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Show Cyan Magenta Yellow Black A8 Sanpete Messenger / Sanpete Messenger-Gunnison Valley Edition Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Growing music program desperate for funding By Lloyd Call Associate publisher MANTI—The South Sanpete School District Board swore in new board members and considered funding for the orchestra program at Manti High and Ephraim Middle schools at its board meeting Wednesday, Jan. 5. Sworn in at the meeting were new board member Kim Pickett and re-elected board member Nancy Jensen. Jensen has served 12 years on the board. “Be patient with me,” Pickett asked fellow board members. “I’m going to ask a lot of questions.” The board assigned board member Mike Barclay to serve as president next year and Larry Smith to serve as vice president. Music director Ron Litteral asked the board to help meet the needs of his fast-growing yet under-funded orchestra program. Litteral requested $12,245 for a one-time requisition of string instruments and cases (basses, cellos and violas). The high school orchestra program has grown slowly over the years, but attendance has doubled from 11 to 22 students since Litteral took over the program in 2002. The middle school orchestra has also grown over the years. In the last three years the sixth grade participation has gone from 46 to 60 students, seventh grade from 30 to 56, and eighth grade from 20 to 30. Litteral explained that instruments are both expensive and easily damaged during transportation, hence the need for new instruments, and their protective cases. Even purchased through music distributors, instruments are still expensive, especially strings. Unlike brass instruments, which can be more easily repaired, when a string instrument is damaged, the repair bills are large. Consequently, damaged string instruments are usually replaced rather than repaired. “Our students work hard to protect their instruments,” Litteral said, “but even being careful, accidents happen, especially when we go on tour or on competitions.” Manti is the only 2A school to have an orchestra program. At the Utah state festival, competing against other string orchestras regardless of size, for the last two years Manti scored straight superior ratings. Next week the orchestra is performing at the state superintendent and school board convention in Salt Lake City. The band program has a $10,000 budget for each of the Gunnison and Manti programs, but the orchestra has had no funding from the district. The band programs are also fighting for adequate funding, because the demand is so great in both middle and high schools. Superintendent James Petersen said, “They’ve had to operate on a shoestring since they began, but they have achieved great things even so.” When asked how great the need for instruments was, Litteral told board members that one bass at Manti High School was actually made out of aluminum, and is about 60 years old. “This thing was made during World War II, probably for a Navy band member, because aluminum lasted longer than wood on ships. It’s a real relic, and most of our other string instruments at the school are in about the same shape,” he said. The ancient instrument was used as a prop in a play, so was painted black. The last purchase of string instruments was in 1985, and the average life expectancy of an instrument is only 10-12 years. Besides asking for district help, Litteral also made a plea for community help in finding funding, whether from personal donations or donations from businesses or corporations. “We are doing the best we can, and hold a lot of fundraisers ourselves, but we just aren’t getting enough,” he said. The board agreed on the value of the music program, but told Litteral they needed more time to consider funding sources, grants, and budgeting to meet the music program’s needs. Avalanches (Continued from A2) snowboarded down the mountain. On the second run, Gordon and Moysh were snowmobiling down the chute when a slab of snow 50-70-feet wide broke loose. “It was big,” Forgensi says. “He was caught right in the middle of it. It carried him all the way down and buried him.” Forgensi says Moysh was ahead of Gordon and, “far enough down the slope that he was able to move out of the slide path. The avalanche went by him.” Gordon’s brother and friend located the victim by following sounds from the avalanche beacon and began digging him out. Meanwhile, Cory Gordon called 911 on a cell phone. The call came at 12:30 p.m. “They said it took 15 to 20 minutes (to dig Louk Gordon out), maybe a little longer, but time doesn’t mean anything to you in that situation,” says Kerry Nielsen, a leader in Sanpete Search and Rescue, who received the call to Ephraim Canyon but diverted to LLOYD CALL / MESSENGER PHOTO Mt. Pleasant Canyon when the second call came in. Preston Pritchard of Ephraim, another Sanpete Search and Rescue volunteer and Nielsen’s brother, along with a friend and two EMTs from Ephraim, reached the site about 30 minutes later. The rescuers administered CPR until a Life Flight helicopter landed at the site and airlifted Gordon to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Johnson was part of a party of 6-10 snowmobilers who were taking the sheep trail up Mt. Pleasant Canyon to Skyline Drive. Toward the top, the trail runs along the narrow Choke Cherry Ridge. According to Nielsen and Forgensi, Johnson’s machine slipped over the ridge and got stuck on the slope below. Another person in Johnson’s party turned his snowmobile in Johnson’s direction with the intent to go help him. As he turned the machine, what Forgensi describes as a “wall-to-wall avalanche,” 200 to 300 feet wide, broke loose, car- Gunnison Head Start committee thanks volunteers for holiday help Fifty-one pre-school children at the Head Start program in Gunnison had a happier Christmas this year due to a widespread community effort to provide donated time, goods and money. The Gunnison Head Start Policy Council Committee had the resources to provide a Christmas stocking and a Christmas gift for each child. Each child was also able to choose two books to take home through the Reading Is Fundamental program. The Committee heartily thanked all who contributed. School district receives beneficial grant money By John Hales Staff writer The South Sanpete School District was one of 18 throughout the state that have been awarded $88,296 in grants this quarter from the 100 Percent for Kids Credit Union Education Foundation Awards. Since the foundation’s creation in 2002, it has given over $2 million to Utah schools to provide funding for such things as books and technology programs. Paula Julander, a State Senator and the director of the foundation says that credit unions are im- pressed by teachers’ hard work and initiative. She hopes to “continue working with teachers to fund projects and initiatives that bring valuable resources and tools to Utah classrooms.” But that alone isn’t enough to provide classrooms with necessary resources. “Technology is evolving so rapidly, that some students are getting left behind because they lack access to some expensive resources,” Julander said, adding that the grants help to “even the playing field for children who may not have technology resources at home.” rying Johnson into the tree. Members of the party went to Johnson’s cabin several miles away and called 911. That call came at 1:30 p.m. But because of conditions, it took Nielsen and other Search and Rescue volunteers two hours to reach the victim. By then, he was dead. “The snow was deep, and there was a risk of triggering other slides,” Nielsen explains. It took rescuers until 7 p.m. to get Johnson’s body off the mountain. The Forest Service had issued a high-danger avalanche warning for Saturday and Sunday. The warning was broadcast Saturday at 7:30 a.m. on KMTI, posted on a national website, www.avalanche.org, and recorded on 1-800-OHV-Ride, the MantiLaSal National Forest information line. Both deaths occurred on windswept slopes. Forgensi said avalanche danger is especially high when wind is transferring the snow load from one side of a slope to the other side. An avalanche-prone slope is like a two-layer cake resting on a cake plate, says Forgensi. The bed layer, comparable to the cake plate, is a hard surface, such as rocks or ice frozen into the mountainside. On top of the bed layer is a weak layer of snow prone to sliding along the bed layer. On top of the weak layer is a slab of cohesive snow that can be as small as 6-feet by 6-feet and up to several hundred feet wide and a mile long. If wind starts shifting the snow load on the slab, or if human activity disturbs the slab, the weak layer can start sliding down the bed layer. As that happens, the slab come apart and snow pours down the slope. When avalanche danger is high, or if snow has fallen within the previous 24 hours, “stay away from steep, wind-loaded terrain,” Forgensi advises. “Stick to designed snowmobile trails, such as the Ephraim Canyon Road, or to flat meadows with slopes of 30 degrees or less.” Funeral services for Gordon will be Wednesday at noon at the Ephraim LDS Stake Center, 400 E. Center St. Services for Johnson are scheduled for Thursday, 11 a.m., at the Glenmoor 3rd LDS Ward, 9455 S. 4800 West in South Jordan. Alyssa Murray, Manti High School orchestra student, fiddles around with 60-year old bass made out of (not wood), but aluminum. LLOYD CALL / MESSENGER PHOTO Newly elected South Sanpete School District board members Kim Pickett and Nancy Jensen are being sworn in by school administrator Paul Gottfredson during the board’s first meeting in 2005, on January 5 at the district office in Manti. 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