SGR Hears About HWSG's Successes and Future!

From far left:  Roger Allred, Kurt Johnson, Cort Matthews,
Lane Ronnow, Nick Lang and Jeff Morby

TODAY IN ROTARY, SGR officially welcomed 4 new members:  Cort Mathews with a classification of Home Health and sponsored by Brent Guerisoli; Roger Allred with a classification of Business Consultant and sponsored by Kurt Johnson; Lane Ronnow,  a Business Consultant sponsored by Nick Lang and, returning member Jeff Morby with a classification of Property Management is sponsored for a second time by Linda Sappington.  With the addition of these four outstanding business and community leaders, SGR now has a current membership of 69 with 6 honorary members!!!  More members means more service to our community, our district and the world!

Today’s speaker Kyle Case, CEO of the Huntsman World Senior Games provided impressive numbers relating to the success of the event he has directed for the past nine years.

Now in its 29^th year, the HWSG’s is the world’s largest event of its kind with 10,853 participants in 2014 … larger than the London Olympic Games with a mere 10,350 participants. 

·               19 of the 28 sports in 2014 saw a substantial increase in participants

·               In 2014, the games had 2244 new athletes – those who had never participated in past years – which means the word continues to get out to the world about this fun event and what a welcoming community St. George is!

·               Softball had 340 teams, while volleyball had 192 teams and pickleball maxed out 550 participants registered in 22 days and SG City is in the process of doubling its courts to 24

·               The games brought in $19,195,217 new dollars which are doubled, tripled, even quadrupled in the local economy

·               Two new sports – small bore and shuffleboard – were added last year and expected to grow substantially in the second year of play

In 2015:

·               Opening ceremonies will be held on Tuesday, October 6 with the 2^nd week opening ceremonies scheduled on the DSU campus on Tuesday, October 13

·               Registration opened on March 1 and pickleball maxed out by March 3 with women’s 50+ volleyball category now closed

·               As of March 16, 1385 participants have already registered for the event

·               New branding is in place to give the games a new look

Rotarians are encouraged to “register today to compete, volunteer or sponsor” in the Huntsman World Senior Games October 3 – 17, 2015.