Thursday, March 3, 2022

Liz Writes Life -- 3-2-22 Golf in April and a world-wide Family History conference

March 2, 2022

Liz Writes Life

Golf in April

The Rotary Club of Scott Valley will be hosting its 28th Annual Golf Tournament at the Weed Golf Course on Saturday, April 30, 2022.

Registration is at 8 a.m. and a shotgun start at 9 a.m. Entry fees are $70 which includes green fees, cart, coffee and donuts in the morning.  Lunch will feature polish sausage & hamburgers. Members of the course pay $45 and must secure their own carts. Early registration is encouraged so Rotary can plan the field and have enough carts.

This is a four-man scramble and will be handicapped. If you do not have a handicap, one will be assigned. This tournament is opened to the public. Contact Bob or Vinnie McNeil for more information at 530-468-2608.

$140 million for firefighters

A Northern California wildland firefighting company has received a grant that will allow it to develop and train 5,000 new professional firefighters throughout the nation.

Congressman Doug LaMalfa recently announced that a United States Forest Service Indefinite-Delivery contract was awarded to Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression, Inc. This contract award was part of several made throughout the country for Type 2 Initial Attack qualified wildland firefighter crews. The contract period is for the next five years and up to $140 million.

LaMalfa said, “I applaud the hard work of the Firestorm crew and their dedication to the forestry industry. Type 2 wildland firefighters are essential in wildland fire management and are at the forefront of dangerous conditions to build fire lines across backcountry terrain with hand tools and chainsaws.”

He added that Firestorm is a “leader in emergency services and forest management in the Butte County area.”

Leah Will, Co-owner of Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression, was “thrilled” with the new award of the Type II Attack Handcrew contract. She said the grant will allow Firestorm to develop and train 600 new professional firefighters within the organization and 5,000 nationally.

Enjoy Family History

RootsTech the world’s largest family history and genealogy conference will be held this week in Salt Lake City, Utah, but will be shown virtually over the internet --  and it is free!

RootsTech was first held in 2011, at the Salt Palace conference center, with several thousand people attending. It grew quickly with motivational speakers, dozens of workshops and a giant room full of innovative and technology-type of showcasing. But because of the pandemic lockdown last year, it went all-virtual and found it was even more successful. RootsTech reported that more than 1 million visitors tuned-in from over 240 countries and territories during the 2021 conference.

Yes, learning about and doing family history is popular. This year, the theme is: Choose Connection. And connection will be easy in a variety of ways. “Relatives at RootsTech” is a feature participants can use through the FamilySearch Family Tree to connect to known and unknown relatives also participating in the conference. This technology was a big hit last year. There is also a program that will show you many famous relatives and ancestors are in your family tree.

There are a variety of keynote speakers from boxing legend Azumah Nelson, who recorded his speech in Accra, Ghana to Argentine singer Diego Torres, who recorded his event from Buenos Aires, Argentine to French baker Apollonia Poilane, who recorded his speech from Versailles, French. USA actor Matthew Modine is also one of the speakers.

Daily family history workshop sessions will be streamed in 11 languages and other sessions will be available in 40 additional languages. Leaders of the conference believe “connection” is a powerful thing. They have watched as people around the world want to connect; want to figure out how they fit in; how they belong; and how they connect to their family and society. Doing family history is one way to truly connect and find understanding.

If you go to the RootsTech.org website, you can find 1,500 sessions from last year’s conference in the vast online learning library. (Just to let you know, RootsTech website is hosted by FamilySearch.org.)

I did notice that these sessions can be fairly short at 15 to 30 minutes. When the conference was live at the Salt Palace, before the pandemic, many sessions were much longer. It seems the organizers have been able to get presenters to focus-in on their subject a bit better, saying they are more strategic about quality over quantity. I prefer the shorter presentations. Guess my attention-span isn’t very long!

So, I encourage anyone interested in learning about family history and recording family stories to check this event out. It should be inspiring. This year’s event will feature about 900 new sessions from presenters, who are from around the world. It is easy to peruse through the topics buttons. You can also learn how to use specific websites like FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, My Heritage and others.

Hope you give it a try!

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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