KAREN Buck has been given the job of putting education on everyone's timetable for the Year 2000.

Bolton-born Karen, 37, has been taken on to co-ordinate a year-long Millennium Festival of Education in the town.

Her job will be to organise a series of exciting events planned for the festival, which will be opened by Education Secretary David Blunkett this summer.

And the self-confessed workaholic is determined to get everyone involved to make it a major success. "It is quite a challenge, but the word failure is not in my vocabulary so it WILL all happen," she said.

"I am thrilled to get the job because it is a fantastic initiative and will be good for the town."

The former Farnworth Grammar School pupil worked at the Octagon Theatre and Bolton's Community Education Service before becoming a management consultant.

The mother-of-three now lives in Cheshire but has maintained strong links in her home town which will come in useful as she tries to drum up sponsorship.

As reported in the BEN, the Bolton 400, a voluntary group made up of 400 people involved in education in the town, won Millennium funding to put on the Festival of Education as part of the official celebrations marking the Year 2000.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.