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.

RYLA Highlights and Gilbert Jennings combine for a memorable Sunrise Rotary Meeting

The Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club was treated to a great meeting Thursday. Pictured in this blog are two of the RYLA participants we sponsored this year and they gave a enthusiastic recap of their experience and their new found passion for Rotary. Also pictured is one of our newest members, Lisa Davis, who was a facilitator at this year's RYLA. We heard about the speakers and the activities and the commitment level of these two participant's is off the charts. We look forward to working with them as a club and the possibility of helping them start a Rotaract club.

We also had a presentation from Gilbert Jennings representing the Spirit of Dixie II. This group is one of the major contributors in helping make improvements to the campus of Dixie State College in an effort to help them achieve university status. The idea is to make the campus a place where members of the community want to come and chill and soak up the atmosphere of an institution of higher learning. There are plenty of avenues of service for our club and I could see the wheels turning in President Wilcox's head. Overall, a great meeting. It is great to be a Rotarian. Especially in our club.

This just In: Rotarian Joe Christopher steps up and contributes!!

Rotarian Joe Christopher came through for the club in a big way by scheduling our speaker for our meeting on the 20th of October. With his experience with the American Cancer Society he brought in Christina Goodman, Patient Services Manager, with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Christina is seen in the pictures getting recruited by President Wilcox and signing a dictionary for our dictionary project. Christina gave us an awesome presentation on the L&L Society and how it is helping people on a daily basis with their battles with cancer. She also told us about the bone marrow donors list and how to get on it and there was a lot of interest by members of the club. We hope to be able to help in some way. Thanks for your time Christina.

A Visit from the Youngest District Governor in the World!!

Thursday the 13th of October was an historic day for the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club. Our program began with the inuduction of a great husband and wife team into our Club. President Wilcox, with the help of District Governor Rick Cambra, inducted the Davis' into our club and gave them all the rights and priveleges of being full fledged, card carrying Rotarians. We are excited to have them in the club and look forward to getting to know them better and serving the community with them.









For the second part of our program, it was our distinct pleasure to hear from the youngest Rotary District Governor in the world, Rick Cambra. He was able to attend our bored meeting the day before and this morning gave us some great words of encouragement about Rotary and District 5420's direction in the upcoming year. (which is nearly half over) A couple of take home messages that impacted this blogger were the PR campaigns to be run by the district featuring real live rotarians' pictures on bill boards; and the charge to make Rotary fun. Because if is not fun, your club will be shrinking. We were all impressed by the DG's professionalism, except for the time he swore when he talked about Mark Heiner. Well, who doesn't? Anyway, a great meeting and if you missed it, you really missed it. See you next week.

Habitat for Humanity Makes Dixie Sunrise Feel at Home

On Thursay, September 15th, Mike Gburski was our guest speaker. He originally hales from Connecticut and finds himself as the Executive Director of the Southwest Utah Chapter of the Habitat for Humanity. HFH focuses on helping low income families get into affordable housing by acquiring property and building homes with donated materials and labor from the community, contractors, and building suppliers. They have been averaging about a home a year but want to increase that to around three to four houses per year. Mike did a very good job informing us of his organization and there were many good questions from the crowd.

In other news, Lynn Spafford, informed the club of his disatrous week. As many of you know, his business was hit by lightning Sunday evening which ruptured a gas line and burned his store. As is typical of Lynn, his attitude is very positive and he is on his way to rebuild and get his store back to better than ever. Saturday the 17th, our Rotary Club will be spearheading a project in the community to help Lynn clean up from 8 am to around noon. Fab Freddy's will be there with a pressure washer and Alsco will have a truck there with coveralls, gloves and rags. If you want to help leave your younger children at home, wear some sturdy shoes and come join the effort.

Sunrise at the Black Bear Diner

Due to a scheduling conflict at the luxurious Best Western Abbey Inn, the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club showed its flexibilty by meeting at the new 5 star restaurant The Black Bear Diner. We had a good showing for the road trip and the folks at the BBD were very gracious and accomodating. If you missed it; you missed it.

Our speaker was Splendor Sargent from Cherry Creek Radio Cares. We found out that in addition to being on every board and committee in the county, she also worked for our very own Dr. Gooch for about four years. Wow, now that is some staying power. Cherry Creek Radio Cares helps connect individuals and organizations with resources in the community to help meet their needs. CCRC has different levels of involvement from PSA's to full blown involvement and Slendor is happy to meet with organizations to assess needs and determine a level of involvement to ensure a successful outcome. She said she had a very impressive PowerPoint presentation but we weren't set up for it this morning. So, we will have to have her back. That is all for today.

Sunrise Rotary Gets a Law Review

We were priveleged to hear from one of our own members this morning. Greg Walker, Esquire, Attorney-at-Law and all around good guy gave us a review of the law. He came with a computer and a slide show and everything. We learned about the origination of the law, why they call it the bar and where the Judge sits and everything. It was very informative and only reinforced the fact that Greg was the captain of the Law Review team at his law school.

One thought question: Why do they call them an Attorney-at-Law? What else can you be an Attorney at? 50 bonus points to the first non-attorney with the answer.