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Philippe Acheritogaray, recently elected NABO president at the NABO Convention and Festival hosted by Winnemucca, Nevada’s Basque Club Euskaldunak Danak Bat. This his first message as president of NABO, originally appeared in Astero, NABO’s weekly newsletter.

President's Message

Egun on deneri,

My name is Philippe Acheritogaray and I'm the new president of the Board of Directors of the North American Basque Organizations. I wanted to thank our outgoing President and new Vice-President, Annie Gavica, outgoing Secretary, Lael Uberuaga Rodgers, and outgoing Vice-President Valerie Arrechea for their service to N.A.B.O. this past year. Kate Camino, a distinguished and tenured member of our board of directors, our Facilitator and our Co-Director of Udaleku, will take over as Secretary. I look forward to working closely with Kate this term, and leveraging her unique skill set to achieve some of my goals outlined in my nomination declaration statement. Speaking of unique skill sets, N.A.B.O. is very fortunate to again have Mayi Petracek, a CPA and a senior accounting manager, serve as our Treasurer and as our Finance and Investment Committee Chairperson. Our N.A.B.O. core programs continue to be led by the steadfast stewardship of Pierre Etcharren (Mus), Martin Goicoechea (Euskara) and Valerie Arrechea & Kate Camino (Udaleku).

We just concluded our annual N.A.B.O. Convention this past weekend in Winnemucca, Nevada, which was organized and hosted by Nevada's oldest Basque club, the Euskaldunak Danak Bat Basque Club of Winnemucca. The convention was a non-stop series of Basqueness, including an artistic and educational remembrance of the 1937 bombing of Gernika, a 5K walk/run, a Parade down Winnemucca Blvd., Basque folkloric dance performances by eight different dance groups from four different states, Bertsolaris, a Basque weight lifter, Wood Choppers, arts and crafts displayed from local U.S. Basque artists, Basque musicians, exhibits, Basque Mass and great food.

The N.A.B.O. Txerriki (Pork Sausage) contest was won by the Marin Sonoma Basque Association for Best Tripota, while the Txorizo division was won by the Eiguren/Mendieta team from Nampa, Idaho.

Since 2002 N.A.B.O. has been recognizing persons who have made significant contributions to the success of N.A.B.O. and Annie Gavica and I had the honor to present Jerry Etcheverry with N.A.B.O.'s Bizi Emankorra award for his longtime service as a delegate from Winnemucca. Mila esker berriz Jerry!

On behalf of the N.A.B.O. Board of Directors I'd like to express our gratitude to the Euskaldunak Danak Bat Basque Club for such a well-organized convention, which was a great success bringing the Basque community together to celebrate our heritage – Euskaldunak Danak Bat! All Basques are one!