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Show ! Chamber of Commerce business tabloid inside 111- ;, h l-' T t-J - J 5- ti ?i ' t.' '-' Oram-Geneva 62nd yearNumber 49 1999, The Orem-Geneva Times Orem's Locally Owned Weekly Newspaper WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1999 538 South State Street, Orem UT 84058 (801) 225-1340 J$ CD r This Marine Corps Lfcht Armored Vehicle left the University Ms3 overflowing with toys earmarked ear-marked for some 5C3 Utxh County families after the Corps' Toys for Tots drive last Saturday Marine Corps LAV oveirf lows with "Toys for Tots" BY PATRICIA KNOELL : ! TIMES REPORTER , Over eight feet wide and 12 feet long, there is a lot of space in ; the light armored vehicle that the Marine Corps parked near what wiQ eventually be the new Nordstrom's inside the University Mall last Saturday. . . . The goal of the 4th LAR Battalion, from Camp Williams, was to ! fill that vehicle with new toys for the Utah County division of its Toys for Tots program. "This is our first year doing this at the University Mall," HM2 Schultz said., "We wanted to get down here, give the community a chance to gc$ involved tod get toM eipbnire fb Toys for Tdts. Gives the' chance, the people of the community opened their hearts and jwcketbooks. The vehicle left the Mall nearly overflowing over-flowing with toys and money (which the Marines will use to buy moretoys)..! . . .., .. ;All donations collected at the Mall on Saturday will be distributed distrib-uted to some 500 families in Utah County. Those who missed the chance Saturday, but would still like to donate to this cause, can bring new, unwrapped toys to the Marine Corps office at 2250 ' North University Parkway (in the Food for Less shopping center) during business hours up until Dec. 18. "Orem Citizen of the G ntu rv" to featured in p ).. J stories of the Twentieth The City of Orem's most n , T r . notable citizen cif the Twen- century Jan. O Beth Century wfl Defeatured in the January 5, 2000 issue of the Orem-Geneva Times, Publisher Brent Sumner announced November 23. The first issuje of the Orem-Geneva Times to be published in the Twenty-first Cenitury wiH focus on the people, issues and events which defined this community and set it on the path leading to its present status as one of Utah's largest and most progressive cities. 'Oram's 20 Trip Stories of the Twentieth Century will be showcased in the January 5, 2000 edition of the newspaper Sumner said. It wifl provide readers an invaluable resume of the history of mis community". Readers of tho OremSteneva Times are invfted to send W nations for the "Qnm Citizen of the Century,' as weB as their choices Of the 20 top Orem news stories of the past century. Suggestions c an be dropped of! at the Orem-Geneva Times office at 538 South State Street or sent to P.O. Box 65, Orem, UT 84059. Dead line for submissions is December 20, 1999. Santa Clams has come to town Do you believe in Santa Claus? If you don a visit to the University Mall this month may change your mind. BY PATRICIA KNOELL TIMES REPORTER From his bushy, white whiskers to his sparkling blue eyes, Wilfred Sergent is the very embodiment of the Jolly Old Elf. Children gaze at him with wonder-filled eyes as he invites them to give his beard a tug, proving once-and-for-all that it is, indeed, his. That's all it takes to convince most youngsters that they are indeed in the presence of Santa. Observing his love for, and patience with, the children who visit his "home" at the mall brings home the reality of Santa to those of an older gen- i Chauntenette Christmas i Concert to be held! The Chauntenette ladies will present their an-. nual Christmas concert on Monday, December 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the Oak Canyon Jr. High School, located in Lindon at 111 South 725 East. The chorus directed by Maureen Madsen for 20 years is currently being directed by Ranelle O'DelL The accompanist is Irene Jenkins. The chorus will perform beautiful sacred and fun pop Christmas music. The original chorus got its start over 50 years ago. Their name is based on the French word "Chaunson" meaning "Singers". Service through song is their motto. The concert is free and open tcrtheublic. Come and feel the holiday spirit of this special time of year. eration. The key is the beard. When Sergent, a native Mon-tanan Mon-tanan who now splits his time between that state and his summer residence in Northern California, grew a long, white beard some five years ago, it changed his life. "I didn't believe in Santa Claus before that time like I do now," Sergent said. "But when I grew the beard, it took on a life of its own it's part of my personality now and I know there is a Santa." Life did change for Sergent when he grew the beard. He found that in restaurants res-taurants and stores, heads would start turning and he'd hear the whispers of excited children as they pointed him out to parents with a "look, there's Santa" But it wasn't only children chil-dren who saw the remarkable remark-able resemblance Sergent bears to a certain resident of the North Pole. The Marine Corps and fire department in San Leandro, California, noticed no-ticed him and decided he was the perfect person to work with them on Toys for Tots by helping them deliver gifts to children on Christmas Eve. "Working with Toys for Tots and neglected kids J. CL If i X "jL- c ; Santa Claus (a.k.a. Wilfred Sergent), holds young Danika Field on his lap at his "home" in Orem's University Univer-sity Mall bringing things to not only poor families, but to abused really got my heart strings going," he recalled, "The look on their faces ; when they'd see me was just priceless.", Continued on page 5 I iCJp A few of the members of the Chauntenette Chorus includes (front - left to right): Ranelle O'Dell, Director and Irene Jenkins, Accompanist. Back row: Kay Long, Treasurer; Tanya Clark, Executive Secretary; Nadene Mathie, President Elect and Connie Bahr, President. mr. - jsh-MsS w-i-'ftiin o3?i owfif nr m-- vii i CiTrawi WihiY(;.JX4- 'iSlHifi. 'i 334? fc OsSao ClaEliK. -flit SCERA announces , auditions for "Sound of Music" i SCERA announces auditions for its spring 2000 I production of "The Sound of Music," directed by ; Buddy Youngreen and playing Feb. 18 through March ; 4, 2000 in SCERA's indoor Showhouse. s Auditions will be held at the SCERA Center (745 " I South State Street, Orem) on Friday, December 10, ; , 1999 from 7-9 p.m. and on Saturday, December 1 1 " from 10 a.m. to noon. ! All parts are open except for Maria, which will be J I played by Margo Watson. Children and adults, both ? j male and female, are needed , Auditi oners should be prepared to sing 16 measures of two contrasting style Broadway songs. An accompa- i nist will be provided. ' 5 For more information, contact SCERA at 225-2S69 or L225-ARTS between 10 a.m. and 5 pjn. weekdays. J m& W mm I hums? mi $mk($ By CLYDE E WEEKS, 13, Omn-Cenevjt Times Pjut7. K The transformation of the sagebrush and rattlesnake-infested bench land, once known as "Provo Bench," to the thriving metropolis, known today, as tlie City of Orem, is a remarkable story, that bears telling to most of the City's current residents, who have little idea how it all came about. ' Those familiar with the early settlement of ! dozens of communities, now spread all over Utah, and extending into Idaho and Nevada, may surmise that Orem was one of those ' communities which came into being at the IVAN JAY BURR 1932.1935 instigation of the great Mormon colonizer, Brigham Young. They would be wrong! As a matter of fact, the five-mile stretch of highway, presently running through Orem, known as. State Street, has a history which dates back, even beyond the coming of the first settlers to this Bench. The road was opened for regular . travel in the Spring of 1848 by; explorers, sent to California by - Brigham Young. As groups of settlers traveled over the rocky route, the trail was deepened. As homesteaders came onto the Bench, beginning in 1861, they -; measured their property back from the eight-rod strip, to allow roonr for what has become one of the widest streets in Utah. The width of Orem's State Street, as well as many other streets in the early settlements, was specified by Brigham Young, as part of a great corridor highway, over which emigrants and merchandise from all over the country could travel. Brigham Young, however, never did call families to settle on Provo Bench. As a matter of fact, he was, at times, heard to express his reservations about settlers populating this rocky, barren bench land with its lack of irrigation and culinary water. For many years, Young's great corridor highway here, seemed too wide for the limited traffic of the early days. In other cities the wide highways were reduced by extensions of property lines or parkways. An attempt was made by settlers in 1890 to get the dusty, rocky road narrowed to what they considered more realistic dimensions. They petitioned to reduce the width of the road on the grounds that only a narrow strip was being used for traffic, and that the sides were being used for rock dumps and livestock bedding grounds. Those who felt that the width of the road should not be changed, supported John H. Stratton, the first road supervisor for the area, who circulated a petition in favor of keeping the full width of the road. In 1910 Brigham Young's dream of a cross-country thoroughfare across the western empire came true. The highway, planned and developed by Mormon colonizers, was taken into the nation-wide system of highways and designated as United States Highway No. 91. It was about the very same time, that a young man from Burrville, Utah, looking to seek his fortune somewhere other than in the Grass Valley of Sevier County, decided to put down his roots, deep in the Provo Bench. Little did he realize at that time. Continued on page 12 SuljCiibs to iiie C.em-Geneva Times by calling 225-134U - Unly per Year! POOR COPY |