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Show Sun Advocate 8a Tuesday. December 28, 1993 r Letters To The LOOKS LIKE TUE VJifi AGAINST CRHAE IS HEATING UP... CONGRESS HAS DECIDED td join the fight Editor urges former volunteers to phone home VISTA Editor: During this holiday season. Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) is urging its former volunteers to phone home" and find out about VISTAs new role in President Clintons national service program as well as events marking VISTA's 30th anniversary next year. More than 1 00,000 Americans have served as VISTA volunteers, but we have lost contact with most of our alumni. We hope to contact them, involve them in national service efforts in their home areas and ask their help in organizing local events that commemorate three decades of VISTA service. We also hope to have a national anniversary celebration in Washington, D.C., in the spring of 1995. When the president signed the National and Community Service Trust Act last September, VISTA became a program of the new Corporation for National and Community Service, with a vital role in the presidents national service program. As our alumni know, the holdiay spirit of giving for VISTA volunteers. We urge forextends year-roun- d mer VISTA volunteers to help us locate them during this e at special season by calling VISTA needs them once again! Diana London VISTA acting director toll-fre- LU Staff columns Wishing everyone Visitors enjoy punishment Editor: Our family had occasion to travel from Layton to Price on Friday, Dec. 10. Upon passing through Helper, we were promptly pulled over by the Helper City Police Department, served an arrest warrant by the town judge and informed that we violated the ordinance of passing through Christmas Town, Utah, without stopping for the parade. Our punishment was severe. We were made the grand marshals of Fridays Electric Light Parade and shackled with wonderful food and lodging in Helper and Price. And who says that our penal system is too lenient? After experiencing the event, along with the friendly people and the great food, we wanted to write and acknowledge the people of Helper and Price for making our weekend such a special event. The Helper Christmas parade is a wonderful, event which we thoroughly enjoyed. We are spreading the word to all our friends and relatives that Helper, Utah, is the place to be during the Christmas well-plann- ed season. We also want to acknowledge the staff members at the Helper townhall and police department who went out of their way to help us feel welcome. Also, the people at Days Inn, JBs and The Matadore were great and the food was fantastic. Our family has decided to make the Helper Christmas parade a Christmas tradition. We look forward next year to seeing the unlucky family who is pulled over and arrested fortrying to get through Christmas Town, Utah, without stopping. We appreciate all of you for making our weekend such a nice one. Alan and Robyn Mortensen Laddie, come home Editor: Please help! On Saturday, Dec. 18, two young men were traveling from Salt Lake City to Longview, Texas. They were in an ugly, old blue 1959 Chevy truck. They stopped to buy gas and let the dogs go for a walk. The young men had a German shepherd riding in the cab of the truck and a sheltie (looks like a miniature collie) riding in a dog carrier in the back. The sheltie cousin, who is moving and belongs to their could not keep the dog in the new apartment. Therefore, Grandma in Texas volunteered to keep the dog. The two 1 boys were freezing in the cab, so afraid were the sheltie (Laddie is his name) would they it freeze to death. Thinking better to save the dog, they gave Laddie to some people at the gas station. Needcouless to say, Grandma and Bre Anne sin) are more than sad. The boys didnt get the peoples names. Not knowing how upset everyone would be, they just didnt think. Please help us find Laddie, as thats all Grandma and Bre Anne want. feel like Im on a Lassie TV show, only this is Laddie and its very real. The boys just never knew how sad everyone would feel. They really just didnt want the dog to die, but didnt think about getting a name. Im Jeffs mom and Im trying to repair and bring peace back into this family. Colin and Jeff are very sorry that everyone is sad and some are very angry. Please help us find Laddie. ld (10-year-o- tf ld I Terri Thrasher Editor note: Anyone with information regarding Laddies whereabouts is encouraged to place a collect coll to the Thrasher family in Longview, Texas. Contact the Sun Advocate for the telephone number. By ANN KAY MARSING Staff writer Aaah, another year is coming to an end. Has it been a good year for me? That seems to be the question in the back of many minds this week as we try to relax after the long buildup to the Christmas season. While some of us get to lounge around and enjoy the last week of 1993, others of us have to go right back to work and its business as usual. For me, this is one week Im glad I dont work in retail sales anymore. Exchanges and refunds are the pits, as I remember. Here at the Sun Advocate, its been a year of many changes. Dan retired and we got a new publisher toward the end of July when Kevin came to Carbon County from Salina. Layne moved onto another publication and Idaho native Scott (or as Lynda Barnett would say) joined the staff as the new sports editorphotographer in August. Rosann left the Sun Advocate to accept a new position in the midst of Emery County government on Sept. 1, and Lynn-de Carbon Countys own staff to editor. moved writer, Other changes saw Marjorie join the sales and advertising staff, Vicki left the Scotty-Whattey-Do-D- a, full-tim- a happy 1994 mailroom to teach school, Kim splits her time between the paper and another job and Gail drives the white truck twice a week to and from Richfield, where the Sun Advocate is now printed. part-tim- e staff writer who worked toward months high eight my school reunion last summer (amazing, since Im only 29), I continually begged for more hours at the paper. My life changed drastically just when I wanted to take time off to gather what sanity I had left after the reunion, I took Lynndas spot and went As weve all worked hard adjusting to our new positions and responsibilities, weve also had a good time. Life at the Sun Advocate just seems to get better and better. I can honestly say the warm fuzzies Scott wrote about last week have been spread around this office much the same as the flu and other sundry ailments have spread around the county. As I reflect on 1993, it has been a good year. Im not any thinner than I was a year ago and the office did go smoke-fre- e in September (perhaps youve seen the Three Musketeers and friend puffing away out front), but Im content and full of hope for the new year ahead. It also helps to have health insurance for the first time in a long while! As a 30-ye- full-tim- ar e. the many entities I work with, I have appreciated the opportunity Ive had to get to know you and to report on the business of the day. To the parents of school children in Carbon County, keep up the good work in raising the bright, honest kids I interview each week for my column theyre the greatest! To To all the people Ive interviewed for Portraits, Lifestyle and Focus, youre terrific. Who says you have to live in a big city to find interesting and loving people? Ill take Carbon County any day of the week. And for all those people I photograph, if you only knew how nervous I can get trying to outsmart my camera, youll never know how much I appreciate your patience and understanding. I can truly get more excited over a good photo than I can a story! From all of us at your hometown newspaper, we sincerely hope the changes in your life in 1994 will be for the best, just as ours this past year have benefitted us. Many of you have acknowledged the new look and feel of the paper as being something you like and enjoy. We appreciate your loyalties and good wishes. We wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead. And keep those subscriptions coming in! Guest column American agents at large By RICHARD LESHER President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce After years of interminable trade negotiations, vivid public demonstrations and countless political debates, the United States may finally have an effective key to gaining access to the vast consumer market of Asia Am way Corporation. Amway is one of several U.S. direct-sellin- g companies that bring popular consumer items anything and everything from laundry detergent to your doorto cosmetics step via friendly distributors who, more often than not, are someone you know personally. In Japan, Korea, China and other emerging nations of Asia, direct sellers are making inroads where other U.S. firms have been unable to gain a foothold, winning consumer acceptance at a pace that is rapidly undermining the traditional Asian resistance to western exports. the name is an Amway abbreviation of American Way was bom in 1959, the brainchild of two eager entrepreneurs, Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos, in the basements of their homes in Ada, Mich. Today, Amway is two million independent agents marketing $4 billion in products annually in 54 nations. Nowhere is that success more conspicuous or loaded with long-terimplications for international trade than in m Asia. But direct sellers like Amway, Avon and Mary Kay bypass those networks by going directly to the consumers front doors, where the reception is usually friendly. There are more than 20,000 Avon representatives in the single city of Canton, China, alone. Elsewhere in what was Maos communist domain, Amway is erecting a $34-millio- n million; in Thailand, 220,000 sold $400 million; in Singapore, 40,000 sold $100 million worth; and in the Philippines, 420,000 sold $74 million. enjoy few options in most Asian societies. As direct sellers, however, they become entrepreneurs. Millions of them are eagerly seizing the opportunity. Direct selling is an American success story written in bold letters across the Asian landscape. In Japan, two million indepedent agents racked up $34 billion in sales last year; in Korea, 150,000 totalled $1 billion; in Taiwan, 500,000 sold $1 billion; in Malaysia, 300,000 sold $600 Especially telling is the eagerness of aspiring entrepreneurs in China, so recently under communist restraint, now seizing economic opportunity. People who once marched in lockstep in obedience to party orders now pursue wildly divergent visions of their own design, making their own way, lifting everyones standard of living in the process. It is truly a triumph of free and the Amerienterprise can way. direct sellers independent agents in Asia are women who self-sufficie- nt It is an open secret that Asian consumers routinely get the shaft, obtaining lifes necessities through inefficient distribution systems that provide limited choices at inflated prices. U.S. firms would be happy to offer them better deals, but are routinely denied access to the restricted distribution networks. once ets for U.S. goods and promoting economic progress, but also they are agents of social change. Fully 90 percent of the manufacturing facility and Mary Kay is leasing land. Our direct sellers are not only opening vast new mark |