In 1974 Janice Rae Beesley Hartvigsen was diagnosis with breast cancer. She fought for 9 years but in 1983 she passed away leaving her 6 children (the youngest was 13 years old) and her 2 young grandchildren. In 2007 the Janice Beesley Hartvigsen Breast care center was opened. This state of the art breast cancer treatment center is committed to helping all women regardless of their economic situations.
The center sponsored a breakfast this October for Breast Cancer awareness month. Janice’s brother Brent Beesley, spoke on behalf of his sister. Breast Cancer specialist Dr Brett Parkinson also spoke and urged all women over 40 to get a mammogram. And Breast Cancer survivor Sherie Dew shared her Breast Cancer survival story. Two special guests were introduced, both were survivors but their stories were unique, one woman was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 98 and the other was diagnosed at age 24.
Many of Janice’s family members were in attendance at the breakfast, including a cousin and a niece that survived breast cancer and her granddaughter Janice Rae Hartvigsen. The Murray High School football team handed pink roses to all the ladies after the breakfast and played their football game in pink jerseys that night.
Ike Ferguson started the Humanitarian department in the LDS Church and worked there for 33 years. In the early days of the program, the Church wasn’t planning on having a permanent humanitarian program, it was only a temporary operation. Ike went to a meeting with the leaders of the LDS Church where they discusses the need for justification in order to keep the humanitarian project in the church. Ike took the challenge and found the quote by Joseph Smith.
Part of the humanitarian department is the clothing center. Clothing is donated to the Church via Deseret Industries and is either sold to local DI’s or sent to the humanitarian center to be sorted and sold to people all over the world. The sorters are typically immigrants and refugees that need employment. The LDS church gives them a job and the center sorting, packaging and shipping the clothing, giving them learning experiences and skills for future jobs. The Church also provides ESL classes for each employee so they can learn English. They want these people to learn the skills necessary to go out and get jobs in America and to be self reliant.
Ike Ferguson is primarily responsible for creating and carrying out LDS humanitarian projects including clean water projects throughout the entire world, refugee camps, neonatal resuscitation projects, eye care and clinics, wheel chairs, immunizations and disaster relief projects. He writes all the programs, he goes to these countries and trains the natives and then he follows up on them afterwards and even after his retirement he still goes to Africa and India and helps new employees write the projects.
Because of the humanitarian work in Europe and Africa people began to see what the church does and began to open the door to LDS missionaries. The Church believes they need to take care of people physically before they can take care of them spiritually.
“Utah achieved prominence in nineteenth-century America for its efforts to produce sugar from sugar beets; and the production of beet sugar contributed substantially to Utah's economy for almost one hundred years.”
A sugar beet factory was built in Lehi Utah and after it was declared a “technical and financial success” in 1897, 17 other factories were built in Utah.
There were many problems that hindered the production of sugar beets in Utah. The “postwar agricultural depression after WWI” greatly hurt the farms and factories in Utah. There was also a blight in the 1920’s that destroyed many sugar beet crops. “Where the disease seemed to be endemic, factories were dismantled or removed to more promising locations. Thus…the plant at Nampa, Idaho, was moved to Spanish Fork.
The factory has since been condemned and is no longer safe to work in. The surrounding buildings are used to manufacture wooden pallets. The rest of the grounds are used as storage for trailers (like the Davis high band trailer) and other waste.
The factory is a popular spot for photographers to take family portraits for clients.
The current owner is LewChristensen. I hope to meet with Lew soon and get more information on the sugar beet factory.
http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/s/SUGARINDUSTRY.html">http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/s/SUGARINDUSTRY.html
