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Thursday, March 28, 2013 • Issue # 989
Partners Stepping Up in Lean Times Ruby’s Inn Hotels Pass $300,000 Mark in Donations to Bryce Canyon Natural History Association
BRYCE CANYON CITY With the Federal Government “Sequester,”—mandatory budget cuts, and the looming debt ceiling battle, National Parks are struggling to balance budgets while not diminishing visitor services and the extraordinary experiences provided to visitors in our parks. The following is a story of a program that Ruby’s Inn Inc., located on the doorstep to Bryce Canyon National Park started in 2003 to help support the park. In the spring of 2003 Best Western PLUS Ruby’s Inn began a $1 Donation or “Dollar Check Off” program. This partnership program was developed to strengthen relationships and to address budget shortfalls at that time. Since the program’s inception in 2003 through December 2012, Ruby’s Inn Inc. has facilitated donations from its guests of approximately $327,000 to the Bryce Canyon Natural History Association, the nonprofit education and research partner of Bryce Canyon. Donated funds are used to support special educational events, research and related activities that enhance visitors’ enjoyment of the national park. The program has been tweaked and
expanded since its inception, and now includes Ruby’s Inn Inc.’s other hotels, the Bryce View Lodge and the new Best Western PLUS Bryce Canyon Grand Hotel. The program works like this: 1. When a guest makes a booking at the hotels, they are notified of the “donation option” on their confirmation. 2. The guest is told of the program at check-in and has the opportunity to opt in or out. 3. The $1 donation is charged each night of the guest’s stay and shows up on the guest’s final bill. 4. The funds collected are donated monthly to the Bryce Canyon Natural History Association. Current donation levels hover between $40,000 and $50,000 annually. At this time, Ruby’s Inn, Inc. is in discussions to offer the donation option for bookings made with tour companies and on-line travel companies, which could possibly double the donation each year. Donations have supported educational events including the annual Astronomy and Geology Festivals, printing of educational materials about
park natural and cultural resources for visitors and field trips for area school children, preservation of historic photos, documents and records, paleontology research and inventories, and wildlife studies, among other activities. In regards to the importance of this program to Bryce Canyon National Park, Gayle L. Pollock, the Executive Director of the Bryce Canyon National History Association said: “I applaud Ruby’s Inn and the Syrett Family for visibly demonstrating their continuing commitment to the mission of Bryce Canyon National Park with the implementation of this program. Donated monies have made an extraordinary difference in our ability to deliver interpretive and educational programs that are both engaging and inspirational to those who visit Bryce Canyon.” The ownership, management and employees are proud of the success of the program and look forward to a continued partnership with the Bryce Canyon Natural History Association to serve visitors to Bryce Canyon National Park. http://www.rubysinn.com/ help-the-park-program.html —Ruby’s Inn
Escalante Heritage Visitor Center Cabin to Open
Phil and Harriet Priska, owners of Serenidad Gallery in Escalante, are embarking on their 21st year in business on Main Street.
Gallery Pioneers Celebrate 20 Years
ESCALANTE - An unassuming little art gallery on a small hill on the north side of the street in Escalante belies a couple with varied passions for art, place and community. In 1986, Phil and Harriet Priska were a seasoned pair of art and antique dealers from the San Francisco Bay area. Fulfilling a dream of Harriet’s to explore Zion National Park and beyond, they made the trip that Harriet says jelled her connection to the red rock and canyon country. “In Hurricane,” she says, “the ‘impact’ happened and I saw rocks for the first time as an artist.” On that same trip, they ventured for the first time down Highway 12, on a route headed from Mt. Carmel Junction, to Taos, New Mexico. “Highway 12 hadn’t been paved very long, but AAA routed us through here,” says Harriet, “So we thought we’d try it.” And then they got stuck. Thanks to a broken speedometer cable, the couple had a stayover on a blustery night in Escalante. It was on that night that Harriet received what she calls a divine inspiration to move to Escalante. The auto repair work went
well, sweetening the idea. “I think it was Wally Woolsey who worked on our car, and he only charged us two dollars to fix it,” says Phil. “At the time I thought, ‘Diogenes should have come through here with his lamp, because I found an honest man.’ ” With the idea planted in their minds to move to Utah, the Priskas scrimped and saved for several years, then shucked everything from their old lives in Menlo Park, and arrived in Escalante to start their new venture. They arrived with what Phil calls the “nucleus” of his art collection, a variety of watercolor paintings from California regional landscape artist Rachel Bentley, who became known for her works of oneroom school houses in Nevada and California. Phil had happened upon her in Menlo Park, and began collecting her paintings in the 1970s. He found her particularly interesting in that she did not even begin painting until after the age of 50, after raising five kids, and she had only one eye. “I became overwhelmed with her work, and she let me have paintings that she had in her collection. She had a huge number of them and I started
buying directly from her,” says Phil. In Escalante, the Priskas found their future gallery building in a structure which was built as the U.S. Forest Service office in 1965 out of old growth Canadian Red Cedar logs (which has since been obscured by siding, which Harriet says was put on in 1974). In 1992, the government agency had just moved to its new building west of town. At that time, Escalante’s Main Street was still a two lane road and there was no motel (The Prospector) on the corner and the Escalante Outfitters was just the original log building on the other corner. There, they opened Serenidad Gallery in April of 1993. Harriet explains that the building, with each of its separate rooms, lends itself well to their assortment of collections. (A sign outside the entry door aptly tells visitors that the gallery is “bigger than it looks.”) The space offers up a fine art room, with the Rachel Bentley collection, the rock room with petrified wood and other local rocks, a room with their collection of Zapotec wool rugs from central Mexico and fine art photography, jewelry and cards Serenidad cont’d on page 2
Panguitch Invitational Science Fair
The Escalante Heritage/Hole-in-the-Rock Visitor Center at the east end of town will be open on April 1. ESCALANTE - The Escalante Heritage/Hole-inthe-Rock Center Cabin/Visitor Center Will Open to the Public on April 1st. The outdoor plaza is always open for guests to walk around and read the information on the outdoor panels, but the restrooms and
PANGUITCH weather
Cabin /Visitor Center have been closed since November 1, 2012. Open Hours will be from 9:00am thru 5:00pm Monday through Saturday. A 14 minute film on the Hole-inthe-Rock journey of 1879-80, made by Lamont Crabtree, a Hole-in-the-Rock historian,
LOA weather
can be shown to visitors by request. There is no entrance fee. The Cabin is patterned after the home inhabited by “Sagebrush Mary”, (Mary Alice Barker Shurtz), the first woman to set foot in Escalante Valley in March of 1876. She was then 16 years old, and later became a midwife and delivered over 600 babies during her life time. The Cabin serves as an interim Visitor Center until money can be raised to build a larger Center. It will then be furnished like a pioneer cabin for visitors to walk through at their leisure. At present the cabin contains a video room, a gift shop and an artifacts room. Local residents (Garfield County) are encouraged to come and visit and learn a little more about the San Juan Expedition of 1879-80. —Jerry Roundy
There has been science in the air in Panguitch the last few weeks. The Panguitch Middle /High School had their annual science fair on March 12. It was a big success. Students 7th to 8th grade were invited to enter the Junior Fair. The students in 9th to 12th grade were invited to enter the senior fair. All students were awarded a certificate for their participation in the Science Fair. Over one hundred and fifty students participated, with over ninety projects. A BIG THANK YOU to fair sponsors: Panguitch Middle School Panguitch High School Parent Teacher Student Organization Panguitch Middle/ High School Joe’s Main Street Market Garfield Memorial Hospital
Dodds Arby’s Yardley Insurance Leland Chevron Parkin Dental Frandsen Physical Therapy C-Stop Pizza
—Laura Adams
Over 150 students from Panguitch Middle/High School participated in this year’s Science Fair.
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