I’ve always been a little different; one who likes to go outside the norm. Mrs. Telford can sure attest to that from my assignments in her speech class. I wouldn’t just give a little, I’d often put on full dramatic performances using the entire stage. So when it came time for me to scheme up an Eagle Scout project, I had to come up with something excellent, but that could be completed quickly because I had procrastinated just a smidge.
The First Project
I had always seen my mom collecting funeral programs and obituaries but never really understood how interesting those would be in years to come. As she mentioned her box full of clippings (as an idea for my project) and how I might want to organize them and doing something along those lines, I was still not sold on it. But rifling through a few I came across an old friend of mine that I had since forgotten. Janica Crafword was one of my mom’s beehives at church when I was around 8 or 9 years old. As my mom’s official mutual shadow, I got to know Janica pretty well and was devastated when she passed away. Coming across her obituary brought back a flood of memories and I decided right then an there what my Eagle Scout project would be. I had to get these mementos complied and out there for everyone else to remember and enjoy.
These were days before internet and I was just dabbling in graphic design at the Burley Tech Center. I thought, oh well this will be easy. About a year later and a ton of hours, I finally drew a line in the sand and published my first versions of the Valley Vu Cemetery Book along with it’s new map. The map alone would have been a fine project just by itself. With the help of many people especially Morris Hall, we made an accurate GPS map of all the current residents and a plot map for future move-ins. With the advancements in technology we were able to be more precise and not risk digging where we ought not to. But it tied right into my book project and so I though I’d throw it in for good measure.
Today’s Project
Fast forward to 2015 and out of the 6 copies I had made, only 1 was left and I was getting requests for more to be produced. With a good solid web design background under my belt, I decided it was time for a better version of my project to be made. And that’s where this website stems from. Many painstaking hours on behalf of many people have been poured into this project and it shouldn’t go to waste. I have a deep connection with the people and history of Malta and I’m so excited to share it with everyone. So we’ve decided to expand and amplify from the original book here on this website. Enjoy!