Rotary Youth Conference Planned

While the grown-ups in Utah Rotary District 5420 are attending their annual conference and learning about club and district programs in the state, approximately 150 youth involved in Interact, Rotaract, RYLA and Rotary Youth Exchange throughout the Beehive State, will also gather in St. George on the weekend of May 13-15, 2010.

The Rotary Youth Conference will include speakers and breakout sessions, hula dancers, tests of athletic prowess in the form of Club Olympics (including medals for the competition), swimming at Sand Hollow Aquatic Center, a couple of service projects - one involving feeding hungry Rotarians and another involving red paint - as well as the introduction of a statewide youth service project and awards for the best of the events promotional videos. Chairman Michael Wells reminds clubs to "encourage your club’s future Rotarians to join in the fun in St. George." For more information, contact the chairman at mwells2811@msn.com.

Cedar City is Southern Utah's First

The distinction of being southern Utah’s oldest Rotary club goes to Cedar City, chartered as RI Club #2083 on June 10, 1925 after the Salt Lake Rotary Club voted to share its territory to organize the state’s first club south of the Wasatch Front. Throughout its impressive 84-year history, the Cedar City Rotary Club has contributed in countless ways to their community, state and the world. Host of the 2005 Utah Rotary District Conference during RI’s Centennial Year, Cedar City Rotarians support the Happy Factory, Boy Scouts, YouthLinc, RYLA, Civil Air Patrol, Cedar City Arts, Boys and Girls State and Rotary Youth Exchange. Members of this club have also gotten involved in literacy issues, raised impressive amounts of funds through golf tournaments and the July Jamboree event; and distributed thousands of dictionaries over the past several years. Internationally they have focused on youth, sanitation and water with several projects in India.

In celebration of the Centennial of Rotary’s founding in 1905, the Cedar City Rotary Club organized an effort to create a Veterans Park in their community. The Club raised and donated the needed $50,000 to get the project underway. A Steering Committee, made up mostly of Rotarians, created committees for each of the wars: WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq/Afghanistan. Robert Mercer, a local architect created the overall design with monuments from each war. The park was dedicated in 2008. In that same year, the club was honored by the Cedar Area Chamber of Commerce with the 2008 Organization for Community Service Award. The Chamber also honored two Rotarians: Jane Norman with the 2008 Outstanding Woman of the Year Award; and, Brian Jorgensen’s business, Mountain West Books and Harmony House with 2008 Progressive Business of the Year Award. Soon after the dedication of the Veterans Park in 2008, Cedar City Rotarians pledged $20,000 to local leaders for the creation of Main Street Park’s entrance signage. Cedar City Rotary Club is truly an example of "service above self" and that a small group of people can change the world!

Rotarians Invited to Give the Gift of Life

The Utah Rotary District Conference in St. George will be an opportunity to advance the Object of Rotary through fellowship, inspirational addresses, and the discussion of matters of importance to Rotary clubs and Rotary International. May 13-15, 2010 will also showcase Rotary programs and successful district and club activities . . . and Rotarians throughout the state of Utah will have the chance to give "service above self" when they are invited to roll up their sleeve and give blood at a time of the year when the need is escalating because of travel and activities which increase the risk for accidents during holidays and summer months.

Do you know:
* Only 5 percent of eligible donors across the nation donate blood, but the number of transfusions nationwide increases by 9 percent every year.
* Each whole blood donation can help as many as three people. One unit is divided into three parts: red blood cells, platelets, and plasma.

To give blood, you must meet the following criteria:

- Be in generally good health and feeling well.

- Be at least 17 years of age

- Weigh at least 110 pounds

- Pulse: 80 to 100 beats/min and regular

- Your temperature should not exceed 99.5 (37.5c)

- The acceptable range for your blood pressure is 160/90 to 110/60

- The venipuncture site should be free of any lesion or scar of needle pricks indicative of addiction to narcotics or frequent blood donation.

The goal for this conference service project is 75-100 pints (more if you are willing!). Please plan to leave a little of yourself at the Utah Rotary District Conference! Blood donation truly is "service above self" and something only you can give! In the words of Utah Rotary's First Lady Pat Trujillo, "if you're a blood owner . . . you can be a blood donor!"

Conference Tournament for Polio Plus

In Rotary’s effort to meet the $200 Million Polio Plus Challenge to eradicate this life-threatening and debillitating disease from the earth, the Utah Rotary District Conference will kick off on Thursday, May 13 with a 7:30 a.m. shotgun start at Sunbrook Golf Course, ranked as one of southern Utah's best courses. Certain to challenge the best golfers, while also providing a fun day of play for the novice, Sunbrook features a variety of elements including well-placed water hazards and holes carved out of volcanic lava fields.

According to Jeff Morby, immediate past president of St. George Rotary Club and chairman of the Utah Rotary District Conference Golf Tournament notes, "One team from each of 44 clubs in Utah Rotary District 5420 will generate about $2000 for Polio Plus!" The cost is just $75 per player or $300 per team, with lunch included. Mulligan tickets will also be on sale at a cost of $10 each . . . and the weather on this mid-May weekend is certain to be perfect!!!