Santaquin Pilot Lives His Dream of Flying While Helping Others

Pilot Lives His Dream of Flying While Helping Others

By Shellie Peterson

If you ask Matt Jensen what he does for a living, he’ll more than likely respond by simply saying “I’m a pilot.” He sees his job as nothing out of the ordinary. But not everyone has what it takes to do what he does.

Matt and his wife, Amie, live with their four children in Santaquin, where they hope to stay for a while. Gaining experience and work as a pilot often requires you to pick up your life and move to different areas, as the family has experienced firsthand.

The Jensen family has moved seven times in 11 years, and Matt explained, “that’s not a lot compared to some people. You’ve got to move where the job is and building up flight time is how you get the job.”

To build up flight time, Matt moved as far away as Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. He flew EMS there, then returned to Vegas and did tours in the Grand Canyon for a couple of years before flying EMS again. He currently flies EMS for Nephi.

Matt works for a company called Metro Aviation. One of the company’s customers is the University of Utah. Metro Aviation provides the helicopters, pilots, and mechanics, while the University of Utah provides the medical side (including a nurse and a medic for each flight). It’s a combined effort that helps save lives.

Matt explained that his helicopter doesn’t have hoisting capabilities, so if anyone needs to be hoisted off the side of a mountain, it’s Life Flight or Highway Patrol that gets called in.

But for situations that don’t require hoisting, Matt is frequently called to fly medics into the area. He also regularly works with Search and Rescue teams to shuttle people back and forth to base camps and rescue sites as needed.

Matt has always loved aviation. His entire family is into aviation and his dad is a private pilot. In his younger years, Matt used to go flying with his dad all the time and he loved it.

However, he didn’t think he could become a pilot himself until he became roommates with a guy who was a helicopter flight instructor.

He inspired Matt to go through flight school. Matt graduated in 2006 and is an accomplished helicopter pilot today.

Matt’s favorite thing about the job is getting to help people. He explained, “It’s the success stories, you know? Like when you see somebody that was very, very hurt and you were thinking they might not make it, and then you find out they made it and fully recovered. So that’s pretty cool.”

Matt takes his job seriously and is a respected pilot. He has received Pilot of the Year awards in different programs and is the lead pilot at the base

Courtesy photo

Matt Jensen and his children.

in Nephi. (Peterson is a Serve Daily contributor.)

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“I was just happy to be there and to donate my time,” Peterson said.

Sadly, the boys lost their mother before the raffle could even be completed and Christmas was not the same this last year. In January the saloon was finished and piled on the trailer to be delivered to the two boys who were now living with their grandmother in Fountain Green.

“We all feel good about projects like this and being involved,” Sevy responded as he talked about the project, and all who know those four men would remark on their good hearts and serving spirits.

Through the years CR Doors and Moulding and their friends and employees have spent countless hours giving back to the community around them.

When there is a need that arises and an opportunity to give they are always willing to donate time and funds to bless those in their community.

If you know of others who are giving back in our communities, we would love to spotlight the good that they do. No matter the unrest and anger in our world that seems to be spotlighted all over the evening news, there are still those around us that know how to come together, to share their time, talents, and the extra they can to make the world a little kinder, a little softer and remind us all that we are in this together and there are endless ways in which we can give back. (Gibson is a Serve Daily contributor.)

To Spin a Potter’s Wheel

By Shellie Peterson

Clay Craig is a fun and energetic third-grade teacher who loves filling his life with things that bring joy to himself and others. He and his wife, Angela, live with their four kids in Santaquin.

Craig has been teaching third and fourth grades for 21 years and loves it. But around 15 years ago, he was introduced to a side hobby that quickly claimed a piece of his heart. Craig and a couple of his fellow Santaquin Elementary teachers decided on a whim to enroll in an evening pottery class offered by Payson High School.

The three pitched in together to purchase a pottery wheel, which is the same wheel Craig uses today. A few years ago, Craig decided to dedicate more time to his pottery business.

He enlisted the help of his kids to come up with a name. They told him that since his name is Clay, it obviously had to be included in the name. And that’s how the ingenious shop title “Kiln It With Clay” was born.

Craig dedicates a room in his house to the display of his finished hand-thrown pottery. He also has a shop behind his house where he spends hours at a time bringing his creations to life.

When asked what his favorite thing is about making pottery, his eyes lit up as he passionately described the process. He said, “There’s so much that I love about it. I can spend hours out there. I love making, I love glazing, I love all of it so much.”

Craig spends a lot of time lovingly creating each unique piece of pottery, and the results speak for themselves. Each product is made with impeccable attention to detail. Craig loves to use colorful glazes to bring personality to each piece. He also offers pieces in traditional pottery colors.

Kiln It With Clay offers many different types of pottery products. Shoppers can find soup bowls, chip-and-dip bowls, plates, berry colanders, and more. Two of the most popular shop products are succulent planters and yarn bowls. Both of them make great Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day gifts.

Craig is currently working on a website where people can go in the future to purchase his products. Currently, people can visit Kiln It With Clay’s Facebook and Instagram pages to follow the business and view available pottery pieces. Interested individuals can message Craig through these sites if they want to make purchases. They can also email kilnitwithclay@gmail. com (Peterson is a Serve Daily contributor.)

Local teacher with the appropriate name of ‘Clay’ finds a new passion creating art with pottery

Photo by Shellie Peterson

Clay Craig spends his free time making beautiful hand-thrown pottery for his side business Kiln It With Clay.

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Charities Find a Way to Help During Pandemic

By Shellie Peterson

Due to complications from a global pandemic that took the world by storm, 2020 presented some challenges for charities.

Many of the normally scheduled food drives that take place every year were of necessity canceled. As a result, the volunteers responsible for carrying out the canceled food drives began to wonder how they would help food-insecure families make it through the year.

Fortunately, there were plenty of people and organizations willing to step up to the plate in a year unlike any this generation has ever seen before. One of those organizations was the Springville Kiwanis Club. The club sponsored a highly successful Sub-for-Santa food drive near the end of 2020. The club accepted donations of food and other items to help Springville families who needed the assistance.

The Springville Kiwanis Club is a service organization made up entirely of volunteers. The stated goal of the organization is to help children and youth in Springville, though their December 2020 food drive helped entire families get through challenging economic times.

With assistance from the Springville High School Key Club, Reams, Copies Plus, Springville City, Deseret Meat Packing, and other organizations and individuals, the Springville Kiwanis Club pulled off a volunteer effort that was amazing.

Generous donors gave massive amounts of food and other items. Bags of canned goods and non-perishable items covered tables and the floor of a gymnasium. Springville youth volunteered to pass out donation bags for the food, then helped to collect the filled bags.

Distribution of the food bags and food pick-up efforts were organized through Springville Kiwanis Club member Bryce Packard, who coordinated with local stake presidents, bishops, and ward councils.

Other volunteers helped organize the food, fill boxes donated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and distribute the food.

During a challenging year, the results of the food drive brought many volunteers to tears.

“I personally was worried that we wouldn’t meet the quota needed to help our beloved community,” said Jaymie Fellows, a Springville Kiwanis Club member

But then, Springville residents responded in a big way. In an online thankyou post to the Springville community, Fellows said, “…you saw a challenge, you opened your hearts and became one. You will literally feed thousands of people. Your overwhelming generosity and love was felt.” She related to me that there were many tears shed that day as volunteers saw first-hand how much beauty can come out of a year full of tribulation.

The Springville Kiwanis Club food drive wouldn’t have been a success if it hadn’t been for the massive community effort that took place. When communities pull together as Springville did, incredible things can happen.

The Springville Kiwanis Club currently has 15 active members and would love to welcome more, especially with Art City Days happening in June 2021. Kent Woolf, the Springville Kiwanis Club President, welcomes everyone who would like to join the organization to email springvillekiwanisclub@gmail.com. (Peterson is a Serve Daily contributor.)

Photo by Jaymie Fellows

The Springville Kiwanis Club and other volunteers pulled off a successful Sub-for-Santa food drive and collected a massive amount of food for Springville families in need.

Keeping the lights on in Spanish Fork steeped in history

Photo by Ed Helmick

Chad Knapp, Operations Manager for the Strawberry Water Users Association.

By Ed Helmick

The Spanish Fork windmills get a lot of visual attention but let us not forget the history of Spanish Fork’s hydroelectric power that has been providing electricity to south Utah County for more than 110 years.

What started in 1906 as a farmland irrigation initiative, known as The Strawberry Valley Project eventually had a byproduct of hydroelectric power. That was the beginning of an electric power infrastructure that supported much of the population of south Utah County in the early years of the 20th Century.

It began with our pioneer ranchers and farmers diverting water from the Spanish Fork River and other streams for agricultural irrigation. The problem was that by mid-summer the flow of water dropped off and was insufficient to support the farmed acreage. Utah Senators Henry Gardner and John S. Lewis visited Strawberry Valley on a camping trip and came up with the idea of building a reservoir in the valley and developing a system to transport the water to the Spanish Fork River.

When the Reclamation Act of 1902 was discussed in Congress problems arose. The original wording required “residence on the land” and for Utah the wording was changed to “residence in the neighbor-