Merry Christmas Sinatra Style

620th meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise

Singing in Rotary meetings in not uncommon and normally encouraged, but let me be the first to say “thanks” to our club founders who decided that music would not be part of our regular agenda. Simply said, I’m a horrible singer. Thank goodness there are those with great talent that help me look forward to our annual Christmas meeting. This year was no exception as Benjamin Ritter performed a mix of Christmas classics and jazz favorites. Benjamin’s recent experience includes performances with Michael McLean’s Forgotten Carols and upcoming shows will be at Sun River and Las Vegas. His smooth Sinatra like voice set a wonderful spirit and concluded our meetings for 2008 in a perfect way.

Thanks to all who brought gift bags for Meals on Wheels. They were delivered after the meeting. It was also announced that our Rotary Club has decided to make Christmas donations to Dixie Care and Share ($1000), Coins for Kids ($500), and Ted Worthen Hospice ($1000). More information about these donations will be given at our next meeting on January 8.

We also honored Calvin and Maria with a gift for their service to our club during the past year. We eat well thanks to their tireless behind-the-scenes service.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

MORE DRAMA PLEASE!

619th meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise

At the edge or Snow Canyon State Park and in our own backyard lies Tuacahn, one of the country’s top outdoor theaters. This morning, Mike Scott, Chairman of the Tucahnn Foundation, spoke to us about Tuacahn and its newly established Foundation. Mike has over 30 years of investment research for the Puget Sound apartment market and real estate management in Seattle. He and his wife fell in love with the Southern Utah area while visiting Zion National Park in 2002, bought a lot and built a home in Ivins shortly thereafter. While not from a thespian or fund-raising background, Mike’s love for Tuacahn has him actively seeking ways to build long term financial strength for Tuacahn.

Tuacahn was built in 1995 for 23 million dollars, primarily for the purpose of housing the outdoor show “Utah”. After running “Utah” for a number of years they decided to perform Broadway shows like Joseph, Oklahoma, Annie Get Your Gun, The Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast and last years hit Les Miserables. Over 140,000 visitors attended last year with 100,000 of them not living in St. George and 30,000 coming from outside the state. Tuacahn has become a huge contributor to the area’s tourism and economy, while providing an artistic continuum of professional theater.

The Tuacahn Foundation has been established to support operating needs and build a permanent fund. This will help the theater maintain its status as a world class venue for the performing arts, bringing in wonderful plays, concerts and events. The Foundation has come close to reaching their 2008 goal of raising $450,000 as they currently sit at $430,000. Of course it’s not too late for them to reach their projection. Even more important than funds, the Foundation seeks members that have experience in fundraising or fund management. The current Board has 18 members but would ideally be 30.

This year’s plays and concerts promise to be hits with the rights to perform Annie, Footloose, Aida and concerts from Foreigner, Gladys Knight, Rick Springfield and comedian Brian Regan. Click here for more info.

The Aims of Scouting

Bob Gowans from the local Boy Scouts of America office spoke to us this morning about the purpose of Boy Scouting, whose values and purpose are very similar to those of Rotary. Many were surprised to hear that scouting is not for boys to earn their Eagle Scout, but to learn to become future leaders and good citizens while earning their advancements.

Since its beginning in 1910 there have been over 112,000,000 boy scouts in the United States. Current membership is close to 3 million with nearly 9,000 registered members in Washington County. While most scouts are supported by religious organizations, Rotary's sponsorship of scouting units places in the top 20.

Service is a very important part of scouting as the boys must do service to earn rank advancements. To receive their Eagle Scout a boy must manage and oversee a project helping schools, churches or communities that average around 150 hours. Patricia shared her experience of a scout who took down the fence at her old center, put it back up after refinishing it, bracing it, and adding gates at her new location. Scouting for Food is another project that benefits the community where scouts collect food for local food banks. In our community scouts collected 77,000 pounds of food for Dixie Care and Share. In the early years of scouting scouts were involved in helping their communities and countries. During WWI they grew victory gardens to provide fresh vegetables to families. In WWII scouts raised thousands of dollars selling war bonds and collected tons of clothes. In 1962 they planted 6.2 million trees and topped it by picking up over 1 million tons of liter in 1971.As a service club we can be thankful scouting is actively looking for ways to serve and some of the current scouts are also sure to become future Rotarians.