The Dictionary Project--photojourney

P.A.W.S, for paws and more paws!

On Thursday it was our pleasure to welcome Pat Dalpiaz, President of CarePoint Group Purchasing and Supporter and Advocate of PAWS to speak to the Club. Pat’s husband Paul, also a P.A.W.S. volunteer joined her to share with us the work of this organization.
The sad news is that more than 12 million dogs and cats are turned into animal shelters each year. Almost half are euthanized. Enter P.A.W.S. P.A.W.S. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization formed for the primary purpose of decreasing euthanasia rates at local shelters through spay/neuter programs, public education, and the location of quality homes for homeless animals.
She told us why people have pets:

Unconditional Love

People ages 50-64: 45% have a dog - 27% have a cat

24% of pet owners over 55 celebrate their pet's birthday

57% of pet owners 55+ say their pets are more likely than their significant other to give them enthrusiastic welcome-home greetings!

P.A.W.S. had made significant contributions to our area: look at this slide!




Next week please join us for a great presentation on the use of Social Media. For many of us figuring out social media and how to use it is like “going where no man has gone before.” Let’s take the leap and learn it. See you then!
Marla Shelby-Drabner, President
Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise

All Clubs Meeting welcome GSE Team

Thanks to the Red Rock Rotary Club for hosting and inviting us to share in the All Clubs Breakfast meeting on May 13th to meet the GSE Team and learn of the members, their vocations, their families and their culture.

Below, thanks to John Johnson in my absence, are some details of the group.

Each GSE Team member provided a personal Power Point presentation introducing us to their families, their places of employment, their personal interests, passions, hobbies or avocations.
Albertina Seillant, an English teacher, was the first presenter. She shared her passion for saving the Earth, it’s natural resources such as forests and water, with statistics that were impressive and educational.
One of the teachers, Maria Belen Garay and vice principal of her school, mentioned her school has over 1000 students and the staff of 40 teachers have access to only 2 computers.
Ann Marina Petrovic, the Team Leader has been President of her Rotary Club and is a recent graduate of Ancient Chinese Medicine, teaches Tai Chi, designs jewelry and is very active with several of her club’s projects.
Gustavo De Luca is a biomedical engineer and university professor. He works mostly with cancer research.
Lawyers Ana Maria Acchitte and Grima Machado described the type of law they practice and were delighted to be in Utah to experience snow for the first time.
All members commented on the beauty of Dixie and the friendly and kind people here. After the meeting, Brad Christensen Hurricane Elementary School Principal said all GSE members were taking a field trip of his school and then touring Zion Park.

And after this meeting our guys trooped off to deliver dictionarys.

More on that later.

May 20th, Pat Dalpiaz will tell us about the work of PAWS! See you then!

Marla

Aid Station #9 is #1 and Paul Harris Awards at last

Our meeting on May 6th was a celebration!

First, it was our pleasure to present the Paul Harris certificates, pins and medallions to Tyler Todd, Greg Walker, and Chantra Gooch. While the accomplishment was acknowledged some time ago the very special tangible awards were very delayed in coming. Paul was finally able today to complete the awarding of these recognitions which completed the acknowledgement of the second time this Club has achieved the status of a 100% Paul Harris Club, a goal of Paul's year as President.

Mark Heiner than took us to an update on the projects on-going from this year to next including the Rotary Licence Plate. If you have not signed up for one there is still time.

Then we celebrated the First Place win of Aid Station #9! It was GREAT FUN! See photos on the BLOG below. Thank you all who helped in any way, on the road, driving the shuttle (Herb, that would be you), the cooks, the photographers, the helpers, the runners, the entertainers, the volunteers one and all. While certainly not close to enough "thank you", it was my great pleasure to award to Paul and Lynn (with Lance as a proxy) the prestigious, first time every "U" Rock Award for organizing and pulling off this great fun and fundraising event. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Remember no Thursday meeting next week. All Clubs Breakfast hosted by the Red Rock Club on Wednesday and District Conference Thursday - Sunday! Attend as much as you can.

And, again Aid Station #9 "U" Rock!
Marla

Aid Station # 9 of the Ironman St. George

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are about a million words on the Aid Station #9 project. :-)

Great Fun! Thank you all participants!

Thank you All who participated.

CERT

CERT

We had the pleasure of hearing from Valerie and Dave Seeley on April 29. The Seeley’s came to tell us about CERT – The Community Emergency Response Team. CERT is designed to be all hazard training for the general public. It is training for local citizens to be ready to help victims of a disaster AND to be better prepared themselves in times of disaster. Because Emergency Services are overwhelmed in times of disaster, CERT seeks to train local residents to be first responders and to put emergency preparedness in the hands of individuals.

Dave reminded us that all disasters are local. FEMA assistance takes 11 days to arrive and the effects of any event are felt where the disaster occurs – locally! CERT brings varied groups together to prepare for the unexpected. It bridges churches, school, clubs and citizens. With the current class there will 519 trained CERT volunteers in our community. The training is extensive and provides hands-on and practical experience to prepare volunteers. Training includes not just what to do but also what not to do in a disaster.

To learn more visit: http://www.bereadyutah.org/.

Dave and Valerie, thanks for coming!

Ironman NEXT:

And as a preview, we had a Rotarian visitor from Scotland who came all the way over to watch his son participate in the Ironman! Best of luck!

The Crossroads

Thanks PE Mark for conducting this meeting. The group heard from Dr. Thibault about The Crossroads program. Welcome Dr. Thibault.

CERT is our next program. Ironman coming up!

Who Knew?

Today we had the pleasure of a visit from Betty Archambault, a very active member of our local Elks Lodge. I’m sure I was not the only person who was just blown away by the amount of good work done nationally and locally by the Elks Lodges. The Elks focus strongly on veterans AND on youth. Who knew? Past President Joe Christopher introduced Betty telling us how she came out of retirement to Chair the local lodge’s Youth Activities Committee and the energy she brought to the Committee and the award of a $10,000 impact grant for youth.
The St. George Elks Lodge is the first and only Lodge to receive the maximum $10,000. That funding has been/will be used for programs for underprivileged youth in the Millcreek Alternative School. These are high risk youth often living on the street or in cars who are struggling with the basics of life. The Elks Grant purchased freezers and shelving and set up a Food Pantry of staples and fresh produce with the only purpose being to feed those young people many of whom have no access to other food. Hygiene supplies and baby care needs are also available.
Betty emphasized that this program is about becoming independent and is not a “welfare” type program. It is designed to meet some basic needs so a young person can continue his/her education and be launched into independent living. By making basic food, toothbrushes, etc. available these very high risk youths do not need to steal food or earn money for food from stolen goods, etc.
The program is very successful with many young people graduating from high school and some going on to college at Dixie and elsewhere. A last piece of trivia about Elks Lodges, as an organization they are the second largest provider of scholarships in the US behind only the US Government.
Thank you Betty, for sharing your work with us.

Next week, The Crossroads. Ironman coming up! Have you registered for Aid Station #9? Dictionary delivery soon. District Conference May 13-15th, don't miss it.

Wow! Lots on our plate!
Have a good weekend!
Marla

Plotting and Planning for The IRONMAN!

Reaching out, truly making a difference

This week, the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise had the opportunity to hear of the work of a small group of St. George medical practitioners who made their way to Haiti to serve the injured. Our speaker, Colby Petersen, PA with The Heart of Dixie, spoke of traveling with Dr. David Grygla, Dr. Ed Prince, and Trevor Schmidt, PA to Haiti to treat, operate, and offer medical care in any form they could to victims of the Haiti disaster. The group made a spur of the moment decision to accept the offer of local philanthropist Jeremy Johnson to fly them to Haiti.
The group arrived on day 12 of the disaster and stayed through day 19. The photos of the injuries and the devastation of the country were sobering. Colby showed us photos we did not see on the evening news. He spoke of the countless persons buried under the rubble, the lack of electricity – which cannot be restored without pretty much starting all over again – the homeless and orphaned children and the great need for medical care. The group took 5, 000 lbs of supplies which they purchased, begged, and haggled in Florida. They used common household tools since they were unable to obtain hospital grade ones. They used hack saws, a Black and Decker drill and a Leatherman to operate on fractured and severed limbs. Antibiotics were scare and anesthesia close to non-existent.
However, the underlying message was the resilience of the people. Colby reported there was not a time they did not feel safe. He spoke of warm friendly people, laughing children, and a country where people sing day and night.
As Tyler Todd, who arranged this program, pointed out, the media has moved on to newer “news” but the needs of those in Haiti are far from met. Colby, thank you for sharing.
Reminders: Ironman service project May 1st. We need your help and the help of your families and neighbors. District Conference HERE IN ST. GEORGE May 13-15. Do plan to attend.
Until next week…..
Marla

Keeping Children Safe

This week the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise convened for the 682nd time - the 37th of this year - to hear from Patricia Sheffield, Director of the Children's Justice Center.

As a member of our Club, Trish needs little introduction. What we know most about her is how much fun she things it is to be a Grandma.

The message from Trish this week is Keeping Children Safe. The numbers related to child abuse are staggering. 95% of abused children are victims of a know perpetrator, often as close as a grandfather, uncle or adult. The typical sex offender will abuse 117 children before being caught. Close to 300 children were served by the Children's Justice Center in 2009 alone. A representative display of that work is currently in place at their location on 5th South. The cost to society of child abuse exceeds $94 BILLION each year! Many abused children have health issues, mental health issues or travel in to a life of gangs or other crime and spend years in our prisons and jails.

Trish warned of the dangers of the Internet, a vehicle by which we let pedophiles into our homes. Parents MUST monitor a child's internet use. Facebook and My Space can be highly dangerous doorways into children's lives and cell phone "sexting" is simply unacceptable.

It does take a village to raise a child, it IS our job. As Theodore Roosevelt said "if society does not protect its children today, it will one day have to protect itself from those children."

See you next week!
Marla

It's a cordless Spell Checker!

The 681st meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise was a special event for our club. We were honored to host the second All Clubs Meeting for Southern Utah and even more honored to welcome PDG Wally Brown as our guest, speaking on Literacy.
Our guests also included District Governor Gil Trujillo and AG Glade Hamilton who got up at an incredibly early hour to drive down from Cedar City to join us. We were so pleased to be joined by so many members of the St. George and Red Rocks Clubs. It was a room FULL of Rotary Energy. Governor Gil and AG Glade reminded us of the upcoming District Conference (May 13- 15) and encouraged us all to attend. Linda Sappington, Conference Coordinator outlined details of the exciting agenda.
PDG Wally’s program was absolutely eye opening. He spoke of the great cost to society as a whole of illiteracy. The statistics are sobering regarding how poverty, unemployment, crime, incarceration, and lack of development in “developing” countries is so strongly tied to the ability to read. It is sad to know that so many of the world’s women are unable to read and thus are unable to help their children out of ignorance and poverty. He stressed the need for Rotarians to be involved in literacy. We can, as we have been doing, gather books for the prisons and jails, we can continue with The Dictionary Project, we can volunteer to read to and with children in schools, and any number of other options to open the world of the printed word to those who have not experienced reading.
I could go on and on about the quality of this meeting but will let the photos speak for themselves.
And, again, thank you for sharing this great meeting with us.

Marla Shelby-Drabner, President