"And That's What I Call Bowling the Jack"

OPENING: Jack Petersen served as SGR’s Sergeant-at-Arms greeting Rotarians and others visitors to the 3744th regular weekly meeting of St. George Rotary. Ray Robinson lead the SGR Choir in "In the Good Old Summertime." Andy Anderson invited members to follow him in the Pledge of Allegiance and Dan Strobell asked for the blessings of heaven on the meeting and the meal and Grant Carter lead members in a recitation of the 4-Way Test. Gil Trujillo conducted an energetic Horseplay with fines collected on behalf of the Guatemalan stove project, by Jack Petersen.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Jeff shared his enthusiasm for the recent Utah Rotary District Conference and encouraged support of the 2010 conference in St. George. Linda Sappington will chair the event which will include a golf tournament, a service project, great presenters and a "Rotary’s Got Talent" show. Watch on the special blog created to promote the conference at http://www.utahrotaryconference.blogspot.com/ which will have a post every Thursday morning about some aspect of the conference.

President Jeff asked for an update on members Don Pendleton, Don Dunham and Dean Terry, whose wife Carol fell and broke her arm.

Board members are reminded of the Tuesday, June 9 meeting at Ken Sizemore’s office beginning at 7:15 a.m.

Greg Basso announced the most recent count of wheelchairs donated and distributed to date is 756,407, thanks to the efforts of Rotarians around the world.

DRGE Gil Trujillo reported on the symbolic "passing of the torch" at the conference in Park City noting he now proudly wears the DRG pin worn originally by Richard L. Evans (who went on to serve as RI President in 1966-67), and passed on to other Utah district governors including Eldon McArthur, Doug Quayle, Sterling Spafford and Jim Coleman. According to Governor Gil, "SGR has more PDG’s than any other Utah club!"

PROGRAM: Grant Carter introduced Dr. Wayne Pace, an enthusiastic advocate of the sport of lawnbowling who is working with St. George City Leisure Services to find the necessary resources - including funding in the amount of $450,000 - to create a bowling green!

According to Dr. Pace, lawnbowling is a sport with a goal to roll slightly asymmetric balls, called bowls, closest to a smaller—normally white—bowl called the "jack". Lawnbowling is usually played outdoors on a large, rectangular, precisely leveled and manicured grass or synthetic surface which is divided into parallel playing strips called rinks (an indoor variation on carpet is also played). In singles competition, one of two opponents flip a coin to see who wins the "mat" and begins a segment of the competition (in bowling parlance, an "end"), by placing the mat and rolling the jack to the other end of the green to serve as a target. Once it has come to rest, the jack is aligned to the center of the rink and the players take turns to roll their bowls from the mat towards the jack and thereby build up the "head". A player in a singles game reaches a specified target number of shots (usually 21 or 25). A team (pair, triple or four) has the higher score after a specified number of ends. Because of its competitiveness, skill and because it is a non-contact sport, the game suits people from teen years through to their nineties.