We "missed" you a Merry Christmas

Our Christmas Party was wonderful! Great food - thank you Shayne and the Abbey Inn - the room was lovely, the fellowship great always, and the entertainment was Spectacular! For those of you who missed this evening of Holiday Feasting, I'm attaching a whole batch of photos to entice you never to miss a Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise social again.

Lots of great food, as I said.

Lots of great fellowship, as I said.

And, Lana Jo Holt is a most talented and lovely young lady. She shared her lovely voice with us and I'm sure I can speak for one and all, it was wonderful . Lana Jo, thank you for sharing your gift. And, for the gifts of music we took home.

Maria and Calvin, again we thank you for putting up with us week after week after week. You take very good care of us! And feed us very well!

A reminder that we will not meet on Dec. 24th or 31th. Our next meeting will be January 7th at the usual time and place.

May I conclude with my sincere wishes that the Holiday Season finds you with much to be Thankful for. I hope your Christmas is full of what matters to you most.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Propsperous HEALTHY, New Year.

Marla Shelby-Drabner, President

Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise.

Can you do it?

Welcome to the BLOG of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise! Last week we had our 667th meeting all time meeting and the 22nd meeting of this year.

This week we were – with visions of many aches and pains – educated about the newest St. George major event the Ironman! On May 1st of 2010, St. George will debut the 7th venue for Ironman in the U.S. This event has so much potential that 750 tickets were sold with the introductory announcement.

Kevin Lewis, event coordinator working with St. George City and Jeff Gardner, an event survivor gave us an insider’s view of the event which is slated to bring 10,000 people to St. George next spring. With 2,500 participants – the event is fully sold out – our economy should see a positive bottom line from this. And, the even will donate up to $50,000 to local charities. Rotary has jumped in to help, so we could share in this donation!

Our event will be extremely unique and should grow each year because of the very unique terrain over which the event – of swim, bike and run – is staged. Most, such as Florida’s Ironman run on flat ground. Not here! Elevation everywhere!

For more information go to ironmanstgeorge.com.

Next week, Christmas Feast! 6:30 p.m. Grab your best guest and join us for an evening with friends, good food, and GREAT entertainment.

Remember your gift bags!

Marla

Finally a name tag!

Jim, we are glad to have you with us!

Including another of John Johnson's great shots. Great eye John!

So, Mark and Todd, awfully deep conversation here........

See you all Thursday

St. George has an Igloo!

At the all time 667th meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise last week, we learned of the about to open IGLOO Ice Rink! What an exciting addition to our community. James Mitchell, part owner or the facility, and John Crosier, Director of Hockey for Dixie Igloo and Kids on Ice were joined by Kids on Ice Board Member, Shannon Walker to introduce this new addition to our city to our members.

While the Igloo will indeed be open to the public for figure skating and other open skating, the goal of the Kids on Ice Board is to offer young people the ability to spread their wings in athletics. Their goal is to encourage young people to be athletes rather than single sport players who then have a narrow focus as adults. The Kids on Ice Program follows the American Developmental Model – Play LOTS of sports and BE KIDS! Visit http://www.kidsonice.org/ for more information.

The new facility is slated to open before Christmas and will be a welcome addition for families looking for healthy opportunities for kids and families.

Next week: The Ironman!

Followed by our Holiday Feast! We will have our annual Christmas Party at the Abbey Inn on December 17th at 6:30 p.m. (No, no breakfast meeting.) We look forward to a delicious Abbey Inn menu and entertainment by Lana Jo Holt. Sign up at this week’s meeting.

Marla

RYLA report

Our meeting on November 19th was our wonderful opportunity to hear from Justin Gooch and Levi Spafford about their experience wtih the Rotary Youth Leadership Award experience. For anyone who is not familiar with RYLA, it an opportunity for high school juniors to have an intense experience in leadership principles with youth from around our State. These young men told of the lessons learned, the experiences, the great Northern Mountain location AND the number of girls who attended RYLA! It was great to hear the enthusiasm of these young men as they start their journey into Rotary and Leadership.

Remember, no meeting on Thanksgiving!

December will bring exciting events - stay tuned!

Marla Shelby-Drabner, President

Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise

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