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