The State of the City!!



Annette Basso

We started off our meeting on Thursday with a very special presentation.  For those of you who were not in attendance you missed out on an inspiring event.  Carl presented Annette with her second Paul Harris Fellow award for her selfless donations to the Rotary Foundation.  Annette is a Rotarian we should all emulate and aspire to be like as we fulfil our obligations in this Rotary club.  Congratulations, Annette and thanks for all you do as a Rotarian and as a person.  We are honored to have you in our club.

In other happenings, after a weak effort of Horse Play by our Sgt. of Arms, we had the Assistant City Manager for the City of St. George, Marc Mortensen, give us a state of the City update.  The benefit of having Marc speak to our club is that he knows everything and has all the inside information and he is happy to share that with our club.  He updated us on construction projects, tax revenues, building permit applications and everything else we had questions on.  Thanks Marc for spending some time with us.

A Blogging Smorgasboard!

We have had quite the goings on since our lazy blogger's last entry  back some time in April.  The Ironman has come and gone and our Aid Station #4 was a big hit with the athletes.  In this picture we see on of the many volunteers who mad the event one to remember.  We love and appreciate all the athletes who trained so hard and survived the swim and the run to make it to our aid station to keep us in business.

In our most recent meeting on the 10th of May, we had Dr. Reed Juassi come and educate the club on the eye and how it is affected by glaucoma.  John Johnson, our club eye expert, was throwing out all this terminology acting like he knew what was going on.  This presentation was very informative and the things we learned will help us determine the early warning signs of glaucoma.

In an other meeting, we were privileged to have our local Marine Recruiter, Sgt. Martin, come speak to our club.  He was very well spoken and did a good job sharing with us the benefits of joining the military and if this blogger wasn't over the hill I would be in his office tomorrow. 

We look forward to the summer and the passing of the gavel from President Wilcox to President Wittwer.  We appreciate the extra long reign provided by President Wilcox and his selfless service to our club.

Hold Your Horses!!!!!

On Thursday the 19th of April, we were favored to hear from the Dixie FFA Club presenting their arguments for and against the policies on the wild mustang herds roaming the western countryside. Introduced by the Studly Jacob Sisson, these fine young men and young women will be taking their arguments to the state tournament this week in an effort to score a berth to nationals. They presented a very compelling argument for and against the practices of the BLM and the Interior Department in regard to their procedures in dealing with the wild mustang herds in the west. Their positions were so compelling that this blogger is remaining unchangingly neutral. It is refreshing to see youth like this with strong convictions and well spoken in their positions. We thank them for edifying us on this topic and wish them the best in their state competition.

Getting Caught Up on Meetings

Due to some technical difficulties this blogger cannot explain, pictures were not available for the blog update for our meeting on the 5th of April. So in today's edition of the blog, I will update the last two weeks of meetings so everyone will know what they missed. We had the two distinct privileges on Apirl 5th: The first was to have our reliable standby presenter, Dan Rak, stand by and present more of his memoirs; and the second was having him show off four inches of his leg by sporting the Air Force Tartan. (Awesome Look) Dan told us of the time he rode on two different airplanes in one day that both had problems and how lucky he was to be around to tell us about it. We all admire him for his feats of death dodging.

This week we had the honor of hearing from past DG Jim Coleman. He highlighted his trips to India, shared a rotary poem he wrote, and even played the guitar and sang a rotary song he composed. He isn't just another pretty face, he can do stuff too. He is a great example of what Rotary is all about and we can all learn from his example, enthusiasm, and talents. Thanks, Jim for spending some time with us and sharing your excitement and dedication to Rotary.

Oh, The Blogger is back. It's about time.

There have been many theories speculating what in the world has happened to the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Blogger. Some people are of the opinion the blog is a lot better without the blogger. Wow, that is hurtful. Some have not even noticed the blogger was shirking his duties for some time now. And possibly some still don't know we have a blog. No matter what the theory or speculation, the blogger is back and not necessarily better than ever.

On March 29th our club meeting was held in the cozy confines of the main building at the Abbey Inn. March madness plagued Shayne and his staff and we were bounced out of our regular meeting space for a couple of weeks. But being the ever flexible rotary club that we are, we met at Findlay Auto one week, Snow Park another week with the other Washington County Rotary Clubs and the cozy confine room last week.

Ron Thompson was our speaker and he did a great job of explaining the background and data of the Lake Powell pipeline. This blogger had to leave after 40 minutes of the presentation, but the parts I heard were very informative. My commentary, there better still be water left in Lake Powell for a long time, cause I just bought a share of a house boat. If it is sitting on a muddy lake bottom in 10 years I will be upset. That is my take and that is all.

Water you waiting for?

President Wilcox is getting very good at inducting new members as he demonstrated last Thursday at our meeting. David Higbee is the newest member of the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club. Carl is hovering over him like a proud parent. President Wilcox did an awesome job, as always, inducting him into our club and we are looking forward to many great years of service and association with David. Welcome to our club.

Our main speaker on Thursday was Paul Van Dam who is a retired attorney who has relocated from the Wasatch Front to Southern Utah. He has taken on the project of the Lake Powell Pipeline and he presented some great insights and data on the effect of the pipeline to our community and our wallets. He is very knowledgeable on the subject and held our interest long past the point of adjourning. Thank you Paul for sharing your time and expertise with us.

Technology and an Old Friend

The Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club started off right on Thursday when we re-inducted our old friend and long time Rotarian Luther Anderson. Luther had been a long time member of our club before he went back to Minny Soda to retire in that climate friendly state. We are very grateful to have Luther back among us and we can feel the legitimacy of the club already improving. Welcome back Luther.

In other related club news, Mark Jensen was our guest speaker Thursday and he gave a very informative presentation on his role in inventing the internet and how he is making it work for everyone here in southern Utah. He explained the technology behind the phone systems, cell phones, VOIP, streaming video, and he gave us a whole bunch of acronyms to boggle our mind. He is very tech savvy and we enjoyed learning more about how this stuff works and why we need to know it.

Last but not least this blogger promised to post the link to the Ironman volunteer website for our members and their guests to sign up for our aid station. So as promised here is the link:

http://ironmanstgeorge.com/volunteer-2/ Sign up today and we will make it another great year at our aid station.

Dixie Sunrise Rotary Potpuri

Included in this edition of the blog, are the long awaited picture highlights of the dictionary drop to the 3rd and 4th graders at the Masada School. Our Rotarians received a warm welcome and in the pictures we see Paul and Chantra Gooch along with Darin Hallman instructing the students on how to use the dictionaries. The students were very excited to to receive their books and after the session was over, Chantra was the most popular Rotarian as many of the students were seeking her autograph. Thanks to the members of our club who sacrificed their time to deliver these dictionaries and make a difference in the lives of these students.

In other Rotary news, Carl and members of the Marine Corps League presented a certificate of appreciation to Paul Gooch and Southwest Vision for his generous contributions to the Toys for Tots campaign and other philanthropic endeavors.



Our program on Thursday featured the ever popular Dan Rak with his Memoirs from purchasing. He described his adventures in buying bombs, weapon systems and smoking fast aircraft. Many questions were asked and Dan was very generous were with time in addressing our inquiries.

This last picture is a bonus of to make each of us appreciate the wonders of life and the beauties of the earth. It is designed to be a feel good moment for the week. I hope it accomplished the objective. Have a great week Rotarians.

Southern Utah Housing Market Improving? What?

The Sunrise Rotary Club had the distinct honor Thursday of hearing from our former President and member Vardell Curtis. He has been the CEO of the Washington County Board of Realtors since 1996 and seems to know what he is talking about. He gave us an encore presentation from his break out session at the Economic Development Summit and he is cautiously optimistic that the housing market has bottomed out and is on an up tick. You wouldn't know it by looking at the graph of building permits over the last five years, but as you look at the last two bars you see that they are on the rise. Like I said, cautiously optimistic. It was great to have Vardell back in the club and we hope he considers coming back to us soon. Thanks Vardell for your expertise, knowledge and wisdom.

In other club news, Carl is seen in this picture presenting a certificate of appreciation to Shayne for his participation with the Marine Corp. League in the Toys for Tots campaign and other philanthropic endeavors. Nice job Shayne.

Sheriff Pulsipher Gives His Progress Report

The Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club had the honor of having Sheriff Cory Pulsipher pay us a visit on Thursday the 19th of January. He expressed his appreciation for our clubs support of the Search and Rescue team (called out twice over the weekend) and told us how much our efforts mean to WCSR. He has been actively involved in Search and Rescue since joining the Sheriff's Office over 20 years ago when he was 16. He also did something that was very refreshing for a public servant and that was to give us a progress report on the platform he ran on for Sheriff. He went through what he promised to do if elected as Sheriff and by golly he is doing what he said he was going to do. He reported on the changes at the Jail and with his deputy's not being allowed to drive their vehicles when they are off duty. He also said he answers his own phone and his home phone number is published. Now there is a Sheriff for the people. It was great having him and we are thankful for our partnership with WCSR.

Reps from Metcalf Mortuary Discuss one of the Sure Things in Life!!

The Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club had the privilege of hearing from two well respected members of the community on one of the only two sure things in life--and it wasn't taxes! Ron Metcalf and Todd Bonzo gave us a very informative presentation on Aftercare Plans which help families prepare for the ultimate demise. It is less stressful on families dealing with the loss of a loved one if there have been plans put in place and arrangements made for the final event. They shared some interesting stories from their long careers in the funeral arrangement industry and they also gave us some good advice for advanced planning when it is our turn. Very good information from two who know what the heck they are doing. Now I am off to plan for my demise.

Highlights from the Dixie Sunrise Christmas Party

Members, spouses, friends, entertainers, and one Special Guest helped make the 2011 Sunrise Rotary Club Christmas party a great event. El Presidente Wilcox started the festivities by presenting our tireless Abbey Inn staff, Maria and Calvin, with a token of our esteem and appreciation. (What? Nothing for Shayne. No. Bummer for you) We then had a tremendous program provided by Carol Sue and her awesome students on the violins. Angels could not have sounded better. The meeting was topped off by a visit from the skinniest Santa we have ever seen. He graciously delivered white elephant gifts to club members. Wow, the stress of the season has really taken a toll on Santa this year. Anyway, a great party. Now enjoy the photo recap. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club.

SGMT Makes an Appearance at Rotary

We all enjoyed real togetherness last Thursday as we met in the small room in the main building of the Abbey Inn. We were honored to have the muckety-mucks from the St. George Musical Theatre make a presentation to our club and bring us up to date on the status of the community theatre. Dan Olsen, Bruce Bennett and Doug Bishop gave us the run down on how they are planning to bring the SGMT back on line. The new home will be in the old Sunroc corporate building on the top of Flood Street by the movie theatres. Their new fund raising model is to commit business to pledge money to help raise the nearly $500,000 to renovate the building and get the cast and crew self sustaining once again. With possible money available from an Eccles grant, they were very optimistic that they could raise the pledges by the end of January 2012. They also shared stories of how SGMT has helped the community and the actors and production people associated with the company. It was a very informative meeting and we all need to dig deep and contribute to support the arts in the community. That is all.

An Education on The Rotary Foundation

We had a very educational and informative rotary meeting Thursday the 17th of November. It was our pleasure to hear from Errol Eernisse, who is a member of the Sugarhouse Rotary Club, and he reviewed the workings of the Rotary Foundation and where the money comes from and where it goes. The numbers are very impressive and here is an example, as of September 2010 there has been $248 million donated to the foundation. We have 1,304,583 Paul Harris Fellows, which benefits TRF as well. These donations are used for projects ranging from local, national, small international and large international. It is important that we as rotarians are supporting this foundation for the impact it is making in the world. Keep the money coming everybody.

We also had a member focus by Annette Basso. She has had a storied life and career in rotary and it was great to get to know her better and hear her cool stories. Thanks for being a member of our club Annette. We love having you with us.

Snow Canyon Ranger Station Welcomes Dixie Sunrise

This blogger was not at the Rotary meeting on the 10th of November so I can only speculate on what happened. I do know that we met at the Snow Canyon State Park Ranger Station for some education and enlightenment on the Park. Pictured here is a lovely young Park Ranger educating club members on the history of the park and the programs offered to park goers year round. What a great opportunity to experience a vocational excursion. Those who were absent really missed out. This blogger included.