By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
Members of the Moapa Valley Rotary Club celebrated one of their most important leaders on Saturday night, Dec. 11, during the club’s annual Christmas dinner party. Earlier this year, Dana Utgard stepped down as the local club’s President after serving four years in the position. The small group of local Rotarians presented Utgard a plaque expressing gratitude to her for her service to the club, its membership and the community.
Utgard’s service is especially remarkable because she is scarcely into her mid-20s, and has been a college student throughout most of her term as president.
“She started as president at the age of 21,” said long-time Moapa Valley Rotarian Dennis Anderson in a recent interview with The Progress. “I think she was one of the youngest presidents in Rotary at the time. In fact I think that you have to be 21 to do that and that was her age when she started.”
Anderson said that Utgard stepped in at that time because she saw a need that she could fill.
“She took it because nobody else wanted it,” Anderson said. “And she did a hell of a job!”
With her parents Chuck and Chris Utgard being long-time Rotarians, Dana has been familiar with the Rotary slogan “Service above Self” since she was a young child, said current Rotary President Suzy Bennett in an interview with The Progress.
“Dana was pretty much raised in Rotary,” Bennett said. “She has been involved in the Rotary all of her life. Her folks have always just brought her along and she has served right alongside them. So she was well prepared to serve as President at a very young age.”
Even so, it was a lot of logistics to manage for such a young person, Bennett said. The Moapa Valley Rotary is a very active club that is often seen out in the community serving. The club grills hamburgers and hot dogs for the MV Booster Club concession stand at every home football game. Rotarians grill up the community lunch on Veterans Day, cook the community breakfast on Independence Day, and even prepare breakfast for the “Welcome Back Teachers” event at the beginning of each school year.
The MV Rotary Club gives out thousands of dollars in scholarships to MVHS seniors each year. And to raise money for that, the club engages in two major fundraisers each year. Both are huge undertakings and a lot of work for a young president to manage.
The first is serving up drinks at the Clark County Fair Beer Garden. “Dana has been organizing that for years,” Bennett said. “She was hardly even old enough to drink beer and yet she was in the background helping to organize that fundraiser.”
The other annual fundraiser put on by the MV Rotary is the Valley Wide Yard Sale event. The Rotary collects yard sale donations throughout the year and then sells them each spring in a large yard sale held in Lin’s Marketplace parking lot. Anderson said that Dana has always been willing to put in the effort needed to both collect the donations and put on the yard sale.
He recalled one instance when an elderly local resident had passed away. The deceased person’s son came to the Rotary Club wanting to donate everything inside the house for the Yard Sale.
“The guy said that he didn’t want to have anything to do with it, he just wanted us to clean out the house of everything, and we had two days to do it,” Anderson recalled. “Dana went right to work and organized the whole thing. We did it in two days and completely cleaned out the house. She kept all of us old men in line to get it done; which really takes some doing.”
Bennett emphasized that Dana’s service had made a significant difference in the community and for the local Rotary Club.
“I think it is the love she has for our community, and the diligence she showed because of it, that made her such a great Rotary President,” Bennett said.
“Of course, I am thankful to be the MV Rotary President this year,” Bennett added. “But I have to admit that I feel like I have awfully big shoes to fill coming right after someone like Dana.”
