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Show 1521 E 3900 SSte 100 Salt Lake City UT 84124-1550 AN The EDITION OF L O C A L L Y P R I D E & P || l l | l l | l l | l l l || l l | l | l lMl,Mll.l.i..l.l.ll..M.l.l.l.l.»ll.l Fork News O W N E D A VOL. 3 / NO. 42 N D O P E R A T E D WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2008 SPANISH FORK, UTAH Courtesy photo / Jennie Taylor HOME AGAIN: 1st Lt. Brent Taylor has returned home from an extended tour of duty in Iraq. He's pictured above with his wife, Jennie. Soldier returns home from Iraq Brent Taylor, of the Sec For soldiers who voluntarily extended his tour of duty, arrived home Thursday, Oct. 9. While serving in Iraq, First Lieutenant Taylor was first a Platoon Leader, then the Executive Officer for the 116th Security Force (Sec For) Company. During that time, he led many convoys through enemy attacks, including IEDs and small arms fire. For his service during that time period, he was awarded the Bronze Star for exemplary service and the Purple Heart. When his unit returned home in April, he was instrumental in recruiting about 25 other Sec For soldiers to answer the call for assistance and extend their tours of duty. They were all transferred down to Baghdad and continued providing security. At that point, Brent was recruited to work in the Embassy right in the Green Zone. He was given the assignment of being the lead coalition advisor to the Director and staff of the Stra- tegic Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Directorate in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. CPT Jeffery Westbrook, Troop Commander of the unit to which Brent was assigned, said, "1LT Taylor's energy, dedication and persistence turned a nascent organization with zero collection capability into an operational intelligence organization that is joining the fight against the enemies of a free Iraq." LTC Bradley Cox, the Battalion Commander of the unit to which Brent was assigned, said, "Brent made historic contributions to the Iraqi Intelligence Community ... The positive effects of Brent's efforts will be present for many years." Taylor was also involved in a number of humanitarian efforts, both in Mosul with the Sec For and in Baghdad with his international colleagues at the Embassy. During the extended Ctair Jones / Spanish Fork News IN BUSINESS: Scott Harward, Jeff Lewis, Wyatt Ernst and John Christiansen learn positive and applicable skills through their work at CastleWave. Young Entrepreneurs off on business venture Clair Jones STAFF WRITER What do you do when you need to know how to remove ketchup from your favorite shirt - at 2 a.m.? Why, you Google it, of course. Maybe you never think about why the websites that contain such precious information appear in the order in which they do, but for four Spanish Fork high schoolers, this order is the difference between success and failure. Wyatt Ernst, 18, Jeff Lewis, 17, John Christiansen, \1 and Scott Harward, 17, started working in March for CastleWave, a million-dollar search engine optimization company, where they are "linkers", making sure that the sites who hire them appear at the top of such search engine lists. "Since these boys started working here at CastleWave, I have watched them grow," Tina Roper, a fellow CastleWave employee, said. "The beginning was learning the ropes of the industry, but soon these boys had the reins. These four teenage boys bring an energy into the office, and have been able to channel that energy into building successful SEO processes and websites." These boys, who will all graduate from high school with their associate's" degree, work toward increasing web traffic to their sites, monetizing (creating revenue), and also creating and developing websites based on keyword research and statistics monitoring. They take fledgling or established web sites, like shopathome.com, emusic. com, universalclipart.com, and flower-dictionary, com, and work to improve content and the amount of linking to the site on other similar sites. This improves the overall visibility and presence of their pages, and thus, their earnings and number of visitors per day. Wyatt, Jeff, John and Scott began working with the company when John's father, Rich Christiansen, and his business partner, Ron E. Porter, approached them with an idea. Rich and Ron, both successful entrepreneurs, recently wrote a book titled "Get A Life," which outlines practical, See TEENS • A8 See SOLDIER • A8 SF 'freecycling' group organized Marilyn Nielson STAFF WRITER ly learn that the network is not intended for people who ; "just want to get free stuff." ' A sroup of over 800 The main purpose is to alSpanish Fork residents is low items to be reused and embracing a less waste- enjoyed by someone who ful, more environmentally wants them, rather than fillfriendly way of getting rid ing up landfills with things of things they don't want. that are still usable. HowevRather than sending loads to er, occasionally users will the landfill, these residents request an item that they are Ore "freecycling"— trading looking for, and often their £nd sharing items among an freecycling friends will be Sver-growing online com- able to help. munity. Rose Johnson, lead "Freecycling" (the term moderator of the Spanish is now trademarked and Fork Freecycle Group, said, owned by a non-profit orga- "Each group makes its own nization) began as a move- rules, and some are stricter ment of people who wanted than others. Our rule is that to keep stuff out of land- people must make an offer fills. There are networks of before requesting somefreecyclers nationwide, and thing. We have a limit of a few years ago, a group three 'wanted' posts per was formed in Provo. As month, but really people are interest has grown in the expected to offer a lot more movement, smaller groups than they ask for things, behave broken off from that. cause that's the whole point The basic idea of freecy- of the group. It's not a place cling is simple: people who for people to get greedy, have something to give asking but never giving away can post an "offer1' back." online, and anyone who And like any commuis interested can respond. New freecyclers will quickSee FREECYCLE• A8 i Mallory Byrnes / Spanish Fork News RIBBON CUTTING: Salem City dignitaries, Chamber of Commerce representatives and members of the public came out for the library ribbon cutting in Salem, Thursday, Oct. 9. Librarian Kerry Loveless does the honors, above. Expanded Salem library now open Mallory Byrnes STAFF WRITER system, the power department the nervous system, but the library is the brain." Though the newly expanded liLoveless and councilmember brary has been open and popular Lynn Durrant have been working tosince Oct. 1,2008, on Thursday, Oct. ward state certification for five years, 9, a ribbon-cutting was held to wel- which was received from Donna come the organization into the com- Jones Morris after the enlargement munity. %vas completed. Certification means "The library is the brain of the grant money and greater access to community," said librarian Kerry books, and is a positive reflection on Loveless. "You've got the other de- the community. partments: the water department, "It's awesome that we've had the which would be the cardiovascular help we've had from the communi- ty," said Durrant, "We've had lots of donations, and it's been awesome." Mayor Lane Henderson recognized Loveless and Durrant as "an integral part" in bringing the community together, and thanked the citizens and organizations that donated. Loveless and Durrant cut the ribbon surrounded by supportive community members. "I just want to say thank you to everyone involved," said Henderson, "The city's just a wonderful place." |