Jon Ed, Tripp and Kelley Powers bring with them some exciting accomplishments, in the form of winter duck an goose hunting. Kelley, at the age of 31, has already won the World goose Calling Championship and the World Goose Champion of Champions, forcing him to retire from this pinnacle-calling event. In Jan. Of 2003 he won the International followed by the Masters, World Open and later the Worldwide which collectively of all major contests, is a feat that has never been achieved by any other individual. As of recent he has won the World Open Meat Duck calling event the last 4 years running. He has been featured in several outdoor publications, waterfowl videos and television productions. He has also won awards as a Humanitarian, due to involvement with Tennessee area youth. Kelley resides with his wife Mallory in Union City.
Jon Ed, a graduate of U.T. with a degree in Ag Business is also involved heavily in winter hunting, guiding hunting parties in the backwaters of West TN. He resides in Union city with his wife, Jennifer, their daughter Bayleigh and son Jon Brayden.
Tripp is also a graduate of U.T. holding a degree in Ag Business, and of course, heavily involved in the guide service during the winter months.
The Power’s trio apparently stay very busy, other than their duties in the world wide guide service, and the time the Final Flight business takes up, they run a very large farming operation, consisting of several thousand acres of row-crop in the Northwest Tennessee area.
Next week, Jeff Agee, President and Chief Executive Officer of First Citizens National Bank here in Union City will be on hand mainly speaking to our special guests, the recipients of the Verhine Scholarships.
2010 marks the 9th year this program has been in existence, thanks to a very generous endowment set up by the Verhine Estate in 2002. That year, $3,500,000 was put into an account, with proceeds from the monies to be used to help graduates from Union City High School, who have completed at least one year of advanced education in one of our colleges or universities to further their education. Union City Rotary was entrusted to distribute these proceeds.
Since that time, the income from this trust has generated some $821,000, with a total of $140,000 to be added this year, which will be distributed to 84 deserving Union City Graduates.
The long history of the Rotary Scholarships (since 1982), and the Verhine Scholarship program is fast approaching the $4,000,000.00 mark in scholarships being distributed to the youth of our city and county, proving Union City Rotary, the Community of Union City and Obion County, take an exceptional interest in our youth.
Last week, in a surprise visit, State Representative Judy Barker was on hand to introduce the program for the day. Rep. Barker spent several minutes in doing this and had high praise for Marty Mabry, West Tennessee’s Regional Manager for the Department of Tourism, saying she found her to be very enthusiastic, very dedicated and most importantly, very acceptable.
Marty expressed her happiness being in Union City, and had praise for the area, saying it was one of her favorite places to visit.
She reviewed articles in "USA Today", suggesting some people use the recession as an excuse for not traveling or taking a vacation.
Using a riddle, asking, "what do the Civil War, Hunting and Fishing, Elvis, Tea Pot and an Eighty Two Year Train Wreck have in common"? "They are all reasons to visit West Tennessee, in our state from West Tennessee to the Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee, we have so many reasons to visit this state", she said. In her humble opinion, she said "we are even more blessed to live in West Tennessee, who wouldn’t want to take a vacation is West Tennessee, with all the history, landscape, and my favorite, we have a lot of colorful characters in West Tennessee that draw people to our area, and not only do they want to visit, they want to stay" she said.
She asked us to leave the doors open and welcome our tourist. "The one who visited last week may be the one who wants to bring an industry in six months", she said.
She went into some of the other advantages of tourism of Tennessee, pointing out that tourism is the No. 2 source of income in Tennessee, following only Agriculture.
Coming Attractions
June 04 - Verhine Scholarship Program Speaker, Jeff Agee
June 11 - Mike Hutchens, U.C. Daily Messenger Sports Editor
June 18 - Christy Passmore
June 25 - Officer InstallationRegretfully we accepted the resignation of Two of our members last week...
Dr. Matthew Wholfarth
&
Dr. David Russell
Birthdays
May 28 - Art Sparks
Anniversaries
May 28 - Hadley and Tracey Malone
May 29 - Bob and Jenny Kirkland
Memorial Day
Monday May 31st, 2010
God bless our native land.
Let us remember those who
have fought, died and those who are still
fighting for our strength and our freedom.
