Rotary Club of St. George, Utah

10/24/2026

It was a beautiful, clear - but chilly - evening, after four days of grey skies and torrential rain, when on Friday, October 23, SG Rotarians gathered for an opportunity to socialize, and relax after the first two and very busy weeks of October, including the PGA TOUR, SG Marathon and the Huntsman World Senior Games ... with a little bit of Halloween mixed in.

Most of the food was prepared by our favorite "party girl" Lisa Shaw, following recipes from the legendary former Andelin's Gable House. After we had enjoyed first and for many, second helpings of orange rolls, chicken with a delicious sauce, creamed corn "to die for" and apple pie, we settled into a riotous game of Rotary bingo, with Dale Desmond leading the charge!

Sadly, our numbers were much smaller than we had hoped, but those who did show up were richly rewarded with good food, good friends and good fun - and we're going to keep Lisa on retainer for all social events going forward!!!

10/23/2026

HURRICANE needs our help ...

10/20/2026

https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/announcements/world-polio-day-recognizes-efforts-to-end-polio-now/article_838f65dd-eb4a-4b36-9ba6-2c3330b18879.html

Rotary International’s most important purpose as one of the world’s largest non-profit service organizations is the final and forever eradication of the sometimes crippling or fatal wild polio virus.

10/20/2026

You already know the benefits of "service above self" but this just dropped into SG News.

Washington County’s big four events wrapped this week. The Huntsman World Senior Games, PGA TOUR, St. George Marathon and Tuacahn’s summer theater season, while they are diverse in many ways,

10/19/2026

Jim and Joann Coleman, Ken and Barbara Sizemore and the other 196 vocalists in the Southern Utah Heritage Choir invite you to join them for the first of two free concerts in the St. George Tabernacle during their 2026-27 performance season. Since we'll be partying on the evening of Friday, October 23 at 7 p.m. mark your calendar to attend a repeat performance of this amazing event on Saturday, October 24 at 2 p.m. since we can't be in two places at once.

And, on the night of Friday, October 23 at 7 p.m. we'll be enjoying SGR's first social event of the RY2026-27 year at the home of Lisa and Randy Shaw, 269 N. 100 West in St. George.

The Southern Utah Heritage Choir, after the inaugural concert last month of this “musical jewel of Southern Utah” in their new home in the America First Performing Arts Center, will

10/12/2026

On Monday, October 12, 2026, SGR welcomed Jud Burkett, a 20-year professional photographer at the Spectrum and now a digital marketer / advertiser at his own company – St. George Design. He shared his top ten hints for taking great pictures, as follows:

1. Use the rule of thirds (right side looking to the left or left side looking to the right).
2. Use natural light whenever possible. If not possible, pay attention to color, artificial light sources and know your lighting limitations. Use windows as backdrops whenever possible.
3. Not all natural lighting is good. Pay attention to your light sources. Beware of contrasts such as looking directly into the sun. Shade is your friend. Plan for over and/or under exposures. When in doubt, pick a shady spot outdoors or go inside.
4. Focus on the subject. Fill in the frame.
5. Pay attention to the background. HDR (high dynamic range) is a great setting on your i-phone for correcting varying exposures.
6. A quote by photographer Robert Capa, “if your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”
7. When focusing on your subjects, try to capture what they are doing.
8. Focus on the details and you really can take more than one picture.
9. Be a fly on the wall. Be a passive observer but don’t hesitate to move around to get different angles.
10. It’s not the camera … unless it is. Cell phone cameras represent a huge leap in technology over the past decades. But, if you prefer to use a “real” camera which is more than 10+ years old, buy a new one.

Thanks, Jud for sharing your expertise, because Rotarians know, “if there’s no picture, it didn’t happen!”

10/09/2026

Our program on Monday, October 5 was Nate Caplin, who oversees the Higher Education for Incarcerated Youth program at Utah Tech University.

In psychology, the meaning of self-efficacy is “an individual’s belief in their capacity to act in such a way as to reach specific goals." In HEIY, self-efficacy translates as “enrollment in college; academic achievement, including passing courses, and faith in their ability to learn.”

The result, in the case of incarcerated youth (ages 16-23) is “a 43% reduction in recidivism, college graduation; an average 3.25 pga; and meaningful employment.”

Currently, 75 students are being taught by 12 instructors through Zoom at 13 facilities around the state of Utah. But in the past five years, 230 have enrolled resulting in 12 associate degrees; 26 general education certificates; and one Bachelor’s degree … and 75 more are aleady signed up for classes in the fall of 2027.

This is a program which perfectly demonstrates the meaning of “creating lasting impact” now and into the future.

09/29/2026

Melinda Bennion, project leader with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Washington County Field Office, was SGR's very enthusiastic speaker on Monday, September 28’s meeting at the Pasta Factory. She oversees such endangered, threatened and other federally protected – and non-huggable – native critters such as desert tortoises, Gila monsters and a variety of fish and birds in all or part of 9 counties in southwestern Utah.

She can be reached for further information at [email protected] or by text or phone to 435-619-1229.

PS: Ken Sizemore won the prize for providing "Barcelona" as the correct answer to our weekly Rotary trivia question.

09/23/2026

Last Monday, against the backdrop of our beautiful red rock desert community, Kolby and LaRene (pictured with Dixie Tech administrators) and 23 other Rotarians gathered for a delicious Dixie Tech catered lunch and the chance to meet two of SGR's five scholarship recipients.

One is studying to be a medical assistant on his way to a lifelong dream of becoming a pediatrician. The other is in the culinary arts program, one of 25 current programs available at Dixie Tech. In his "thank you" speech he noted, "$1000 may not seem like much to most of you, but to me it represents late shifts I don't have to work and double shifts I can decline when I don't have the energy I need to keep working."

These two young men - with big dreams for their future - are the reason SGR continues to do what we do!

09/16/2026

On Monday, September 14, SGR welcomed Bryan Dial, Director of Energy Services for the City of St. George who shared a great deal of information relating to “all things power” including little known details about the city’s recent extended power outage, as follows:

• There are 34,000 meters in St. George City which track usage of “the reliable, safe power within our boundaries.”
• The average SGC home loses power for only 8 minutes a year
• With our triple digit temperatures which commonly exceed 110 degrees on peek summer days, the demand for energy doubles from the winter months
• St. George City requires the most generation in the southern part of the state … and the most in any city
• The recent power outage occurred when PacifiCorps had a break in their line at around 5:30 p.m. The entire community did not have full power until after midnight.
• We are in a vulnerable position because we are one of the fastest growing communities in the country but it was a “good kind of emergency because we haven’t had an outage to test our plan.

After numerous questions from those in his listening audience, he concluded to the question about whether or not SG is in line for a data center, to which he answered, “data centers are better in communities in decline.”

For more information, Bryan Dial can be reached at SG City offices or by email to [email protected].