May Commandant’s Message
The New Year for the Detachment is now upon us. The officers for the next year will be
formally elected at the May meeting.
During April, we have attended one funeral and our color
guard raised and lowered colors for the Relay for Life at Dixie College
field. The group is part of the American
Cancer Society. This is the second year that we participated in their event.
We are now ready to take
over the grave side services for Marines. It is time that we do our part to help the
American Legion that has been providing the service for all military personal
for years. Our chaplain will be
notifying all the local funeral homes of this service. Our M-1 rifles are looking more and more like
Marine rifles thanks to Ken Olsen's hard work in refinishing all the stocks.
May will be a busy month with the Cotton Parade in the City
of Washington and a memorial service at the Veterans Park at SunRiver on May
28. Our color guard continues to serve
the community.
On April 28, Tim Toumey, who is a former active recon Marine
stopped by in St. George. He is riding a
bike from the Cold Weather Training Center in Bridgeport, California to his
former unit with the 2nd Mar Div at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The trip is 3,164 miles. He is part of Operation Awakening which is
trying to raise $50,000 for the Semper Fi Fund.
Our detachment was the only unit in Utah that made a contribution. You can get more information and track his trip
on the “Operation Awakening” website.
The committee working to raise funds for the Devil Pups is
having a garage sale on June 2. If you
have any saleable items, you are willing to donate, please contact Jim Haney.
The Ball committee has been meeting. The ballroom at SunRiver has been reserved for
Saturday, November 10. A budget has been
reviewed by the staff. A report and
motion will be made at the May meeting.
The golf tournament, our major fund raiser, is less than
sixty days away. A few members are
working hard to sell tee signs and find gifts that we can raffle off at the
tournament. Regretfully, it's only a few
so far. We all have an insurance agent,
a doctor or other professional whom we can ask to buy a tee sign or to donate a
gift. You just have to get out and ask!; You should send all art work for tee signs
through Clyde Johnston. We also need
golfers to make it a successful event.
Even if you don't play golf, we all know people who do. Show them our brochure, tell them how we
serve the community and ask them to get a group or sign up as a single. It is a fun tournament. We use a handicap system which is fair to all
types of players. You don't have to be a
“Tiger” to come out and have a fun time.
The fee includes a nice lunch. The
course at SunRiver has been improved greatly and any golfer will enjoy the
course. It is our chance to raise funds
to meet our goals and commitments.
Please take the point and let's make this event a huge success.
The date of the golf tournament has been moved from June 2
to June 23 because of a conflict. Clyde
Johnston has sent out an email requesting help with obtaining raffle prizes and
selling tee sign sponsorships to locale businesses. You should advise Clyde Johnston of the
persons you will contact to buy a tee sign or to obtain a raffle prize so a
number of members don't ask the same people.
It is time everyone gets involved as this is our major fund raiser. We need golfers to make the tournament
successful. Everyone knows someone who
plays golf. You just have to take them a flyer and ask them to help by
playing. You should show them our
brochure as it shows the service we provide to the community. If everyone works on finding nice raffle gift
and finding golfers all will have a great time.
Some of us know how to make a fun tournament but we need the people to
play. We all feel good about voting to
give funds to a needy person or group so we should all be responsible for
raising the funds to give. If you are
willing to work on the golf tournament contact Larry Mineer and become a member
of the committee.
We now have about ten members working with Bill Toole and
the Devil Pups and nearly the same number working on the next Marine Corps Ball
committee. We now only have three
working on the golf committee which is responsible for raising the majority of
our funds. Of the $28.00 you pay in
yearly dues, the detachment gets $3.00.
You can see your $3.00 doesn't go very far in supporting our projects.
Steve Ikuta has scheduled Commander Jason Whipple of the St.
George Fire Department Bomb Squad as the speaker this month. If you have not been attending the meetings,
you have missed some outstanding informative speakers.
Bryan Butas will handle the May meeting as I have a court
hearing in California. So get to the
meeting to support him and the speaker.
Steve Ikuta has scheduled Commander Jason Whipple of the St.
George Fire Department Bomb Squad as the speaker this month. If you have not been attending the meetings,
you have missed some outstanding informative speakers.
Well, we have a lot to do so let's get it done! You should not have to ask a Marine more than
once to get something done right.
Be sure to ask a member who has not been attending the
meetings to join us at the April meeting. I hope to see you all there so we can show the
State officers how dedicated we are as a detachment.
Carl Kulyk, Commandant
