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Show Thursday, June 21, 2007 Page 2 OREM TIMES : i:1 1 tfJj the" 4 m A n Police W AND NOTES TO KEEP YOU INFORMED AND INVOLVED Orem library exhibit, vets share tales of WWII service Michael Rigert Murine (iunnery Sgt Keith ki-iisttom joined the war ef-lort ef-lort in If -!. traveled to Iceland Ice-land wilh his unit to kee)the i ri-imans from getting it, and later fought in several blixxly I'acific island-hopping battles dining World War II. Twice wounded during the ferocious fighting to wrestle I wo .lima limn the entrenched Jaanese, he ret in ned to I law an after the win for surgery I hated the Japanese like everyone ev-eryone else did hut then I got inv act together before we got to Iwo .lima." Renstrom said. I he gunnery sergeant who lives in Orem said he later served a mission for The ( 'hurt h of Jesus of Christ of Latlei -day Saints to Japan. To help share Henstrom's exX'i ien es and those of other ( h em veterans during the war with subsequent generations, genera-tions, theorem liblic Library is host nig a summer exhibit of WWII veterans entitled ' I lononng Those Who Came Beijing ( 'imluifd mm Page I official Web site The five Chinese Chi-nese and non-Chinese families with the most online votes by June ,X0 win a free tour of ( 'tuna's ( llvmpic cities Aug. a year IxTore the Beijing games liegin. As of last count. Decker and her sister's families were still in the top five of contestant families fami-lies outside of China and the I )eckers themselves had tallied iiver (i-lJHHi votes since April. "It's tough," she said. "It's toii).;h lo stay on top." ( inline voters can cast one vote per minute and can vote for more than one family with each e ballot cast. I'.ach family conielmg for the trip routinely routine-ly xists new stories and family photos on the Web site for voters vot-ers to view I very time I vote for us, I vole lor my sisters." Decker said, and vice versa. To get the maximum number num-ber ol votes in the shortest amount of time, IXrkerand hei sister Nani Bertola of Highland High-land have enlisted the help of i heir children, extended family and friends. The Bertolas have set up a virtual media center ol 10 computers w ith different ISP addresses in their home and Decker's daughters Andi. IT, and Amanda, 14, make almost al-most daily trips to their cousins for voting parties. "We're there five hours NorthCounty NEWSPAPERS vi I M.i'eSt Pleasant Giove Phone:756-7669 Fax:756-5274 Marc Haddock 443 3268 Ninth County Editor mlwddtx.l (itberaldoxtM com Cathy Allred 443 3262 loin. Saratoga Springs Pi Grove i"ill!ediherakfextra com Barbara Christiansen 443 3264 AmeiKutn Fork, Alpine, Cedar Hills lx.-hnstiansenheraldextia com Mike Rigert 443 3265 Orem, Vineyard mngeniflheraldextra com Beky Beaton 443 3267 Sports bbeaton heraldextra .com mum Josh Walker 443-3260 Advertising Account Executive iwaHfiifl)heraldetra com Volume 134 irm" '. 'in, 1 tan am I rlitmri USPS 411-700 fuwlly rnwoaow published at 399 E Stale .t I u- ivim! .IW-H4.TM IWmdrais postage paid at Pleasant Grove Utah WX"1 arx) at kHii. - .it .i.iiiiy .jit. ., Poatmaater: Send address changes to Orem Times. P0 Box 65, :ren, Jtai. H4:i',1 oiW) Putwshed Thursdays bv Lee Publications, winch is a dwson 01 Lee i MiertKis". int. Memtoar: Audit Bureau of Circulations If you go World War II Veterans Exhibit at the Orem Public Library I July 2, Ray Matheny, BYU professor, B 17 bomber flight engineer engi-neer in the European Theater and a POW of the Germans for a year and a half I July 11, Robert Freeman, Veterans History Project and director of BYU's "Saints at War" program t July 16, Veterans Panel, panel of local WWII vets tells stories and answer questions I July 20, Dave Koralewski, The Music of the 1940s I July 27, A free screening of "Saints at War" All presentation begin at 7 p.m. and will be held on the library's main floor in the north wing's storytelling area, except for The Music of the 1 940s and the screening of "Saints at War" which will be in the media auditorium. Before." Veterans will be retelling retell-ing their stories and scholars will be talking about various asjwcts of the war and how they're racing against time to preserve veterans' written and oral histories. Don Norton, a retired BYU professor, former chairman of the Orem Heritage Commission, Com-mission, and currently a researcher for the Library of constantly voting," Amanda Decker said. "It's like an all-week all-week thing." Decker said her family is big Olympic fans, particularly of the Winter Games, said though they'd love to win the trip to China, there's another reason it would mean more than simply a vacation. Several years ago, Amanda Decker's best friend's family, fam-ily, the Cassanis, adopted three children from China and Amanda often babysat for the kids. She would teach the young children English words and she in turn would glean some Chinese 101 from the kids. Each year the Cassanis returns to China so that their adopted children retain a portion por-tion of their heritage. They always bring back something for Amanda. "They all had outfits and huge fans and really cool decoration deco-ration stuff," she said. IX'cker said Amanda has wanted to travel to China for years but the family simply couldn't afford it. "That's why we started doing do-ing this." she said. "Part of the contest is about dreams and that's her dream." She's hoping sister Nani Ber-tola's Ber-tola's knack for winning contests con-tests will give all three families a little luck. "Nani is notorious for winning win-ning things," Decker said. In the end, a panel of Beijing Olympic Committee contest DAILY HERALD PUBLISBIMQ CO. Jennette Esplin 756 7669 Office Manager . Erin Stewart 344 2558 Project Coordinator. DesignerCopy Editor Julia Fullmer 344 2570 DesignerCopy Editor Jeremy Harmon 344 2585 Photographer Issue 76 IP Congress's Veterans History Project and BYU's partner program pro-gram Saints at War, has been providing servicemen's stories to the library for the exhibit. He's personally interviewed more than 850 WWII veterans from Utah and across the nation. na-tion. Norton related the tale of an American soldier serving during Korea who had a terrible ter-rible headache on the battle- V" i.-w It. m t " It ' mm rf.x"X ; ilk h A Z PnML3i h 1 fa&g!( III k i l"M"V JS,'fj k t I 1 "1 i-- ftfcy t-m Left to right, Amanda Decker, one of 50 in the running for a judges will tally the votes, evaluate the stories and photos and pick the five Chinese and foreign winners, she said. If they win the trip, the Deckers hope to see historic and Olympic sites, but there's another location that holds a special significance to the The bad news of covering disasters Monday wasn't the first time we've covered a press conference at the mouth of American Fork Canyon, but 1 can't think of a more tragic event. Like other press gatherings at this particular parking lot, the news wasn't good. Sunday night, a black bear had entered a campground and had dragged 1 1-year-old Samuel Ives out of his tent and killed him. "It's every child's nightmare," said Samuel's grandfather, Eldon Ives. Every Ev-ery parent's and grandparent's, too. The last time I'd been in this particular par-ticular spot for a press conference, the parking lot was dirt, not pavement, as it is now. At that time the Alpine-Highland Alpine-Highland police officials were working work-ing on another nightmare seeking help to identify a distinctive quilt used to wrap the body of a dead baby who had been found in'the area. The quilt eventually led to the mother, who had abandoned the baby's body. This most recent tragedy, however, is unprecedented. un-precedented. There is no previous record of a black bear killing anyone in Utah before Sunday. Sun-day. The story was so unusual that the Houston Chronicle, among other national newspapers, had copies of the Associated Press version on its Web site before noon Monday. Ann Shields, who started covering news in the north county area in 1956 and who still writes for our newspapers, said she can't remember re-member anything like it. Loyal Clark, who has worked with the U.S. Forest Service for almost three decades, has never dealt with a bear-related death. This is new ground. Fatalities are not unusual in the canyon, which now sees more than 1 million visitors a year passing through the pay station on the American Fork side of the Alpine Loop. Another An-other 500,000 enter through the station on the Provo Canyon side of the loop, many of those driving to Cascade Springs. With that many cars driving on the narrow canyon road, it's no surprise that many of those fatalities have been traffic related. One of the most spectacular involved a motorcyclist who missed a turn and ended up in the river. The river has claimed several lives as well. Several years ago on Memorial Day, a young field and was told by doctors at camp he had viral encephalitis and that "he would be dead in 10 days," Norton said. The infantryman, who was LDS, asked for a Mormon chaplain who gave him a blessing. Ten days later the rifleman was back out fighting on the frontline. front-line. Years later the two miraculously mi-raculously met up and soldier broke down into tears. "Can you imagine the emotions? emo-tions? He's seeing the man that helped save his life," Norton said. "I tell you the stories that come out are unbelievable." Eliot Wilcox, a general reference ref-erence associate librarian at the Orem Library, has been the principal organizer of its WWII Veterans exhibit. While at BYU, Eliot had assisted professor Robert Freeman with the Saints at War project and had developed a great appreciation ap-preciation for the work, which along with Veterans History Project, was preserving the stories of those who had sacrificed sac-rificed much, both on the war front and on the home front, for their country. JEREMY HARWONNorth County Bruce Decker, Karen Decker and Andrea Decker. The family is trip to Beijing to tour Olympic sites. family. There's a fountain in the Beijing area where parents par-ents who can't care for their children simply dump them off and abandon them. Decker said it's the same fountain where the Cassanis's adopted ad-opted children were found and placed in an orphanage. Marc Haddock THE EDITOR'S COLUMN 4s Wilcox's grandfather had served in the U.S. armed forces during the war and died last December. Norton estimates that WWII veterans, many of whom are in their mid- to late-80s, are dying at the rate of 1,500 per day. "I guess the reason we were thinking about doing (the exhibit) ex-hibit) is we're losing this generation gen-eration so quickly," Eliot said. "We figure this will be one of their last chances to have these type of activities." Though Eliot initially-planned initially-planned on just having a few veterans come to speak, people's peo-ple's suggestions led to other organizations and volunteers offering to help. Renstrom has an extensive collection of WWII uniforms and gear that are going to be on display at the library. A second display will feature yearbooks, newspaper headlines, letters and family heirlooms of veterans veter-ans and their families will provide pro-vide a more personal glimpse into their lives. Both physical exhibits will be on display at the library through August. Like any typical teenager, Amanda has her own short list of tour stops she hopes to make if the Deckers win. "The Great Wall and I'm definitely def-initely going to go shopping as much as I can," she said. "And plus the Olympic stuff will be really cool." boy fell in the river and it took days before his body was recovered. I still have a photograph of Ron Fern-stedt Fern-stedt searching under a log with the swollen river ripping around him. Two of the most bizarre American Ameri-can Fork Canyon deaths took place at a once popular picnic spot called Hanging Rock, which had been used for years with no mishaps. Then on consecutive years, two individuals in-dividuals sitting near the river were killed by rocks falling from cliff above them. As a result, the picnic site was closed. It has become so overgrown over-grown that the spot is barely recognizable and most uninviting, keeping the picnickers away ... and sate. Monday's scene at the mouth of the canyon was full of drama and familiar faces, as all of the local televisions stations sent their high profile pro-file reporters to cover the event. It was interesting to watch the larger stations sta-tions produce their live "team" coverage with two or three reporters standing a few feet from each other. As the stations switched from one reporter to the other, the camera would swivel, providing a different background for each reporter, making it look as if they were in different parts of the canyon, not so close they could hear each other's report. Most of the comments focused on the bear, which was on the loose when the press conference confer-ence started, and pronounced dead shortly after it ended. Since Samuel Ives had not been identified yet, there wasn't much to be said aboUt the victim. But he was first on everyone's mind. No one, especially a child, should die like this. No parents should have to endure this kind of loss and pain. And very few outside the family can grasp the true depth and force of this emotional emo-tional blow. Empathy can only take us so far on this dark journey. But every time we pitch a tent, pack a picnic or take a hike into the depths of our once-friendly once-friendly canyon, Samuel Ives will be there. The extraordinary nature of his passing will make him a part of our outdoor experience forever. Our prayers are with his family. Continued from Page I facility is still being decided. "The staff is still in a planning plan-ning process," Wright said. "We have no approved plans yet." Vineyard also plans to build an overpass into town at Orem Center Street to alleviate alle-viate the concern for access, Robison said. The town signed an agreement agree-ment with Homestead Development Devel-opment to build the facility. It is responsible for constructing construct-ing the building. The town approved the public safety facility preliminary designs at the beginning of this year. "We hope to begin construction con-struction pretty quickly, hopefully by fall," Robison said. Crane Continued from Page 1 Norton had just taken her younger sister to a church activity, so she was in the driveway when the crane fell. Her mother was at a meeting for her employer, Alpine School District. Clarke said she'd been worried wor-ried about the crane ever since she was notified that a utility pole was to be installed in her backyard. Chase Norton, 15, was inside the house when the crane fell. Now looking at it, right now who in their right mind? Of course it would fall over! Chelsey Norton DAUGHTER "At first, I thought someone some-one was just jumping up and down downstairs," he said. Chelsey Norton said the house looks eerie because nothing has changed, except ex-cept for the crane running through the top of the roof. The pictures are still on the wall, and the family's brand new remodel, which included new travertine tile, crown molding and draperies, all remain re-main as though the crane is just part of the decor. But it isn't. Clarke became emotional and overwhelmed as she realized that she may be out of her home for months. As Chelsey Norton watched the a crane lift the fallen crane off her house, she exclaimed in disbelief to neighbors. "Now looking at it, right now who in their right mind? Of course it would fall over!" Their father is now on his way from Lake Powell. In addition ad-dition to crunching the house, the crane also damaged a brand-new Mercedes in the garage. "I just think it was a miracle mir-acle no one was hurt," Petty said. "I FEEL LIKE A FISH WITH NO WATER." -JACOB, AGE 5 DESCRIBING ASTHMA S7 You know how to rood to their asthma attacks. Hora't how to prevent them I -866-NO-ATTACKS WW ONE ATTACK It ONE TOO MANY. For mora Information log ante www.noattacka.ari or call yoar doctor. |