The Chamber Visits Rotary

 In another awesome Rotary meeting of the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club, we were fortunate to have a report by one of the Devil Pups who we helped to support at Camp Pendleton in the Devil Pup Program.  It is always fascinating to hear from the young men and sometimes the young women who return from this 10 day experience and share with us what they learn and how their lives have changed.  They are always confident, well spoken, and focused as they report on their experience and what it meant to them.  I think I can speak for the Club when I say we are happy to make this investment in our youth.  The ROI is worth it.

 In this photo, the Devil Pup recruiter is presenting President Wittwer a token of his appreciation for our support with the Devil Pup program.

Our main presenter last week was Gregg McArthur, the Executive Director of the St. George Chamber of Commerce.  The fourth (4th) largest Chamber of Commerce in the state of Utah.  Gregg gave us some great information on the Chamber, who they are, what they do, why they do it and how they do it.  We appreciate him taking time out of his schedule to come talk to us and keep us up to speed on what is going on not only with the Chamber but around our community. 

Doc Utah Visits Dixie Sunrise

As horseplay began to lag on Thursday, John Johson turned to our standy, the one and only Dan Rak, and he once again delivered for Mr. Johnson.  Dan, the professional orator, gave us a verbal disertation on who he is, how he came to be, why he is like he is and a list of accomplishments that would make anyone envious.  Thanks Dan for the insight into your mind.  We have had a lot of questions answered.

 Our presenter for Thursday was Lani Puriri from Doc Utah.  She is a frequent visitor to our club and we always appreciate having her with us.  She brought a documentary with her that was very enlightening and informative.  Carbon for Water was the movie and it tied in very well with our Rotary efforts to help with clean water projects around the world.  Even though this is a private venture, it mirrors Rotary's efforts in helping improve drinking water around the globe.  Thanks Lani for being with us again.  Below are a few scenes from Carbon for Water.

Lots of Stuff Happening in Rotary

Our Rotary meeting on the 16th of August had something for everyone, or so it seemd.  Here on the left is Carl presenting a Marine Corp League Certificate of Appreciation to Lynn Spafford for his involvement with the flags for funeral ceremonies.  Lynn is always good about donating his time and resources to great causes and this one is no different.  Thanks Lynn.

Butch Jentzsch (can I buy a vowel) was volunteered for our Rotary Minute and he gave a fascinating presentation on how the Rotarians were involved at the Olympics and spreading the good word about polio eradication.  He was off the charts with his minute and has raised the bar for the rest of us who have aspirations of presenting a Rotary Minute.  Strong work Butch.

In other exciting news, we see here in this photo Presidente Wittwer inducting our newest member into the club, Bob Flowers.  Bob is seen here with Shayne and John Johnson and took the oath to become the newest member of our club.  In an effort to keep the carbon monoxide levels at a minimum, President Wittwer decided to skip three paragraphs of the indcution speech and boy was it a quick one.  Anyway, welcome to the club Bob.  We are grateful to have you as our newest member.

Our speaker on Thursday was Dr. Ken Lord.  He is the owner of the Retina Associates of Southern Utah and is the only locally based Vitreo-Retinal Surgeon in Southern Utah.  Home grown in Kanab, Dr. Lord is very familiar with our community and is actively involved in helping treat diseases of the eye and helping his patients achieve a better quality of life and vision.  He is working on procedure to implant rose colored corneas in this blogger's eyes so I will have a better outlook on life.  I will let you know how that goes.  We appreciate Dr. Lord and his time and information on Thursday.  A very good meeting in deed.

A Visit From Jerry and Cherie Summerhays: District 5420 DG

The Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club hosted the top brass of District 5420 on Thursday the 9th of August.  After a very short Horse Play, our ADG Paula Bell had the honor of introducing our District Governor and his wife Jerry and Cherie Summerhays.  DG Summerhays began his presentation with a presentation to ADG Paula Bell.  He gave Paula a plaque in recognition and as a token of his appreciation for serving as an ADG during his Rotary DG year.  This was given to her at the beginning of the year so she could enjoy it all season.


DG Summerhays and ADG Paula Bell



District Governor Jerry Summerhays presents to the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club



Cherie Summerhays

The Summerhays' presentation was very well done and covered all the facets of Rotary.  They discussed the Rotary Foundation, Matching Grants, International Projects,  EREY, the public relations campaigns and how to get prospects excited and ultimately involved in Rotary.  We saw examples of projects other Utah Rotary clubs have been involved in and how they exponentially grew their seed money into mega amounts for projects in the state and internationally as well.  Thursday was a great day for motivation and re-dedication to the cause of Rotary.  Thank you Jerry and Cherie Summerhays for spending time with our club.

The Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club has had some great meetings and events since the last time the blog was updated which was President Wittwer's first meeting.  I won't give the actual date.  In the photo to the left, Dave Higbee is seen getting his Paul Harris Award.  The story that Dave tells us is that he was strong armed by his sponsor Carl in to becoming a Paul Harris Fellow and he was more than happy to pay the money.  Carl is also in the photo making sure Dave's wife pins his award on properly.  Congratulations Dave and we welcome you as our newest Paul Harris Fellow.

In other blog news, our meeting on August 2nd featured none other than our popular Mark Heiner.  Mark discussed his life and his career path and the why's and how's of how he chose to be a funeral director and then the why's and how's of how he left being a funeral director and the why's and how's of coming back and being a morutary owner/operator.  He also discussed making plans for your funeral before your demise to take the pressure and mental anguish off your family and loved ones as they prepare to say their final goodbyes.   It is always good to be prepared, just ask the Boy Scouts, and this is a big one to be prepared for .  Thanks Mark for your insight and expertise.  Now lets go see the Creamatorium.  (sp)

President Wittwer's First Meeting

On July 12, 2012 the new regime of President Shayne Wittwer began in the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club.  To make sure the crowd did not get out of control we had Sheriff Cory Pulsipher at our meeting to keep the peace and show a presence of force.  Past President Jeff Wilcox had a few left over items of business to take care of before Shayne started driving the bus.  On hearing the news that Shayne has the reins of the club, Paul Gooch began to hit the sauce.  Will his perfect attendance record be in jeopardy.  Due to a record keeping error I am sure, Todd Watts received a perfect attendance award for the previous rotary year.  If he can get a perfect attendance award with only 30% attendance, anyone can.  I really should put a picture of our new president in this blog since it is his first meeting.  Oh well, there are a lot of things I really should do.  Have a great day Rotarians.

Enjoy the pictures and the Memories!!!



Some of the Bums that got Booted.



 

President Wilcox all bumbed out!!



Our two Rock Stars retaining their titles and their jobs, Steve and Marge.





Classic Carl!!  Always Smiling  :)



Jeff shows Marla our appreciation for a job well done.

The new Presidential Pin



The transfer of power.



The EX President's Pin



Our sincere gratitude and appreciation for your time served as our President.  Thanks Jeff.  We will never forget you.





Luther, what the crap are you looking at?





Rotarian of the Year?  Really?  JK  No one deserves it more than you little Johnny Johnson.  An inspiration to us all.













A face only a mother could love.  Welcome back to the U.S. Mr. Bowcutt.  We are so happy to see you.  Any chance of getting you back in our club?  Think about it.



A New Member and a Seasoned Veteran

On Thursday the 21st of June it was our pleasure to welcome another new member to our club.  Pictured here is President Wilcox inducting Craig Andrews as our newest member.  Notice that John Johnson and Craig are wearing the official sponsor/inductee uniforms for the occasion.  Also, notice that John is telling Craig with his right hand that he is number one as far as new members go.  Sorry, Butch.  You held that distinction for only one week.  Now it is Craig's turn.  We welcome Craig to our club and expect great things from him as a Rotarian.

We were honored to have our own Hal Eward present to us on Thursday.  Hal is retired from air trafficking (which should not be confused with drug trafficking) and he gave us a great presentation on the history of controlled air space development and how we keep track of all those planes every day.  It was a fascinating meeting and we appreciate the hard work and effort Hal went through to bring us this information. 

Stay tuned for next weeks blog on highlights from our service project in Snow Canyon State Park and our Pass the Gavel meeting for President Wilcox to President Wittwer.  We hope everyone will be able to attend.

Something for Everyone.

It was a great meeting on the 14th of June at the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Meeting.  The fishy scrambled eggs were a bit suspect, but other than that we had some great happenings.  It was our privilege to welcome into our club the newest member Butch Jentzsh.  He is pictured here with the three high powered Rotarians of the club, El Presidente Jeff Wilcox, 25 time Rotarian of the year, Lynn Spafford, and All Around good Human, John Johnson.  We are excited to have Butch in our club and look forward to getting to know him better.

In other news, we were pleased to welcome a visitor from the Bern Rotary club in Europe.  I have forgotten his name, but he made an impact on our club as he introduced himself and explained about his club. 

Our presenter on the 14th was Russ Talbot of Talbot Recovery Services.  Russ have been working for about 30 years to help people over come addictive behaviors and better understand the role recovery can play in a persons life.  Russ has about 4 post BS degrees and he knows what he is talking about.  It was a very interesting meeting.  Thanks for being part of our day Russ.

Getting Caught Up!

Due to a snafu with our picture taker, it is this resigning blogger's job to get the blog updated for the last two weeks.  To the left and right are pictures from our meeting on the 24th of May.  Bill Woodard was our guest speaker and he gave and excellent presentation on the Shelter boxes and where they have been deployed in the world over the past few years.  We saw some awesome pictures from real life disasters where Shelter boxes have made the difference in peoples lives as they have pretty much lost everything.  Some people are still living in their tents two and three years after a disaster which demonstrates the value and durability of the Shelter boxes.

In our meeting on the 31st, which was yesterday, we had the great honor to witness one of our long time members, Joe Christopher, receive his Paul Harris Fellow + 1.  This means that Joe has donated enough money to the Rotary Foundation to merit the awarding of a second Paul Harris Fellow.  It appears from the photo that El Presidente, Jeff Wilcox, is more excited about presenting the award than Joe is about receiving it.  Maybe it was the snide remark that threw Joe off his normally jovial look. 

In other news, Carl was our program presenter and he did an excellent job educating the club on the Rotary Foundation.  He told us what the money is used for, how we can contribute, and the ways in which our foundation benefits the world.  Truly an awesome place to put your money if you want it to do some good.  Carl has been around the block a few times as an attorney, a marine, and in the Cypress Rotary Club and he told our club of their "contribution" methods.  Let's not ever have Carl conduct a horseplay session.  I couldn't afford it.  Well, this blogger resigned yesterday in the meeting due to the member's lack of interest in the blog.  I hope my replacement has better readership.  Good Speed.

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.