A picture is worth 1,000 words!

Wade and Vicki returned! Great fun!

Did you notice the average age of the our club attendance dropped geometrically this week?

Next week, RYLA! Hear from the kids who were there!

Marla

The Rotary Foundation

This week the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise joined with our fellow clubs; The St. George Rotary Club, The Red Rock Club, and The Hurricane Rotary Club to hear Past District Governor, Fred Berthrong's update on the Rotary Foundation. If you were not able to be with us - we missed you! If you were not able to be with us, please go to the RI web site to view the new Future Vision Plan for the Foundation. Many opportunities to give of ourselves and the ways to do so just got easier. Please check it out!

Thank you PDG Fred for your visit and thank you St. George Club for hosting us all!

Remember, we won't meet on Thursday this week, BUT next week The Snake Lady will be our program. You won't want to miss this. Bring you kids, they'll love it.

See you on the 12th!
Marla Shelby-Drabner, President

Shayne, how does luncheon compare with our breakfast?

Nature Captured

We have among us a member with a great camera and an eye for the capture. Here is a sampling of the Fall colors courtesy of John Johnson

Enjoy!

The Amazing Dixie Center

Wow! Our meeting last Thursday was held at the Dixie Center where we were not fed a delicious breakfast we got the “back lot” tour of the operations of the Dixie Center and for those of us who hadn’t done that before it was eye-opening!

JoAnn Gordon, Dixie Center Marketing Director for 19 years, Cindy Curtis, Sale and Decorating Coordinator, for 12 years and Susan Duncan who is 1 of 3 event Coordinators welcomed us to the insiders look at the Dixie Center.

Did you know the Dixie Center began at Dixie State College and was originally comprised of the Burns Arena, Cox Auditorium and Smith Convention Center? The current facility opened 11 years ago – we were there on the anniversary! – with 31,000 sq. ft of meeting space. Today the Dixie Center encompasses 32,000 sq. ft of flexible meeting space and 46,500 sq. ft. of column-free exhibit space! Trade shows may host as many as 240 booths. The facility can accommodate small meetings or weddings or events the size of the largest user, What Woman Want. And the center includes a full theater.

The center is managed and funded in an amazing shared manner by The City of St. George (32%) and Washington County (68%). Each entity has a Director and City/County Representative. Marketing staff, Convention and Tourist Office is the responsibility of the county, operations including set up staff, event coordinators, custodial staff, etc. All in all quite, an extraordinary operation.

Remember, we will be participating in the All Clubs Luncheon next Monday, November 2, 2009 at the Holiday Inn on Bluff Street at 12:15. Please plan to attend to hear PDG Fred Berthrong tell us about the amazing work of the Rotary Foundation.

We will NOT be meeting on Thursday. However, next week, Nov. 12th ,The Snake Lady returns. Be sure to bring your kids, it is really great fun.

Marla Shelby-Drabner, President
Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise.

Laughter, the BEST Medicine

This week’s meeting was the 662 all time and 17th of the year meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise. And what fun this one was! We bent down, we stood up, we stretched out, and we laughed and laughed.

It was treat to hear this week from Ronald Harrison, a lifelong student of the “all things funny.” Ron’s path to living has taken him from a biologist by education, to a former medical student and a former stand-up comedian. For 30 years is worked in the information systems industry then in 2004 he started studying the use of laughter in the wellness process and in the spring of 2009 he was certified as a Laughter Yoga Leader. This past summer he began a collaboration with the Huntsman Cancer Center to add laughter therapy to the mix for cancer patients. His company, Laughter Unlimited, is expanding this form of wellness to the workplace.

We learned some science this week. For instance, laughter is innate, all mammals are born with the ability. We learned there are 3 elements in life that have the potential to make us sick: genetics (cancer, for example); environment (flu, for example); and stress which has the potential to suppress the immune system making us vulnerable. We learned that STRESS IS POISON but LAUGHTER IS THE ANTIDOTE. We learned that laughter is 80 times more powerful than morphine!

Halloween is coming! Can you say "Thriller"?

The science is now being offered in Laugher Yoga Clubs, Laugher Social Clubs, and workplace programs that focus on starting the day with the laugh. The two gems of advice from Ron that stuck in my mind, are 1) start your day with something funny and 2) end your day with something funny – you’ll sleep much better.

Thanks Ron for sharing.

Don’t forget next week we have a vocational visit to the Dixie Center. Same day, same time, different location. Come join your fellow Club members to see and hear things you probably didn’t know about the Dixie Center. Breakfast will be served.

See you next week!
Marla Shelby-Drabner, President

The Business of Art and other great things......

Janet O’Riley and Christina Schultz came to educate us at the October 15th meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise on educational opportunities at Dixie State College. Wow, who knew so much was going on right here at our very own DSC?

Janet, Director of Community Education for DXC and Washing County School District has both BA and MS in Education and has been in her position for 15 years which has given her the opportunity to be involved in community education and after school programs. Christine Schultz is the Vice President of Institutional Advance at DSC which means she oversees fundraising, alumni relations, public relations/marketing and publications and cultural arts. The program today focused on two of her projects, a documentary film entitled “Return to Little Hollywood” a promotional documentary featuring the movie making heritage of heritage which is currently being used as a tool to bring production back to the area. And, DOCUTAH, the Southern Utah International Documentary Film Festival to be held in St. George and Kanab in September of 2010.

Moreover, these ladies came to announce the free artist seminary in Kanab on Nov. 14, 2009 featuring Eric Dowdle, artist, and Margaret Hunt, Executive Director of the Utah Arts Council.. This is fantastic opportunity for local artists to showcase their work and learn how to expand that showcase in Utah.

I could go on and on as the presentation also included expansion plans for Dixie State College, the Celebrity Concert Series and the Performance Series. However, a BLOG is meant to be a teaser for bigger things. So, let me suggest you get lots more detail on “The Business of Art’ and Dixie state college and the full offering of events at http://www.dixie.edu/. For more information on the Business of Art contact Janet at oriley@dixie.edu. You can register online at ce.dixie.edu.

And, thanks to Trish for inviting our guests.

Teaser: watch for an upcoming BLOG on the folks who visited us while attending the Huntsman games and see what else Tris has been up to to help our club.

Until next week,
Marla Shelby-Drabner, President
Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise.

Crime on Campus

Welcome to the 660th meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise. In addition to our very interesting program, we were honored to induct James Sippel into the Club. James, whose classification is CPA was sponsored by John Johnson. Thank you John!

It was my pleasure also to announce that Greg Nielsen has accepted the appointment to the Board, replacing our departed Kyle Ashby. Thank you Greg!

Our speaker today was Don Reid, Director/Chief of Dixie Campus Police. He brought with him Assistant Director Ron Isaacson. These gentlemen bring an extraordinary number of years of experience to the safety of the Dixie State College Campus. Don has a total of 34 years in campus police, 28 or those years as a Director. He also has experience as an Investigator with the Medical Examiners office. He holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati. Ron has 17 years as a law enforcement professional. He joined the DSC force a year ago after being a part of the St. George City force.

The presentation focused heavily on why crime, on campus or elsewhere, has risen so rapidly and why it is so different today then in past generations. In past generations, teenage “crime” consisted to cutting classes and maybe smoking a cigarette in the school bathroom. Today we see gangs, drugs, and concealed weapons. Don expressed his strong opinion based on experience and the research of others that the techno smart youth of today have no social contract. There is an amazing social disconnect. While fully connected moment to moment the connection is not personal. This is the most violent generation this country has ever known and the blame rests heavily on violent movies and video games which have desensitized the audience.

The nature of a BLOG is such that it presents just a brief taste of our meetings. This topic, however, is serious and Don suggests anyone wishing to delve deeper into it read the books of Lt. Col David Grossman on the subject.

See you all next week! We'll learn about The Business of Art!
Marla Shelby-Drabner, President
Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise

Washington City Public Serivce

The 659th meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise took place on Thursday, Oct. 1st. The group was privileged to hear from Jim Keith, Police Chief/Public Safety Director for the City of Washington.

The past 4 years of Chief Keith’s career have been as Chief of Police of Washington City where he was given the opportunity to start a Police Department and Fire Department for the City. His 25 year career in diverse aspects of law enforcement have given him the foundation to tackle this start up. His career has included dignitary protection as well as a number of years with the Utah Police Academy.

The Washington City force has grown in just 4 years to 16 officers who are faced with crimes driven primarily by drug use and gangs. Today, officers are finding the drug of choice in young persons and adults to be prescription drugs generally stolen from in-home medicine cabinets. Kids are using left over pills at “parties” where pills are passed around at random with the result of creating a heroin type high but can just as easily result in death.

He told us, as we have heard from others, that Washington County has members of all the “national” gangs. In fact there are over 500 documented gang members in our area and crime is what gangs do. Period. He reiterated that drugs and gangs equal crime.

On the positive side, he gave us great information on the use of drug dogs. St. George City has one and shares when needed. Washington City would very much like one but the total cost to bring a dog up to speed as a drug dog in time and training is over $30,000. The City is working on grants and other possible sources of funding and will continue to pursue the dream.

At the conclusion of the presentation the group had lots of questions and learned much about safe living in our area.

President Marla reminded the group of next week’s Board Meeting and invited everyone to return for more great information next week!

Marla Shelby-Drabner, President

Our Sargent at Arms has been enjoying Fall!

Enjoy these fantastic shots of what our Sargent At Arms did with his weekend!

Marla

Are you a potential Big Brother or Big Sister?

The topic of the 658th Meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise – meeting #13 this year- was Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah – Southern Utah.

It was our privilege to learn from Teri Iverson, the Southern Utah Program Coordinator, of the work and success of the Big Brother Big Sister Programs throughout the state and in the St. George community. Dr. Paul Gooch introduced Teri telling us she has lived most of her life here and has been this programs coordinator for 6 years. She has degrees from Dixie State College and SUU in Psychology and in addition to her other interests will start teaching Yoga next month.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is 105 year old. The program started in New York City with the “brothers” part and was followed with the early “sisters” part being lead by the nuns of the Catholic Church. The organization has been working in Utah for 30 years. The St. George office has been operating for 6 years. There are two programs within Big Brothers Big Sisters; a community based program and a school based program. The community based program asks volunteers to spend time 2 – 4 times a month with a child. The school based program gives the volunteers the opportunity to have lunch at school with a child each week and has a more educational focus such as reading with a child or just offering encouragement. Either commitment is for a year but often volunteers stay connected with the child for a number of years. Most of the children in the program come from single parent families but regardless of family situation the families must make application to the program and be supportive of it.

Fundraisers are key to the organization’s success and we were invited to participate in their next event; a 5K Run/Walk and 1K Kids Race The Monster Dash on Halloween morning. For more information on the Monster Dash or the organization, phone 986-9776 or go to http://www.bbbsu.org/.

See you all next week!
Marla Shelby-Drabner, President

We Cleaned the Sugarloaf!

Members of the Club and their families - the entire Gooch clan, minus Paul, included - gathered Saturday morning, September 19th to clean the picnic area and trails around the Sugarloaf. Great breakfast! Great fellowship! AND, it was really great to see how so much of the area had so little litter. Hikers are getting better all the time about not leaving trash all over paradise. Thanks Darrin for organizing, feeding, and hauling away the trash bags!

Marla Shelby-Drabner, President

Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise

Life in the Utah State Senate

The Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise met on Thursday, September 17th for the 657th time!

Today we were privileged to hear from Utah State Senator Steve Urguhart. While originally from Houston, Senator Urguhart’s wife, Sara, hails from St. George and they have lived here since 1994. The Senator attended Williams College and BUY where he obtained his law degree. He was elected to the Utah State House of Representatives in 2000 and jumped to the Senate in 2008.

Senator Urguhart – Steve to most in the room – told the audience he choose to run for the Senate to have the opportunity to be more involved in policy. He spent his time addressing two matters of importance to him: the recent adoption of the Bill on Legal Notices and the budget of the State of Utah.

The Bill on Legal Notices will now remove some of the financial burden to posting legal notices, which are mandated to be published in a newspaper and could cost up to $1,000, by adding the option to post a legal notice on a newly designed, searchable web site. This is an innovative step that The Senator feels may quickly be copied by other states.

On the matter of budget, Steve reinforced that the Utah government budgets on real dollars. When one time money comes into the State it is used almost exclusively for one time projects and does not fund routine operations. We were given the news that indeed, Utah will have to make a 13% cut in the state budget. Up to now of the 21,000 state employees there has been only a loss of 71 jobs and that by attrition. However, as the budget cuts continue we will probably see actual jobs cuts. Economic recovery may help but the State of Utah will face tough challenges along with the rest of the country.

In conclusion, Marla reminded everyone that we are doing a Trail Cleanup this Saturday morning. Breakfast will be served at 8:00 at the loop picnic area and we will attack the trash around the picnic area and the Sugarloaf. Families are invited to help!

Marla Shelby-Drabner, President
Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise

Election Time

Welcome to the 656th meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise.

Our Club was honored today to have Jimmie Hughes, candidate for St George City Council, speak to us about current issues and trends in our city. Jimmy is native to St George, and comes from a family with a tradition of ranching on the Arizona Strip. His career background includes work as a certified residential appraiser, independant mortgage broker, parnter in a small business finance company, and cattle rancher.

Jimmie spoke of his love for the original principles upon which our country was founded and wanted us to know his political center. Then he shared his feeling on a few important issues that face our city.

One concern that we face, especially this off-season election is very low voter turnout. It is a very small group of voters that determine the makeup of our city leaders at a time like this and he stressed the importance of getting out to vote. He also spoke about how important it is for good people to get involved in our civic duty to participate in our government and work to maintain our freedoms.

Other concerns that he shares with citizens of St George include some struggles with out sign ordinances that may restrict the flow of business to some degree. And he spoke about the struggles many of the small business FBO and private aviation activity that will have as they move to the new airport at prohibitive expense. Jimmie reports that they make up 90% of the business activity at the current airport and represent an important voice in the logistics of the replacement airport.

Remember to VOTE in the Primary elections, this Tuesday, September 15!

Lynn Spafford shares his passion for Costa Rica

Lynn was invited to speak with the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise, in St George, Utah, Sept 3, 2009. He shared his family experiences over the last 20 years, in the beautiful county of Costa Rica. It began with the vacation spots, the surfing camps, the zip lines and tree climbs and then the problems that a small support community town of Inmaculada, Quepose Costa Rica was dealing with. It was a horrifying site to see a beautiful county with major flooding occurring each year at this time. The rainy season floods this area. Some of the tico's have to relocate, out of their casita, rent a place until the water recedes. This is something that boggled his mind but the local people of Inmaculada seems to just live with this yearly situation. When the flooding occurs, the septic tanks over flow and contaminates the areas ground and water table. Lynn explained that he had established a group of Quepose and Manual Antonio residences which come from many countries to help facilitate the rebuilding of foundations and structures to help elevate this problem. It is a great project to teach and to serve, the Rotary slogan Service Above Self . It is just one of the latest projects that he has organized and now with the help of all, we can achieve the goals of Service above Self . Click on Lynn's name above to link to his Blog for LOTS more information on this work and pictures to tug at your heart.

Lynn's passion for this area will surely be caught by this club. Hopefully, we can hear more from him in the upcoming months about his passion.

Next week PE Mark Heiner will be conducting in my absence. Come to see what Past President Paul is bringing us next week.

Marla Shelby-Drabner, President

SCHOOL IS IN SESSION!

In honor of the start of the 2009-2010 school year, the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise welcomed Dr. Max Rose, Superintendant of the Washington County School District to speak to the 654th Meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise.

Dr. Rose, well known to many of the members of the Club, has devoted his life to his passion for teaching. Dr. Rose, born and raised in Garfield County, has Bachelor’s, and Masters’ degrees in Mathematics and a doctorate in Math and Chemistry from BYU. He keeps his fingers in the classroom not only in the public schools of the district, which he visits frequently carrying his crusade for study of the sciences, but retains his title as a professor of math and chemistry at Dixie State College where he also currently serves on the Board of Trustees.

In his engaging style, he talked about “the kids”, it’s all about “the individual kids”. He is proud of the District, the 7th largest in the State of Utah with its many leading edge programs. The District offers “Success Academy” which allows completion of a high school diploma along with a 2 year Associate Degree from Dixie State College, and is able to boast of a 90% high school graduation rate, staggering considering the national graduation rate is only 60%. The dual immersion, bilingual school Dixie Sun is accumulating great success stories.

Dr. Rose addressed member’s questions about Trust Lands, Charter Schools and N1H1 preparation in the schools at the end of his presentation. We were informed that the Washington County School District does not intend to close schools in response to “flu” due to the disruption to the community that could cause. Instead prevention such as strong emphasis on hand washing is in place. In conclusion, Dr. Rose invited any one with a few minutes to spare to volunteer at a school. Another example of how Rotarians can make a difference “one person at a time”.

With very mixed emotions this club accepted the resignation of President Elect Nominee, Kyle Ashby who will be leaving the community for a career opportunity. Kyle, we will miss you.

Next week: Lynn Spafford on Costa Rica and related ways to make that difference “one person at a time”. You won’t want to miss it!

See you next week,
Marla Shelby-Drabner, President