Former President Jimmy Carter, on the eve of a trip to help monitor Nicaraguan elections, called for more public involvement in national and international affairs during his keynote speech at the Pennsylvania Holstein Association's 77th annual convention opening last night.

"When you think, quite often, that you're making a sacrifice for other people, you are, in fact, doing yourself a great favor," Carter told the audience of about 640 people at the Days Inn Penn State, 240 S. Pugh St.

Carter was scheduled to leave from Washington D.C. at 5 this morning, to help monitor the conflict-torn country's elections between Marxist President Daniel Ortega and UNO candidate Violeta Chamorro.

"I pray to God, Sunday night, when the returns come in, that the Nicaraguan people elected their government in an honest fashion," Carter said.

Several area personalities attended the banquet, including University President Bryce Jordan; state Rep. Lynn Herman, R-Philipsburg; Richard Grubb, senior vice president of administration; Penn State Dean of Agriculture Lamartine Hood; and State College Bureau of Police Services Chief Elwood Williams, Jr.

Carter, occasionally joking in his classic Southern drawl, spent most of the evening detailing the work of the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which is involved in humanitarian and political efforts around the globe.

"We pay too little attention to people in the world who are suffering," Carter said. "We sometimes keep out of minds the plight of people in our country and in the world."

Some of the center's efforts include helping in countries such as Nicaragua, where, Carter said, over 50,000 people have died in the Contra-Sandinista conflict so far.

"Major countries like ours are prohibited from dealing with revolutionaries fighting a government -- that's where the Carter Center comes in," Carter said, explaining that the center does not represent the United States.

Carter said he also visits the Middle East "fairly regularly," trying to negotiate with different leaders.

"I never believed we would have a war with the Soviet Union in Europe . . . but I have always feared we will have a confrontation in the Middle East," Carter said. "When you have a volatile environment and you can't control the players, you will have problems."

The center also monitors Soviet television to review the information being viewed in the country, develops agricultural programs in famine-ridden portions of Africa, works with Amnesty International and is currently organizing, with several countries, efforts to eliminate polio and a deadly human parasite -- the Guinea worm -- over the next decade, Carter said.

But people do not have to be former presidents or involved in international affairs to help others, Carter said, noting that he and his wife, Rosalynn, are traveling in June with 1,500 volunteers to build housing for the poor in Tijuana.

"You can do so much of this yourself. When we go to Tijuana in June to build those houses, of 1,500 volunteers only two of them have ever been in the White House," Carter said.

Herman said Carter's message can apply to the local community.

Wayne Harpster, newly elected president of the Holstein Association and a longtime friend of Carter, arranged the visit.

"At our hunting camp . . . the president will get up and wash the dishes. If we get up and go hunt game, he'll offer to help clean it up . . . this guy isn't afraid to go the extra mile -- the very fact that he went through a lot of pains to get here shows you that," Harpster said.