Library, 307 West Broadway from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Details and online registration are available at www.aarp.org/ky.