Dec 2012 Commandant's Post

Well, it’s Christmas time!   Time seems to fly when you are young! Last month we had the 237th Marine Corps Ball. We had a sellout of 160 tickets. My guests and a number of other attendees told me it was the best for us so far. I did notice a number of people stayed to dance and visit after the program was completed. The ball committee did an outstanding job with planning and putting on the event. We did get help from a number of non-members to set up the room which was appreciated. The Sheriff Explores were very helpful in checking in guests and seating them. The band was well received again. Our two members who did the skit, the color guard and the cake detail were great. I wish that I could take some credit for the event but credit goes to all the people that I mentioned above.

The color guard was busy last month with three funerals, two parades, and a number posting of colors. Nearly the same funeral detail shows up when the call goes out for help. They handled thewind, cold and even sleet at the funerals. They all look very sharp and are dedicated to be sure the deceased marine receives the honor he or she deserves.

The dates for the detachment to assist with Toys for Tots have been set. If you can help on December 8 and or December 15 at the Wal-Mart store in Bloomington contact Bill Toole. For the same dates at the Washington Wal-Mart store contact Steve Handy. We also need help on December 19 at 1700 until closing at the Bloomington Wal-Mart store. If you can help, you should contact Oscar Garcia.

There are other duties such as delivery of gifts. You should contact Rick Massey if you have any questions. It is important that you attend the December 8 meeting as all details will be discussed.

There is an event at the Elks for disabled people and they request our help. You can contact the Elks or Rick Massey for details.

We are still selling Dixie Books. If you need more, come to the meeting or contact D’Arcy.

At the December meeting, Steve Handy will do a program on personal security. He has a background in law enforcement. The program is designed for men and women so your spouse is invited. If your spouse plans to attend, you should contact Bryan Butas as soon as possible so we can give the Abbey Inn a count.

I will miss the December 8 meeting because of my law practice in California. So if I don’t see you before, I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

October Commandant’s Message

Well, we are about a month away from the 237th Marine Corps Birthday Ball. To get your tickets, contact Ken Olsen before they run out, or come to the October 13th general meeting. There will be no tickets sold at the door. The price for tickets this year is the same $25 per ticket as last year. Timing is running out for us to sell ads to go in the Birthday Ball Program. It is an important fund raiser, so everyone needs to try and sell an ad. You all have a doctor, dentist or repairman you can ask to buy an ad. It does take a little time to go out and ask. The members who help each year may be getting tired to carrying the task for most of the members.

We had our First Annual Marine Appreciation Picnic in September. Steve Handy and his committee did a great job getting the site, the food and planning the day. The members, families and Marines from the community who attend told me that they had a great time. I am not concerned about members who don't attend these type functions, but I do want everyone that does attend to have a good experience.

We have had some requests for our color guard for the Senior Games and for veteran events in November. Larry Mineer will be requesting members to assist. It is important if you are part of the color guard to let him know if you can assist or not. It saves us a lot of telephone calls.

The Dixie Books will be available on October 31, so it is time to ask your friends and neighbors to buy one from you when they are available.

We are looking at having a booth at the Taste of Dixie Festival in the Town Square on October 12 & 13. Les Covey and Larry Mineer will be looking for members to man the booth.

I did approve the purchase of a brick with our detachment information on it to be placed on the Chesty Puller path at the Marine Corps Foundation Museum in Virginia.

Steve Ikuta has arranged to have another informative speaker at our meeting on October 13. I look for a good turnout that date.

1st Annual USMC Appreciation Day for Washington County

Sponsored by Dixie USMC League Detachment #1270
September 15, 2012
2450 E. Park at 2450 E and 130 N. (The Pavillion)
St. George, UT
12 Noon to 1400 hours

 The Marines of Dixie Detachment #1270 would like to say thanks to any and all Marines in our area and their families.

Come for lunch.  Meet up with old buddies and get the scuttlebutt and more.  Bring your families and help us eat popsicles!!

For more information: Handy31@msn.com Larry@constructionmonitor.com

2012 September Commandant's Message

Well, September is here!  Maybe a little cooler weather?  At least the snow birds will start to return.  August was a slow month with an event for the JROTC at Dixie High.  We had more than fourteen of our members in attendance.  We also took part at the flag raising at the Washington County Fair.

With summer nearly over, the detachment will be involved in a number of projects.  A picnic for Marines and their families is scheduled on September 15, 2012 from noon until 1400 hours at the 2450 East Park, the pavilion located at 2450 E. and 130 N.  We will provide soft drinks and food.  We will have items also for children.  If you know any Marine families in the area, please be sure to invite them to the event; the event will be called "1st Annual USMC Appreciation Day for Washington County."

The Dixie Book will also be available for sale in the next few weeks.  The books have been a good fund raiser for the detachment.  The problem is that more groups sign up to sell them each year.  So, it is important for each of us to contact our friends to advise them we will have the books again this year.

The other big event is the Marine Corps Ball on November 10th at SunRiver’s Community Center ballroom.  The ticket price will be the same low price of $25.00 per person.  The committee has been meeting all year and they have planned another great event.  The tickets are now available from Ken Olsen.  We will also have the tickets at the September meeting.  There will be no tickets sold at the event.  As part of the event, we will again sell ad space in our program this year.  The selling of ads is also a great fund raiser.  The ad committee has prepared a very informative letter for you to present to businesses telling them about our detachment along with an order form.  All you have to do is go out and give them to businesses you deal with for your insurance, medical, auto repairs, dental etc.

Bill Feeney has agreed to chair a committee formulate a plan for distribution of funds to different groups which we would like to support.  If you would like to help spend our money, please contact Bill Feeney.

I do not have the name of the speaker for the September meeting, but Steve Ikuta has provided a great speaker since he has taken on the task.  So, I feel sure that we will have another great speaker in September.  I do hope you all attend the meeting to show the speaker that we appreciate them giving up a Saturday morning.

We continue to look for new members and to get old members to attend the meetings.  We can also use a few more members for the color guard.  We need members who will step up when needed.  It has been great that we have not been needed for a lot of funerals but we need to be ready if called upon to serve.  I hope to see everyone at the meeting and the picnic.

Carl Kulyk, Commandant

July 2012 Commandant's Message

Well, summer is here in St. George, and we are already into July.  Please remember “no general meeting in July.”  If you come by mistake, look to see if you see D’Arcy and, if so, take him to breakfast.  We are back to regular general meetings in August.  We have a speaker who will speak on sleeping - to help you sleep through the meeting.  He has been advised a few members don’t need much help.

We had a very busy June as we did our first grave-side funeral.  We had eleven members do the service.  Les Covey brought out the rifles and volunteered to clean them after the funeral.  One rifle did not fire properly so Les will have it repaired.  Larry Mineer had the color guard out twice on June 22.  Gary Boothroyd was able to make it which was the first time the event did not conflict with his work.

The Detachment will be involved in St. George, Hurricane and SunRiver on July 4th and at Tuacahn on July 7th.  In order to keep up with this demand, we need a few more members to be part of the Color Guard.  Please contact Larry Mineer to order the uniform for the Color Guard.

Dennis Cory had surgery and it went well.  He should be home very soon.

We had our Detachment golf tournament on June 23 at SunRiver.  Gene Gregory, Jim Haney, Tom Cover, Mike Ernsten, Clyde Johnston, Ric Backman and I played.  Clyde Johnston spent many hours getting sponsors and doing art work to make our sale of tee signs very successful.  He even came out early and put out all the signs before the tournament and than picked them all up.  We were able to sell more than twenty signs.  We had the cost of buying the signs this year but they can be used for many more years.

I would list all members like Clyde, Larry and Jim who went out and signed up golfers and members like Steve I., Steve H., Jim and Ken who sold tee signs and got gifts for the raffle and auction, but we all know who they are.  They continue to step up and get the jobs done.  A few members came out and worked on making the tournament a success.  Steve Handy, Ken Olsen and D’Arcy worked most of the day.  Roger Clawson, Les Covey, Steve Ikuta, Pat Lisi and Bill Toole helped in the morning.  I have seen the raw figures on how the tournament went and it was very successful.  A report will be made by our paymaster.

I do also want to thank again Bill Henessey, a retired Navy chief who supports our detachment when ever he is asked.  He and his wife played golf and spent more than $600.00 to make our auction a success.

So enjoy the summer, and I hope to see all of you at the August Detachment meeting on August 11.

Commandant Kulyk

Commandant's June Message

Well we have completed the 2011 year.  Our new officers have been installed at the June meeting.  We have a few old officers and a few new ones taking new jobs. I do appreciate everyone who served this year. I feel that we will continue to grow.

A number of members marched in the Washington City Cotton Parade in May. At least ten members participated with the American Legion Post at SunRiver in honoring all veterans at the Veterans Park at Sunriver at 0900 hrs on May 28.  We provided six riflemen, a bugler, a drummer and other members who assisted in lowering the flags to half-mast.  Our member Tom Cover was the M.C.

Larry Mineer is working to get a detail together to march in the July 4th Day parade in St. George.  We have ten M-1's so we need ten riflemen and two more to carry the colors.  To complete the detail we need two members to carry our banner and our great drummer, Doc Terry Hansen.

But with all the above, we are in the middle of our major fund raiser, the golf tournament.  This year we are attempting to sell Tee signs to make more income.  There was an expense this year in buying the signs which we will be able to reuse for a few more years.  At this time, we have more than ten sold, but we need to sell eighteen.  We hoped to have some decent raffle gifts this year but only a few members are stepping up to help.  I realize a number of members use the excuse they don’t golf so they can’t ask people to play in the tournament.  But what excuse do you have when you don’t ask people to buy a tee sign or to donate a gift ?  Be thankful that there are a few, proud Marines who we can count on to do everything to make our events a success.  We all want to vote to give funds to groups that we support but some of us have to start to realize where the funds come from.  It was less than two years ago when we were unable to file for our charitable tax status as we didn’t have funds to pay the required filing fee. We now have some money in the bank, our charitable tax status, ten M-1 rifles and we were able to upgrade a room at the new veterans retirement home in Ivins.  Just think where we would be if everyone stood up and did their part as we all were trained to do!  Hope to see you all at the meeting on June 9.

5th Annual Golf Benefit Tournament

The fundraiser golf tournament for this year will be held on June 23rd at Sun River Golf Club. All members have received by e-mail blast the Tee Sponsorship Order Form which shows a picture of the tee sponsor sign with art work inserted for one of the first sponsors sold, Salon Khroma. Please just read the form and hand it to your prospective sponsor as you are asking for their commitment to purchase a tee sponsorship — the form already includes an explanation of community programs the Detachment supports, as well as the details of what the sponsor will get.

In addition to customized art work on a tee sign, sponsors will also have their art work attached to a “Thank You Sponsors” banner to be displayed centrally at the event. Just use the words on the order form, along with one of our tri-fold brochures, to ask for the order. Although the form instructs sponsors to send electronic format art work to Brio Design, we’ll make it even easier for you and your prospect by having the art work in whatever form sent to clydejhnstn@gmail.com and I’ll do the legwork for you with Brio. Progress reports from Carl Kulyk, Larry Mineer, Jim Haney, Steve Handy, D’Arcy Grisier, and Clyde Johnston indicate likely closings of at least ten tee sponsorships. If we can get commitments from eight other members to sell just one tee sponsorship each we can make this program a huge financial success.