Bikers Against Child Abuse

Today's presentation was from BACA, Bikers Against Child Abuse. This was a great presentation, those who missed this mornings meeting, truly missed out. We heard from "Shots", the St George Chapter President. He was accompanied by fellow BACA members, "Rosko", "Pinkie", "Loco", "MZ B", "Hondo", and "Bob". When they are on BACA duty they go by their road names. (maybe we need club names, like Down Town, Chocolate Thunder, Baldy, Tiny. These were just a the first ones that came to mind.)

www.bacausa.com

BACA HOTLINE 435-673-2564

BACA exists with the intent to create a safer environment for abused children. They exist as a body of Bikers to empower children to not feel afraid of the world in which they live. They stand ready to lend support to their wounded friends by involving them with an established, united organization. They work in conjunction with local and state officials who are already in place to protect children. They desire to send a clear message to all involved with the abused child that this child is part of their organization, and that they are prepared to lend their physical and emotional support to them by affiliation, and their physical presence. They stand at the ready to shield these children from further abuse. They do not condone the use of violence or physical force in any manner, however, if circumstances arise such that they are the only obstacle preventing a child from further abuse, they stand ready to be that obstacle.

They shared some interesting statistics with us: 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before age 18, 1/3 of those abused will later become abusers, and the St George Chapter is currently protecting 12 families. Also, if you want to join BACA you are not required to ride a Harley Davidson, they do allow other bikes. (except Brandon's scooter)

Aug 24th - BACA Night @ the RoadRunners, bring your bike with you.

Crash Course on the Club Blog

Today's meeting was a presentation on the club blog. Our past president, Ryan Robison, demonstrated many of the features of the blog. Although our web connection was slow, the presentation may still have been too fast for some of the club members (based on the glossy looks on their faces). Here are some points we focused on:

• Upcoming Speakers/Events - this is an up to date list of our future meetings. If anyone is trying to arrange a speaker, they can look at this and know when we have openings. At the bottom is a link that takes you to 2007 to present list of our speakers.
• Community Projects - this is on the right side of the page and at the top. This has links to websites and blogs for our different projects.
• Meeting Time and Location - this is on the right side of the page below Community Projects. This was added to be a helpful resource for both our guest speakers and prospective members.
• Submit Photos to the Club Blog - this is at the bottom of the right side column. If anyone has pictures they have taken from any of our projects or activities, you can email them to the email address shown and they will be added to our club photo album.
• Adding Posts and Comments - we didn't get to spend much time on this. But, I wanted to make sure everyone knew that they are invited to add posts about club projects and activities, as well as add comments to any of the posts.

An email will be sent out later today inviting all club members to be part of the blog. The goal is to have active participation from several club members. All of our committees should have someone posting for that committee. (for instance, it would be great if Neal or Brian did a post for each of the Student of the Month weeks).

For those who would like to be involved in the blog but need some help to get started please let Bill Hudson or Ryan Robison know, we would be happy to help.

New President's Inaugural Meeting!

Today's meeting was a historic moment for newly inducted President Tim Floyd. When asked afterwords how he felt the meeting went, he responded "This is easier than the last president made it look. I don't know why I didn't sign up for this sooner!"

A business meeting was conducted where several issues where discussed (dues, golf tournament, other fund raisers, and membership). Two new committee (ie Task Forces) were organized based on these discussions, a Fund Raising Committee and a Membership Committee. Initially, Ed and Jinks were assigned to both, but those present wanted to see these committee succeed, so the following committee members were assigned:

Fund Raising - Jinks, Ed, June, Kevin, Vasu, and Derral
Membership - Brian, Tim, Ryan, Tom, and Dale

The Fund Raising Committee will evaluate our current fund raising activities and brainstorm on other possible activities that could be more helpful. They should be meeting together over the next few weeks and report back to the club at our next business meeting (Aug 6th).

The membership Committee will work on a short DVD that can be used as an overview of what the St George Exchange Club does and why support is necessary. It is a presentation that will be given to both the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce. They will also discuss ways to increase club membership. They will also meet over the next few weeks and report back at our next business meeting.

This Month's Hot Spot: Hacienda Matapalo

Summer Social in Pine Valley

Last night was our summer social. We went to Pine Valley and had a pot luck dinner at Derrill and Lana Larkin's cabin/home away from home. Thank you Derrill and Lana for being great hosts. The weather accommodated our evening get together. We enjoyed a great meal and good company. Floyd Holm installed our new club officers for the coming year and our recent past presidents were presented with a Club President Plaque. Our new club officers are posted on the right column of the blog, titled "2009-2010 Club Officers and Board Members". Thank you to all those who attended our social and to those who missed out, you truly missed out. Better luck next year.

Lymphatic Drainage (pronounced drrra-naudge)

Today's speaker was Cynthia Hedden. Cynthia is a massage therapist that specializes in lymphatic drainage. She educated us on the benefits of lymphatic drainage and shared some interesting facts about our body. Our lymph system is the body's detoxification system. In fact, did you know that without our lymph nodes our bodies would only survive for about 20 hours. Also, we have on average 740 lymph nodes in our body.
Cynthia Hedden, CMT at Green Leaf Massage Therapy, 435-632-5535.

Southwest Behavioral Health Center

Today's speaker was Michael Cain, Associate Director at Southwest Behavioral Health Center and Ryan Forbes, Program Cordinator for Independent House.The southwestern region of Utah has experienced enormous growth over the past decade. Many of the social support systems, long a part of Utah tradition, have been stressed by growing issues of mental illness, substance abuse, child abuse, youth crime, and lack of housing. The collective impact has left families and communities struggling to find answers with limited fiscal and professional capacity.

The county commissions of Washington, Kane, Garfield, Beaver and Iron Counties have joined with the State of Utah to create Southwest Center for the provision of comprehensive mental health and substance abuse services. Southwest Center is proud to be a member of a strong human service delivery system which is helping our communities to address very difficult individual, family, and community problems.

The Southwest Center is committed to continuing the partnership with our communities to insure a healthy and drug free future for Southern Utah's citizens.

The mission of Southwest Center is to promote, restore, and maintain well being by providing treatment, education, and advocacy services appropriate to the mental health and substance abuse needs of our communities. All services will be consumer oriented, collaborative and performed in a quality manner.

Prizes were also drawn at the end of the meeting, the winners are: Mark Loosli, Tom Bayles, Ralph Flanagan, and June McAfee. Congrats!

Click here to visit their website.

Mayor's Walk Origin

As told by Kent Perkins - Director, St George City Leisure Services Department

Just to keep history accurate, I attended the Honolulu marathon in 1987 and was excited to see their Mayor's Walk begin just after their marathon start. Upon returning I asked Mayor Karl Brooks if he would like to support us in starting a Mayor's Walk of our own. Mayor Brooks agreed to support and participate in a Mayor's Walk, and invited Bart and his entourage to join him and the public for the first walk. Bart was invited each year thereafter and we printed in our publicity, "come walk with Mayor Brooks/ McArthur and Ranger Bart Anderson"...

Now you know the rest of the story.

Mayor's Walk

Just to keep history accurate, I attended the Honolulu marathon in 1987 and was excited to see their Mayor's Walk begin just after their marathon start. Upon returning I asked Mayor Karl Brooks if he would like to support us in starting a Mayor's Walk of our own. Mayor Brooks agreed to support and participate in a Mayor's Walk, and invited Bart and his entourage to join him and the public for the first walk. Bart was invited each year thereafter and we printed in our publicity, "come walk with Mayor Brooks/ McArthur and Ranger Bart Anderson"...

Now you know the rest of the story.