South Jordan Journal | October 2022

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

Tyrone Foster was just 5 years old when his father was killed in the Persian Gulf, where he was stationed on the USS Stark. Senior Chief Quartermaster Vernon T. Foster Sr. was one of 37 Navy personnel killed as a result of a missile attack fired at the ship by Iraqi jet aircraft.

It’s been 35 years since his father’s death and Foster has a 5-year-old son of his own. Foster, a South Jordan resident, spoke at the dedication of South Jordan City’s Gold Star Families Memorial Mon ument on Sept. 7, at the Public Safety Building Plaza (10655 S. Redwood Road). He brought his son to attend the event and enjoyed the opportunity to tell his father’s story.

After her husband’s death, Foster’s mother was determined to make sure his spirit lived on. “She wanted us to know, without a doubt, how much he loved us, the sacrifices he made, the people he served and the love he gave,” he said. “I believe it is our job to never forget.”

Through a partnership with the Woody Williams Foundation, South Jordan’s mon ument is the third Gold Star Memorial in Utah, and the first in Salt Lake County. Ground was broken in May 2022 for the

monument that is a double-sided, black granite slab that honors the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country.

When Major Brent Taylor was killed in Afghanistan in 2018, he left his wife, Jennie, to raise their seven children. As a Gold Star Spouse, Jennie started the Major Brent Taylor Foundation to carry on her husband’s legacy of service and sacrifice. She attended the monument dedication that marked the 120th Gold Star Memorial in the United States.

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World Middleweight Champion Gene

Community partners help give Jordan School District students good night’s rest

By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com

About 200 Jordan School District stu dents are sleeping a little better these days, thanks to Jordan Education Foundation and their partnerships.

“We want our students who really need a bed and could be sleeping on the floor, in a car, with other family members, to have one of these beds so they can have a good night’s sleep and are rested so they can better learn in the classroom,” said Lindsay Auld, JEF’s event director. “A lot of our refugee fami lies utilize this because they’re coming with nothing.”

The bed and bedding donation came about from JEF board member Shaun Ste venett, who learned there was a need for it in his community.

For two years, Malouf Home Furniture has donated about 200 beds, Beddy’s do nates the all-in-one bed sets, and Walmart donates pillows, blankets and other items.

“This just exploded so quickly, and we love it,” Auld said.

JEF Associate Director Anne Gould said school officials often identify families in need, and some families come forward to schedule a time to get a bed and bedding.

“They know these families and their economic need,” she said. “We don’t neces sarily reserve a number per school. It’s really first come, first serve.”

Beddy’s Business Manager Cheryl San ford said the company out of West Jordan and the owners, Betsy Mikesell and Angie White, got involved because they believe in supporting their community.

“Betsy and Angie are living their own example of giving back in the community, so this is something that they got behind with kids, with Beddy’s, with the community,” Sanford said. “It’s something that they felt strongly in donating to. For me, it’s hard for me to see there are kids without beds and

bedding. This is huge and impactful when we’re able to assist and help those kids get a good night’s sleep, which leads to better education. It’s better overall for our commu nity.”

A “beddy” is a one-piece bedding prod uct that includes a sewn-in sheet with a lin ing, comfort panels, a pillow with a sham and a zipper that encloses or detaches the top completely. It was designed originally for bunk bed use, but has expanded so firefight ers, people with disabilities, children with emotional and sensory processing disorders, and the elderly can easily make their beds quickly.

Walmart’s Taylorsville Store Manager Kelley Ellett said this donation drive meant more to her to get involved beyond the com pany’s core value of giving back to the com munity.

“I could cry that kids don’t have a bed and blankets. It breaks my heart,” she said, as many of the Walmart associates unloaded truckloads of donations. “This is a big deal, and it makes a difference knowing we made an impact on the children.”

South Jordan Store Manager Kev in Carlile, who has children attend Jordan School District schools, said Walmart “is lit erally serving the community that supports us.”

“We help with Christmas for kids and donated backpacks and stocked principals’ pantries, and we’ve told Jordan School Dis trict to call us if they need us and we’ll be there,” he said. “We want to help as much as we can.”

Those are words and actions from partners that JEF Executive Director Mike Haynes finds gratifying.

“We know we can reach out to them and get help for our students,” he said. “Walmart is involved in many of our events, and Bed

dy’s, this is their largest donation they’ve ever made. We couldn’t start this without the generosity of Malouf.”

Getting what students need is the mis sion of JEF, Haynes said. They have a por table classroom where community partners such as Discover, doTERRA and Costco help to regularly stock with backpacks of school supplies, hygiene kits, food and clothing, which JEF then distributes to students.

There are even birthday supplies in a box so students can celebrate their special day.

“We don’t want a day to go by when a student doesn’t have what they need,” he said. “That’s why we’re here, to meet those needs and it’s important to us that we in

volve our community. We’ve got some great community partnerships who have said, ‘if you have needs, come to us.’ We’ve heard where students and families will go without food so they can find their students the right kind of shoes or the right outfit to fit in and don’t stand out. They want to help students have the same opportunities and supplies.”

Gould adds, “The bottom line is if kids don’t have their basic needs met, they can’t learn. That’s where we come in. Hungry kids can’t learn and kids without beds need them so they can get a good night’s sleep and then they’re set to learn.” l

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Volunteers bring in bedding donations for Jordan School District students in need. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

Bingham football is finding some room to breathe after digging themselves out of two early losses

By Brian Shaw | b.shaw@mycityjournals.com

The Miners were again stuck in a hole.

Trailing 7-3 on their own 32-yard line Friday, Sept. 16, rivals Herriman were again going for it on fourth down and 2.

“Anymore, going for it on fourth down seems to be the right call in many situations,” said Bingham head coach Eric Jones. “I think I’d have made the same decision if I was in their shoes.”

But that’s when the Miners defensive front surged to ward the Herriman quarterback, forcing him to throw the ball early off his back foot.

“We didn’t blitz much at all the past two weeks so I was hoping that one would cause some disruption,” added the Bingham head coach.

It did. The pressure up the middle led to Herriman coming up just short of the line to gain on a screen pass, and from that point forward in the second quarter the Miners took the ball back on downs and pushed back against their rivals, looking for daylight.

They got it when senior wide receiver Maddax Peck took the handoff from his running back on an end-around. Peck then found a route around the left side of the Herriman defensive line, through a gap that his left tackle created. He was off and running for a 17-yard touchdown run and a 10-7 lead midway through the second quarter.

For Bingham [4-2, 1-0 Region 3], it was the second rushing touchdown in three weeks for the senior Peck, but one that was sorely needed in a 23-15 win.

“Maddax has been phenomenal for us all year long,” Jones said. “He’s the catalyst to our passing game, another quality threat running the ball, and he’s a dangerous punt returner.”

The Miners weren’t the only ones having to dig them selves out of a proverbial hole in this game; the TV crew did also. Unlike the TV crew that eventually gave up and went home without audio, these Miners did not. They surged through more open earth on a long third-quarter run from senior quarterback Dallen Martinez, who zigzagged past several Herriman defenders but didn’t quite get to the surface of the royal blue end zone.

The Miners did, however, do so on a blistering 53-yard touchdown run from senior running back Havea Fotu [12134 yds-1] who found a crease in the Herriman defense and sprinted away, giving Bingham a 16-7 lead midway through the third quarter that it would never relinquish.

For Bingham, getting out of these early holes seemed to get a little easier as time went on over the past four weeks.

Digging Themselves Out

Coming out of the halftime break against 6A power American Fork Friday, Sept. 9, the Miners didn’t need to dig out of such a large hole.

The Miners were ahead 14-3 in a game that very easily could have been a lead as high as 21. But, American Fork scored to start the second half, narrowing the Miners lead to 14-10. The Miners, however, put together a lengthy scoring drive and eventually answered.

Martinez then found the player that Jones categorized as “dependable” for the Miners: senior wide receiver Nate Parker on a 10-yard pitch and catch touchdown to put the lead back up to 11 with 2:35 to play in the third quarter.

“Nate Parker’s TD reception was massive!” Jones said. “His contributions to special teams as the long snapper do not go unappreciated either.”

Then on their next drive the Miners completely dug out from the hole they had fallen into the previous game. It gave their team more breathing room with a short touch down run by Martinez from the American Fork 2-yard line, his second on this hot Friday evening in South Jordan. Were it not for the senior back Fotu [15 carries, 126 yards] hav ing had the football punched out from his arm at the Amer ican Fork 1, the Miners [220 yards rushing] would have likely extended their lead to 35-10. As it stood, they walked out of Ron Case Stadium with a 28-10 victory, the Miners first win in three weeks of preseason play.

“The offensive line was fantastic that night! Also, coach [Fred] Fernandes is really good at finding ways to position the boys for success,” added Jones. “When you can control the line of scrimmage, make good play calls, and hand the ball to dynamic runners, good things tend to happen.”

Down In A Hole

A week earlier walked in a Timpview team to Ron Case Stadium that is one of, if not the, best in 5A, Sept. 2. Down deep in a 14-3 nice-sized hole, the Miners were again forced to dig themselves out of a pit.

Having managed another field goal in the second quar ter, the Miners chipped away inside the Timpview 10 on their next drive.

Martinez spun right from his pressure and missed his intended receiver, Maddax Peck, near the goal line. Then Fotu [13 carries, 79 yards] smashed away at the left side of the Timpview defensive line for a few yards more.

Facing a third down and goal from the Timpview 3, the senior running back Fotu sealed his blocker on that left side of the Timpview defensive line, allowing junior Car son Sudbury to walk in untouched for a 3-yard touchdown run, narrowing Bingham’s deficit to one, at 14-13 with 3:09 left in the second quarter.

But Timpview extended the hole even further to 42-16 as its offensive line pushed open gaps so wide you could’ve driven a mining truck through and out for each of the visi tor’s three third-quarter rushing TDs.

For Bingham, however, this night once again belonged to the senior Peck, who had the Miners’ only rushing TD and was the top receiving threat as well [97 yards, 1 TD].

The senior gave them a glimpse of daylight with a 14yard run on an end-around which set up Fotu’s first TD pass reception of the season to chip within 42-23 after the PAT with 10:09 to play.

“I can’t say enough good things about the kid [Peck]. He’s a 4.0 student, extremely respectful and humble,” add ed the first-year Bingham head coach. “We’re fortunate to

have him on our team.”

Then with about five minutes on the scoreboard clock, coach Fred Fernandes drew up another trick play: a double reverse that led to Peck standing so wide open that Marti nez could’ve underhand tossed the football to him.

Peck then jogged the rest of the 31 yards into the end zone to cut the Timpview lead to 42-30.

Although it took the Miners two full quarters and some change to get the game back within two scores, it was Timpview that walked out of South Jordan with a 49-30 win, dropping the Miners to 2-2 on the season.

Moving More Earth Around

In front of a regional TV audience and a packed Ron Case Stadium Aug. 26, anticipating a shootout between four-star college prospect Issac Wilson of Corner Canyon and Bingham’s own Dallin Martinez, the Miners had a chance to cut a Corner Canyon lead to single digits with 2:15 left to play in the game.

In an empty backfield set, senior quarterback Dallin Martinez scurried around his right tackle — a move that was successful for the entire second half for Bingham, who amassed over 200 yards rushing in the final 24 minutes, mostly on the right side of the field.

“In my mind we have 4 great runners in Fotu, Sudbury, Martinez and Peck,” said Jones of his team’s offense that was churning out a nice chunk of earth here.

But Martinez and the Miners couldn’t find any more daylight than what they’d already tunneled out and watched their hopes of a comeback for the ages end in a wild 38-28 loss.

But, if you were paying attention you saw the Miners were revealing some glimmers of hope.

“We were extremely proud of our team for respond ing at half time and not quitting,” Jones said. “We showed some real grit, battled back, and made a game of it.”

Bingham had been trailing 31-7 at the half. But this narrow defeat to a team like Corner Canyon gave everyone in Class 6A notice that the Miners were chipping their way back into title contention behind the legs and arm of Mar tinez. The senior ran for 97 yards and two rushing touch downs while throwing for 153 on only nine pass comple tions. The Bingham defense also came to life in the final 24 minutes against Corner Canyon, allowing just one score and keeping Isaac Wilson from balling out [16-32, 268 yards passing, 3 TD, 1 INT, 97 rushing yards]. For the firstyear Bingham head coach, the difference between this and most games can be as simple as making that one big play.

“The Corner Canyon game was a great learning expe rience for our staff and team,” said Jones. “We had some game plans go up in flames (credit to CC) and [trailing 10-7 after stuffing CC at the goal line on a 4th and goal stop] we had a brutal fumble at our own 1-yard line [with 8:00 to play in the second quarter; CC scored three TDs in the next seven minutes.]

That one play really altered the complexion of the game.”

Next up for these Miners: four Region 3 contests, start ing with the most difficult one first: at a Mountain Ridge team that sits atop the league, on Friday Sept. 24 after dead line. The season concludes at home in the annual crosstown rivalry game versus Riverton. We’ll have game recaps and reacts of the Miners’ next four games in next month’s South Jordan Journal. l

South Jordan Elementary fifth graders to learn local mining history, compare to textiles in the South

By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com

South Jordan Elementary students in Noelle Mauri and Patricia Gotberg’s classes may be weaving stories of their past into their learning this year after the two schoolteachers attended an immersive work shop that taught them how to explore and teach histories of their community.

The workshop, “Fabric of the Past: Weaving the Twentieth Century at the Beau mont Mill and Village in South Carolina,” used Spartanburg County’s textile heritage as a teaching model. The two Utah teachers were chosen amongst 37 educators from 16 states to attend the July session at South Car olina Upstate, which was made possible with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“We both were interested in the textile industry in the South as it was something that neither of us knew a lot about,” Mauri said. “It also had the pedagogy model of in quiry design that would be another way for us to teach and defend and design curricu lum and bring that back to our classes, our team and our school.”

During the weeklong workshop, they explored industrialization in the early 20th century, race relations at the onset of Jim Crow segregation, class and labor friction during the Progressive Era and Great De pression, gender dynamics during World War II, the mill’s closure at the end of the last century and the mill property’s revital ization at the start of the 21st century.

They said what they learned fits into their fifth-grade curriculum and they plan to use it in their classrooms, from sharing pic tures to recording oral histories to role plays and making those relatable to the students.

“When we talk about the Industrial Rev olution, we talk about the child labor; I can tell them about conditions in the mills and have scenarios of how they would respond if they were in that particular situation,” Got berg said.

Mauri said that it looked different than it does today.

“Kids worked in the mills and there were a lot of dangerous, really horrible con ditions, barefoot, 13-hour days around dan gerous machines,” Mauri said.

“They had 10-minute lunches and if you were behind in your work, you didn’t get a lunch because you were trying to make it up,” Gotberg added. “A lot of them were 6, 7 and 8 years old.”

She said that many kids didn’t have schooling. If they did, it was likely only half of a day because a schoolteacher costs the mill money and the lack of workers when kids were in school cost them as well.

“It would be up to age 16, they were sup posed to be in school, but if you looked like you were 16, nobody would ask questions and

you’d be working in the mill,” Gotberg said.

Another way to have students under stand what the textile industry involved is through some demonstrations and hands-on experiences.

“We could also do carding, and weaving and spinning, and we can either watch some videos or have some people actually do physical demonstrations. I was also trying to purchase some spindles so that we would have some artifacts,” Gotberg said.

Mauri said that using the inquiry de sign model, she hopes to interest students and inspire them to ask questions about their own community and guide them through the sources to find their answers and draw their own conclusions.

“We wanted to tell our students about this so they can explore the story of this area, of being miners, why they’re miners, of the Copperton area and how mining in some ways was similar to the textile mills and how they were different,” she said. “They also talked about how to get the students to do oral history so when we talk about that era and those jobs, students can compare and contrast their own history and what this community started as. We’ve found old pic tures of the original Bingham High and some old maps and have already gathered some re ally cool resources that our kids could look through and make those connections.”

Gotberg said that through oral histories of students’ relatives and people in the com munity, they may be able to learn more of this area’s history during the mining days and transcontinental railroad during western expansion. She also said they could use a “bed sheet,” or a way to see changes in the community using mapping skills.

“We figured out how communities would change and how it expanded and how things disappeared. It was pretty interesting because railroads were expanding and then railroads disappeared, or lakes that they had for industry were there, then the lakes dis appeared. Roads were always changing, and we questioned ‘why was that?’ It’s a nice activity to go along with a lesson that’s really visual for students,” she said.

During the workshop, the two teachers visited mills and heard firsthand stories of residents working in them.

“One of them was the Beaumont Mill,” Gotberg said. “It’s now a hospital admin istration building. There was a fellow who had worked in the mill, and he went down in the basement with us where they have wa ter table problems. He talked about how he worked down there, and how the conditions were scary. He said it was all moldy and how as a youngster, he had to push carts that were heavier than he could push.”

Mauri said that throughout the time

he was employed at the mill, he worked all three rotations — day, evening and night.

“He started as a young teenager and worked there all the way until they closed that mill. That was his occupation. They had a big whistle or the bell when the shifts changed and depending on what one you got, they’d differ on the amount you got paid – and it was in tokens or script money,” she said.

Gotberg said when they walked through the neighborhood, or what the locals called “the mill village,” they learned the millwork ers were “always poor, and they never got rich. Even if it was you, your husband and your three kids, and you were all working, it just seemed nobody was ever earning enough to get on top. The mill owned the store, the mill owned the food, the mill owned the house, the mill owned the electricity. Then, they’d use their script money to pay them back for all this stuff. They talked about how they lived in certain houses proportioned to their jobs as millworkers and that’s all they knew. Their life as well as their work all was centered around their mill,” she said. “During some of the depression, they never would shut down, but they would reduce the hours. Then, everybody had reductions in their food rations and what they could spend at the com pany store. It was a hard life and a poor life.”

Yet, the locals were proud of their heri tage and community, she said.

“A lot of the mill houses are still there. One lady we talked to was the daughter and she’s 70 or 80 years old, and she still lives in the house that her parents had lived in. She

talked about how the mill village she grew up in was like a small community that took care of each other,” Gotberg said. “She said ev erybody gave what they had and shared, even during a ‘stretch out.’ The ‘stretch out’ came when the mill would stretch out the workers’ hours, or their money, or their food.”

Mauri said locals wanted to share their history with them.

“We met so many people who wanted to tell their story and about their community, the things that had been lost about their his tory,” she said, adding that each mill village would have its own baseball team and play each other for entertainment. “It was a big part of mill life, and some of them got some time off for playing ball. There were people from some of the Southern mills that went on to play major professional baseball. For mill life, baseball was a huge part of the cul ture. It was a sweet spot.”

Much of that ended with World War II, when the pride of the mills was based on earning government-distributed exceptional performance flags with a capitol E on it for efficiency. They were awarded on their pro ductivity for the war effort, Gotberg said.

“They stopped making what they were making, usually flour sacks, and turned ev erything into what’s called duck cloth (cor dura or canvas), like the tarp,” she said.

“They changed the whole mill over to pro duce that; everybody was all hands on deck.”

At some mills, they used engineering skills to develop new machinery and fab rics and would patent those. At another, they

South Jordan Elementary teachers Noelle Mauri and Patricia Gotberg toured several mills as part of their teaching workshop in South Carolina, including the former Spartanburg Mill, which has been revitalized into an art studio. (Photo courtesy of Patricia Gotberg/South Jordan Elementary)

helped make clothing more fire retardant, they developed a way to make plastic water bottles clear and created washable markers.

“That was cool to learn so when we teach engineering and STEM, we can share pictures of how they started with a problem and then how they innovated it,” Gotberg said. “Our students can follow that blueprint. Here’s a problem, here’s how they can go about sketching ideas and solving it for their final product.”

The teachers also heard about the clos ing of the mills and the impact on the com munity in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“There were buyouts of the mills,” Got berg said. “One guy said one day they worked and the next day there was a sign that said it was closed. They weren’t told. They just arrived at work one day and there were padlocks.”

They learned the mills closed because they weren’t able to make the product cheap enough.

“There were a lot of mills in the South and they didn’t have as many railroads to get

the product up to the north. So, they start ed trying to just do products that the South would use, and the southern people already made their own textiles using their own looms,” she said.

Mauri added: “They also couldn’t keep up with the change of the technology in the textile mills.”

While some mills have gone to ruin, others, such as the Drayton Mill, were turned into thriving businesses. Some are high-end condos and boutiques. Another was turned into art studios and exhibit space.

While the two have attended previous seminars across the United States that have addressed other topics they’ve incorporated into their teaching, they said this one earned high marks.

“We got to see the landmarks, we got to talk to the people, we got to know their history and we got to learn how to incorpo rate it into our teaching; it was phenomenal,” Gotberg said. “We’re excited to bring it into our classrooms.” l

Bingham High girls soccer team service project this year helped refugees in need

By Brian Shaw | b.shaw@mycityjournals.com

Weeks after the Miners girls soccer team started collecting donations of soccer equipment such as gently used cleats and shin guards, soccer balls and clothing outside the gates of their soccer field, they saw firsthand why those efforts were so important the morning of Saturday, Sept. 24.

That’s when the Miners picked up those bags and boxes of donations from the school, loaded them into vehicles and drove 12 miles north toward the city of South Salt Lake, where in conjunction with the Utah Refugee Soccer program they participated in a two-hour long soccer camp.

The camp was held from 10 a.m. to noon at Central Park Community Center in South Salt Lake, a city of about 35,000 long known for being a reliable hub for refugees from war-torn, disadvantaged countries— thanks in part to the many humanitarian aid, relief and grant-in-aid programs that exist within that city’s limits and serve that community as well as surrounding areas.

The camp for refugees ages 5-14 was a fun way for the Miners to give a little back to the community and show these kids that despite the many obstacles they may face here in the United States, the sport of soc cer and a little friendship can always go a long way toward bridging gaps.

For the Miners, the soccer camp also fulfilled their yearly service project re quirement, and though this did occur in mid-season, it was something they were happy to carve time out of their busy work and school schedules to come and do.

“I am really excited for the Bingham girls soccer team to get involved with this

program!” said Sara King, a mother of one of the Bingham players who serves as a team manager for the Miners. “I think it will make a very positive impact on both the high school girls and the refugee kids.”

At the end of the camp came the most exciting part. That’s when the Miners play ers and coaches finished distributing the greatly needed items to the area kids and offered a few more parting words of advice and encouragement.

Then the Miners headed back on the road, and into the final portion of their soccer season, where they are currently enjoying a 5-2 start to region play after a rocky preseason. We’ll have a full region recap and state tournament preview in next month’s South Jordan Journal.

For more on the refugee soccer pro grams in your area and how you can help, please visit refugeesoccer.org. l

South Jordan Elementary fifth-grade teachers Patricia Gotberg and Noelle Mauri attended a work shop, “Fabric of the Past: Weaving the Twentieth Century at the Beaumont Mill and Village in South Carolina,” where they learned how to incorporate community history into their teaching lessons. (Photo courtesy of Patricia Gotberg/South Jordan Elementary)

League of Women Voters dedicated to educating, registering voters

Many voters have paged through a booklet of candidates and chances are, it came from the League of Women Voters. Perhaps a great number of voters also signed up to vote with the help of one of the League’s volunteers.

“The League of Women Voters has been around for more than 100 years; we came into being around women’s suffrage when the founders of the League of Women Voters fought hard to get women the right to vote,” said Shauna Bona, Salt Lake County’s chapter president. “We take the rights and the need of all people to vote very seriously. Our biggest issue is access to the vote. We want to educate voters, register voters and motivate voters. Our mission is really about empowering voters and defending democracy.”

While those early suffragists paved the way for women today to vote, Bona said that their mission isn’t over.

“We look at issues and study them, and it can be a local study or a state study or a na tional study. Then we lay the information out for our members, and we discuss it in small groups until we reach consensus on the issues, if this is a good issue for us to support. We do have positions around having a clean, healthy environment to live in and to raise children and definitely we think women should be in the Constitution with the Equal Rights Amend

By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com

ment. When we do take a stance, we really work hard to help educate the public and our lawmakers in hopes of really doing things that are right by the people,” Bona said.

She also pointed out that while their main message is to empower voters to make a better democracy, the League isn’t restricted to wom en members.

“We’ve had men in the League for de cades. In fact, we were going to change our name to not be the League of Women Voters, but the problem was that if we would have let go of the name of League of Women Voters, that we would have lost our history,” Bona said. “We have members of every sexual orien tation, of every background. What’s important is that we have this history to our nonpartisan commitment of voting rights.”

Among the issues the local chapter has re viewed are voting by mail, health care, census and immigration.

“Our members hold an annual meeting, and they say, for example, ‘Hey, we think that we should study abortion.’ So, we did a study recently about abortion laws and it wasn’t tak ing a stand particularly, but it was a study just to understand the abortion laws in Utah. Some times those studies are to educate our members and then, they come up with their own personal opinions on it. Sometimes the study is a con

sensus study, when we’re really trying to come up with a position. We’re cautious and we’re careful. We really want to make sure that we’re not making rash positions, but have our posi tions based on study,” she said.

While more than 300 local members gath er annually, smaller groups study the issues monthly. “We also have our committees, such as the voting committee, and those committees

might meet weekly because we have so much work we do. We work to register voters; they go out to educate voters. In the past, we have taught high schoolers about the importance of voters and register them; we have gone to natu ralization ceremonies and helped them register as new citizens,” Bona said.

Currently, they’re updating Vote411 (vote411.org), a personalized voting website,

Salt Lake League of Women Voter Services Director Helen Moser registers a new citizen at a naturaliza tion ceremony Aug. 25 at Bryce Canyon National Park. (Photo courtesy of Peter Densmore/National Park Service)

which after entering a residential address, vot ers can explore their candidates’ information, learn about upcoming elections and how to register and find out polling locations. The site covers local, state and national election infor mation.

For example, currently the website states that voters need to be registered by Oct. 28 for the next general election on Nov. 8.

“We have groups of people, men and women, all over the country, including here in Salt Lake, formulating questions for our candidates for every race and every election,” she said. “It’s one of the only places that can didates can answer these questions. We do not edit what they write. It’s completely nonparti san. There’s no ‘gotcha’ questions. Every can didate has the opportunity in their own words to answer questions. You can pick a question and put the candidates’ views side by side to compare their answers. They can put in You Tube videos so it’s educating voters and it’s completely fair to the candidates. It’s really just to inform the voters.”

The League of Women Voters also spon sors debates or candidate forums “so that vot ers can hear from the candidates,” Bona added.

As part of League, some members called Observer Corps attend local city meetings.

“Our goal is that we have a League of Women Voters observer at every city council meeting, at the racial equity and policing com mission meeting and at the planning meetings just to hear what’s going on and to take notes

and report back to our members what is hap pening because local government is incredibly important,” she said. “Oftentimes, people are busy in their lives and things get overlooked so our Observer Corps is doing that work for us. We’ve done a lot of great things like finding out ranked choice voting and about the gravel pit in the canyon and letting people know when the council was going to be discussing issues and encouraging people to contact their coun cil members. Our Observer Corps believes in transparency and accessible government, so we go and find out what they’re doing and re port back so our members can follow their own conscience and reach out to their leaders and let them know what they think.”

Many issues are shared on their website and in their weekly email briefings.

Education is an issue “what our members are passionate about,” Bona said. “We cover every single school board race and make sure that we’ve researched it and have good ques tions to ask the candidate. We cover the school board races and make sure all citizens are ed ucated about the issues, particularly in K-12 education in Utah. There are serious issues re lated to inclusion, issues related to all kinds of things in education. We’re focusing on educat ing to make sure people know who the differ ent candidates are on the local school boards, what’s motivating them, why they’re running and what their intentions are. That is incredibly important right now. We’re not saying, vote for this candidate or that candidate. We believe

in empowering voters. We ask questions. We have candidates answer those questions, and the voters read those and how they decide who is the best to represent them and their options. It doesn’t matter to us how they vote. It’s not our business. We just want them to be educated and to vote.”

She said voting is critical.

“Our entire system is predicated on an educated populace exercising the right to vote. We pick our leaders, our leaders don’t pick the voters, and the better educated and inspired and energized our voting and voting populace is, the better a country our democratic republic will be,” she said.

Lori Jones, a former longtime educator, said educated voting is critical to elections, in cluding the local school board.

“Voters need to review candidates’ plat forms, then they can make educated decisions about who wants to support schools and make them better,” she said.

While her longtime passion has been ed ucation, Jones, who recently joined the League of Women Voters, said she has concerns about redistricting and environmental issues, both of which Bona said are hot topics right now.

“I joined the League because I read that they filed a lawsuit against the legislature about gerrymandering of the congressional districts, which I was furious about, and I’m also really interested in trying to do things to make sure that the Great Salt Lake doesn’t die because that would be a huge disaster for our

children. I’m an advocate for children and a lot of people blow off the Great Salt Lake because they don’t realize everything that it does. I just thought, ‘OK, I don’t have a right to complain unless I volunteer’ so I’m taking a look to learn more about these issues,” she said.

After attending a couple meetings, Jones plans to get more involved.

“I like how the League gets people in volved in nonpartisan politics and how they also take an active role in what’s going on in the state. The great thing about it is you don’t have to run for office to have to see if you can have an impact on something and you can get involved in as little or as much as you want. They’ve got a climate group that’s looking at problems with water in Utah. They have a leg islative group that goes to the legislative ses sions to find out what they’re doing, and they have an observer group who are trained to be an observer at city meetings and report back what’s going on,” she said.

Bona’s involvement with the League started after the 2016 election.

“I wanted to get involved with educating voters and helping voters understand the im portance of going to the ballot in an informed way,” she said. “I saw what the League was doing and that they were empowering voters and registering people to vote, not asking them how they were going to vote, but just making sure that they were informed citizens who did vote. To me, that felt like a way of making the world a better place.” l

Bingham High students to perform “Pirates of Penzance” on high seas

By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com

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Bingham

High thespians will present the British-American romantic musical comedy, “Pirates of Penzance,” as its fall show.

The musical will be performed at 7 p.m., Nov. 17-19 and again Nov. 21 in the school’s auditorium, 2160 S. Jordan Parkway. A 2 p.m. matinee is planned for Saturday. Tickets are available through the school’s website: www.binghamminers.org.

“Pirates of Penzance” is a farcical tale, following the story of 21-year-old Frederic who is released from his apprenticeship with sentimental pirates to pursue the love of Ma bel, Major General Stanley’s daughter. How ever, when a lie is discovered, the budding ro mance of the young couple may be derailed.

The show is being directed by Dave Martin, who is a new musical theatre teacher at the high school.

“We just both love that show,” said the atre teacher Jason Purdie about the decision to perform the Gilbert and Sullivan musical.

Purdie plans to direct William Shake speare’s “Henry V” with performances at 7 p.m., Feb. 24-25 and again on Feb. 27 in the Copper Pit. There will be a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday.

“I just love Shakespeare, and I wanted to do a history where the main guy is the good guy. I love the character of Henry and other people that surround him and honestly, that was next on my bucket list of Shakespeare shows to direct. I knew this was a good fit for the students, even though it’s going to be challenging,” he said.

Purdie plans to set the story in the Old West.

“I want to have it be set as a classic, with a saloon and different buildings that you would expect in the Old West. I’m going to have to borrow some stuff as far as props and costumes, but we’re definitely going to be minimalist where we just kind of have things that represent a doorway or chairs which can easily be brought on and off stage,” he said.

The next production the student actors plan to perform will be an original one-act play by local playwright Maureen J. Olson about the Holocaust. It’s entitled “Puppil ien,” the Dutch word for students.

“I read it a year ago and it’s a World War II family saga, inspired by a true story,” Pur die said.

The piece will be the students’ one-act competition piece for region in March. State competition is in April.

The Miners will finish the year with the musical theatre production at 7 p.m., May 3-5, in the Copper Pit and Theatre IV’s spring showcase, which will highlight stu dent-directed short plays at 7 p.m., May 1112 also in the Copper Pit.

In addition, Bingham’s 20-member improv team will also perform during the school year in the Copper Pit. This season’s show dates will be posted on the school web site, Purdie said.

About 60 students also participate in drama club, overseen by a theatre council, who plan monthly activities, service projects and seeing other theater shows.

“It’s a way to get more people involved in theater and an opportunity for them to get to know each other and grow closer,” Purdie said. “They always have a lot of fun.” l

Bingham High thespians rehearse their songs during the musical callbacks. (Jason Purdie/Bingham High)

South Jordan junior golfers suffer both victory and defeat at Jr. PGA regional qualifier in Idaho

By Brian Shaw | b.shaw@mycityjournals.com

For a number of South Jordan area golfers between the ages of 14 and 16, they saw their dreams of perhaps someday making it onto the PGA Tour continue on the weekend of Sept. 12 during Under-17 Regional Jr. PGA All-Star action.

Along the picturesque Magic Valley Country Club course in Twin Falls, Idaho, one that curves and juts into the cliffs over looking the massive Snake River Gorge, stood 12 golfers all representing the Glen moor Golf Club in South Jordan.

Coached by PGA Tour pro Darci De hlin-Olsen, these 12 were split up into two separate teams for this Regional. On one team were Elliot Bond, Ian Miyazaki, Jaxon Ericsson and JJ Tomsick on the Glenmoor GOATS team, while the other team from Glenmoor were called BOMBS.COM and featured South Jordan golfers Parker Good man, Tyson Baldwin and Will Anderson—as well as Herriman’s Brady Dehlin. [All com pete for either Herriman or Riverton in high school play.]

As luck would have it, the two South Jordan-based teams would actually meet in the championship, but would first have to de feat teams from Idaho, Washington and Or egon—which they did in resounding fashion to meet up in the finals.

In this all-Utah finals of the Under-17 bracket it would be the Glenmoor GOATS team outlasting the BOMBS.COM, by 7.5 strokes to 1.5 to take home the title.

Both South Jordan-based teams quali fied for the Regional final after having been the third and fourth seeds, respectively, by simply winning their semifinal matches. The GOATS did so over Magic Valley Country Club [Idaho, the host golf club] by eight

strokes and BOMBS.COM when it took a four-stroke victory over Chambers Bay [Washington].

It was simply just icing on the cake to have both Utah Under-17 teams competing in the championship match at the Regional — which concluded its Jr. PGA All-Star sea son in Idaho. Under-13

For the South Jordan-based Glenmoor Gators featuring five golfers hailing from South Jordan, and one each from Herriman and Riverton, however, their journey to try and make it into the national championships as the Utah representative came to an end on Sept. 12 in Twin Falls.

The Gators were:

Cal Perkins, Riverton

Carter Orme, South Jordan

Chloe Suazo, South Jordan Hudson Darmstandler, Kamas Krew Saunders, South Jordan Randli Olsen, South Jordan Stratton Durrant, South Jordan

Tyce Olson, Herriman

The 12-and-13 year old Gators, who were also coached by Dehlin-Olsen were un fortunately unable to make it out of stroke play qualifying, finishing four strokes over par along the scenic Magic Valley Country Club course ringed by majestic cliffs and sweeping vistas.

Defending national champions Thanks giving Point of Lehi, featuring Jraice Finau, son of PGA pro Tony Finau, finished first and will advance as the Utah representative to Scottsdale, Arizona for the 2022 National Car Rental PGA Jr. League Championship to be televised on ESPN Oct. 6-9. l

Nature’s Virus Killer

Copper can stop a virus before it starts

By Priscilla Schnarr www.copperzap.com

Scientists have discovered a natural way to kill germs fast.

Now thousands of people are using it against viruses and bacteria that cause illness.

Colds and many other illnesses start when viruses get in your nose and multiply. If you don’t stop them early, they spread and cause misery.

Hundreds of studies confirm copper kills viruses and bacteria almost instantly just by touch.

That’s why ancient Greeks and Egyptians used copper to purify water and heal wounds. They didn’t know about viruses and bacteria, but now we do.

“The antimicrobial activity of copper is well established.”

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The strong scientific evidence gave inventor Doug Cornell an idea. He made a smooth copper probe with a tip to fit in the bottom of the nostril, where viruses collect.

When he felt a tickle in his nose like a cold about to start, he rubbed the copper gently in his nose for 60 seconds.

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South Jordan area golfers competed in the Regional Jr. PGA All-Star event in Idaho in September. (Un splash)

South Jordan teen artist leaves her mark in the city

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

South Jordan resident Lindsey Schmidt is an up-and-coming artist in the city. At 14 years old, she already has two art submissions displayed in the area.

A student at Early Light Academy, Lindsey has been playing with different forms of art for several years. She espe cially enjoys pencil sketching and creating the geometric patterns that can be seen as part of the South Jordan Arts Council’s Jordan River Trail Wall Mural project, lo cated under the bridge at 10600 South near Mulligans.

“It’s one of my favorite painting de signs to do,” Lindsey said. “I love making those at home and I think they’re really pretty. They remind me of stained glass

and it’s really cool.”

She said the design also brings to mind the practice of Kintsugi, or golden repair, the Japanese art of fixing cracked bowls with lacquer mixed with powdered metallics, like gold or silver. It took her about three hours to complete the design under the bridge and is looking for a new opportunity to practice her art.

“I was super excited when I got to do it,” she said. “I’d been preparing with my mom. We started early in the morning and it turned out really nice.”

Lindsey’s mural is one of ten art dis plays currently featured in the rotating exhibit. As murals fade over time, or get tagged with graffiti, new artists will add

Lindsey Schmidt, a teen artist in South Jordan, has created two art projects in the city: one for the Jordan River Trail Wall Mural and another for a utility box wrap. (Photos courtesy of Josy Schmidt.)

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their own designs to the project.

“We wanted to encourage students and amateur artists who are just getting started to have a place where they can create art for the different panels,” said Janell Payne, recreation director for the City of South Jordan. “The artwork has held up won derfully, we have a couple spots still left. Lindsey has been easy to work with. She was really excited to get started.”

Salt Lake County residents can submit artwork on the South Jordan city website. Selected artists will be given a stipend for their time and materials. Two submissions will be accepted per artist and new mural sections are added in the spring and sum mer. For more information, visit sjc.utah. gov.

Originally, Lindsey had submitted a design for the South Jordan baseball and softball complex, but when her concept

wasn’t selected, she thought she’d try for the mural project. She also designed a utility box wrap in Daybreak, near Early Light Academy. Lindsey painted the de sign and the city placed it on the box near her school.

“It was another geometric design with hexagons,” she said.

Lindsey hopes to have her own art studio one day, as she continues to explore different art forms. She’d like to have a full-time job creating art and is looking to submit designs to other mural projects in the Salt Lake Valley.

“I really love art,” she said. “I like all art. It’s a lot more creative than sitting at a desk all day.” l

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Lindsey Schmidt, a teen artist in South Jordan, has created two art projects in the city: one for the Jordan River Trail Wall Mural and another for a utility box wrap. (Photos courtesy of Josy Schmidt.)

Paradigm Schools to present colorful world of “Seussical” in November

By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com

The world of Cat in the Hat and friends will come alive at Paradigm Schools this November.

“Seussical the Musical” will be per formed in the round at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 17-19 and again on Nov. 21 at Paradigm Schools, 11577 S. 3600 West. There also will be a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee. Tickets are $11 for adults, $9 for students or $30 for families.

A “Green Eggs and Ham” photo oppor tunity with cast members will be held on Sat urday. Additional details will be posted on the school website, www.paradigmschools.org.

“This is our only big production this year and it’s a blast,” said the show’s theatre director and musical director, Alyse Shat tuck. “We’re using our pit orchestra and stu dents from both the high school and the prep school. It’s going to be a show with all col ors everywhere. We’ll have everything from gentle animals to circus animals; there will be singing birds, dancing monkeys and the Cat in the Hat and a rolling bathtub. It’s fun, it’s energetic, it’s all music and a real extrav aganza that the whole family can enjoy.”

“Seussical” is a musical comedy based on the many stories of Dr. Seuss, with most of its plot centering around familiar charac ters including The Cat in the Hat, Horton the Elephant, Gertrude McFuzz, Lazy Mayzie and JoJo from the stories, “Horton Hears a

Who!,” “Gertrude McFuzz,” “Horton Hatch es the Egg” and other childhood favorites.

The plot follows the kind-hearted ele phant, Horton, who decides to protect JoJo and the colony of Whoville, which is the size of a speck of dust, while at the same time hatching an abandoned egg left to his care by the lazy Mayzie la Bird. While Horton tries to convince the other animals of the existence of the Whos, he is ridiculed and put on tri al for insanity. His loyal neighbor, Gertrude McFuzz, believes in him, revealing a story of friendship, loyalty and love as well as the im portance of fighting for one’s beliefs.

“I feel we have enough students to per form ‘Seussical’ and I wanted to use the prep school after doing ‘Cinderella’ with them last year,” Shattuck said about the decision to per form this musical. “It has such a big appeal for families. When we have families and people in our community come, it makes such a differ ence in the audience and for our performers.”

Since Pardigm is a small school com pared to the comprehensive public high schools, Shattuck said students get more in volved in learning all aspects of theatre.

“They end up helping with props, they help with the lights. We have a big set build ing day and they all come. It really gets to be an immersive experience where they get to see all the elements; that’s fantastic and

makes a big difference in what we’re doing,” she said. “They’re getting an education, not just a show. They do learn about ensemble acting and also about being generous to the other people in the show. They’re on stage learning proper vocal technique, dance tech nique, how to stay healthy, how to manage the time that comes with being involved in a production in addition to balancing their schoolwork and other activities.”

Joining Shattuck is choreographer

Stephanie Cole, costumer Lacie Horman, tech supervisor Keith Debono and set de signer Sara Rasmussen. The musical con ductor is Daniel Burt.

While most of the main cast of 22 stu dents is in her musical theater production class, some are other students who want to be a part of the show. Many of the Whos are seventh- and eighth-grade students from the prep school.

Since this performance will be per formed in the round, Shattuck plans to have her pit orchestra of about 35 students on stage, while her thespians will take the cen tral part of the auditorium-gymnasium.

“We plan to have it be a three tier, or what we’re calling it, a wedding cake, set in the middle so the audience will have the per formance all around them,” she said. “I’m really excited about the possibility of doing things in the round. We were discussing how we were going to do it with the set designer and the lighting crew today.”

About a dozen students are involved in the tech crew, bringing the total to about 90 students involved this year, close to the 111 students who performed “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” recently.

Amongst the other shows she has di rected the past seven years at Paradigm in clude “James and the Giant Peach,” “The King and I,” “Once on this Island” and the video production of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” during COVID-19.

“I teach mostly Spanish, but I do have a degree in music with a vocal emphasis and I’ve been involved in high school theater for almost 20 years. When the opportunity came for me to direct the musicals, I jumped on it because it is something that I just love to do so much,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun. The biggest thing for me is just to watch the kids, my actors catch the vision. When I see that first moment, it feels so good and that is way more fun than being on stage. That’s the best part.” l

Paradigm thespians rehearse for their upcoming fall musical, “Seussical the Musical.” (Alyse Shattuck/ Paradigm Schools)

Election officials address claims of mail-in voter fraud

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

Following widespread allegations of voter fraud after the 2020 presidential election, Salt Lake County election officials want res idents to know the mail-in-ballot system is safe and secure.

During a voting rights discussion, hosted by the League of Women Voters, panelists ad dressed voting concerns and invited the pub lic to be involved with the process.

Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen has been administering county elections for 32 years. She said her office is dedicat ed to ensuring elections are run efficiently and smoothly, and that every eligible vote is counted.

“I’m so glad we have a vote-by-mail system in Salt Lake and the State of Utah,” she said. “It has been a wonderful system. It’s served the voters so well.”

Since 2016, all elections in Utah have been conducted by mail, with ballot drop-off boxes and Election Day voting booths avail able as alternate options. During the 2020 presidential election, Salt Lake County had a 90.1% voter turnout, with 498,000 residents voting by mail, 100,000 more active regis tered voters than the 2016 election.

Residents were encouraged to vote by mail in 2020 because of COVID, but misin formation spread that the voting system had

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been compromised. Swensen said allegations of voter fraud in the county are absolutely not true.

“We heard people could print ballots in their living room, foreign countries could print ballots and insert them into our system, but they would never make it through our system,” she said. “Every single ballot that is sent to a voter is correlated to a record of an active registered voter with a unique nine-dig it number.”

During the last legislative session, Rep. Phil Lyman (R-Blanding) tried to pass a bill that would dismantle the state’s mail-in vot ing process, claiming the system was vulner able to fraud. The bill failed but election offi cials are worried a similar proposal will come up again.

“It is a secure system, we have total con fidence in it,” Swensen said. “It is disheart ening to me to hear all this rhetoric about the vote-by-mail system not being safe and secure. I really believe that it’s an attempt to suppress voter turnout.”

She invites voters to attend tours of bal lot centers to witness the transparent and se cure process, and to address misinformation and false claims.

“We love to conduct tours and we have done so many tours, I can’t even count them

all. Everyone walks away feeling very con fident. They are impressed after they come to see it in person,” Swensen said. “It’s best when processing ballots so you can actually see what’s happening when it’s being done.”

Deputy Director of Elections for the State of Utah Shelly Jackson said election of ficials are constantly culling lists to make sure voter information is accurate and up-to-date. Several security elements are in place to stop voter fraud, including signature verification and unique voter IDs on every ballot.

Ballots are not mailed to every person in the state, only voters who are actively reg istered receive a mail-in ballot. For informa tion about the election process, visit slco.org/ clerk/elections.

“I love that people are now paying atten tion to elections,” Jackson said. “I love that people are wanting to come see our logic and accuracy tests. When I worked at the county we would beg people to come, we would beg city recorders to come, we’d beg friends and family to come. I don’t think I ever had any one come.”

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Nathaniel Brown, 24th Navajo Nation council person, and Nikila Venugopal, di rector of campaigns for the ACLU of Utah, expressed concerns that bills like Lyman’s proposal would disenfranchise thousands of

voters.

In 1962, Utah was the last state in the country to give Native Americans voting rights. Brown said members of the Navajo Nation still face obstacles to voting, includ ing remoteness and language barriers. Doing away with the mail-in ballot system would further restrict voting access to this popula tion.

“I think we need to remove the classism mentality and think about who we are at the soul level,” Brown said.

Venugopal said sometimes the vote-bymail system isn’t feasible, like for voters with disabilities who need to sign a ballot when their signature could change over time. She said the ACLU is working to create greater access for voters with disabilities and works with the disability law center to make con tinued changes to the process. She’s also keeping an eye out for legislation that could suppress the vote throughout the state, like Lyman’s bill in February 2022.

“Claims of voter fraud are rooted in try ing to stoke fear, and our elections are in fact secure. But maybe there are areas of improve ment,” Venugopal said. “This bill essentially would have gutted our vote-by-mail system and really caused a disenfranchisement crisis in our state if it had passed.” l

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Bingham volleyball rips through first half of schedule with an 8-4 record

By Brian Shaw | b.shaw@mycityjournals.com

Last year, the Miners journey ended on the noisy courts of Utah Valley University amid the constant chants from a crowd that traveled quite well from its usual perch at The Pit.

In fact, if you didn’t know that the Miners home floor in South Jordan was even louder, you would’ve sworn that this foreign court in Orem felt like home.

That advantage literally led to an upset of top-ranked Copper Hills last year during the 6A state quarterfinals, one in which the Miners eventually fell, but not without a historic battle, 3-1.

With about half of the wind taken out of the fans’ throats from that crazy back-and-forth contest, the Miners then fell in the next 6A state match in straight sets to Skyridge.

Then from the beginning of this preseason to Aug. 20, the Miners didn’t lose but a single match.

Now as Region 3 play has smacked itself back underway and the Miners scheduled that same Skyridge team back at The Pit for a re match Sept. 1, the fans got that bad taste out of their throats from the last 6A state tourney—as did the team.

A 3-1 drubbing of their visitors that ended their year last year was what the Miners needed.

Bingham [8-4] now goes headlong into

Region 3 play, with home-and-away contests scheduled between now and Oct. 18.

The only back-to-back losses the Miners have suffered this season were threefold: Farm ington [Aug. 19], Northridge [Aug.20] and Cor ner Canyon [Aug. 25] in non-league play.

As of now, the Miners have only lost one match in Region 3 play, at No. 5 ranked Moun tain Ridge on Sept. 15, their only league match thus far.

The team leader is junior Levani Key-Pow ell, who is tops on the Miners in kills per set [3.7] and digs per set [3.3]. She also leads the team with a hitting percentage of 0.217. Not far behind Key-Powell, however, is senior Alli Hawes in both kills per set and hitting percent age [1.8, 0.174].

Senior Lily Breinholt is once again tearing up the floor with aces, having hit 21 thus far for the Miners. She also averages about 0.6 aces per set.

Sophomores Paige Ballif [24 blocks, 0.160 hitting pct] and Jessica Truong [3 digs/set] are also contributing to the Miners, and were key pieces during Bingham’s deep run at state last year.

We’ll have a full region recap in next month’s South Jordan Journal. l

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New 55+ Community Now Building in South Jordan

Just south of Salt Lake Community College, Utah’s leading builder of active adult communities has begun construction of their newest development. Leisure Villas, known for their lifestyle-oriented neighborhoods, has broken ground on what is promising to be one of their more premiere locations.

55+ Community offers better living for retirees

While nobody likes to see another open field disappear to housing, it is nice to see that it will be constructed by a builder who has a strong reputation for not only building quality homes, but homes and communities that are attractive and fun.

Hearthstone Villas, located at 9550 S. 3400 W. has just opened its first building for sale. While supply and labor shortages threaten to slow construction, the builder is committed to doing all in their power to open four new homes for sale each month.

This long-anticipated community will soon have its community clubhouse under construction also, with its accompanying amenities, like a pool, theater, exercise room, billiards, library, community gathering areas. This community is also planning on installing two pickleball courts and some horseshoe pits in the next phase of construction. Needless to say, there will be plenty to do, and great people to do it with.

If you would like more information about this new community, you can speak with a representative by visiting the sales office on site, or by calling: 801-653-1291.

“When we say gold star, we really mean gold heart. We mean everyone who’s ever lost anyone, at any time, in any uni form, anywhere, by any manner of death,” she said. “We don’t come to tell the stories of how our beloved person died, we come to remember and celebrate the stories of how they lived.”

The front of the monument is identical to other memorials, and includes a cut-out silhouette of a saluting service member, honoring those who have died. The back is individualized and designed to highlight local features, with panels dedicated to homeland, family, patriot and sacrifice.

“When you travel this beautiful coun try, from city to city, with a monument like this, you’ll notice they look exactly the same, and they’re all incredibly unique,” Taylor said. “When you come to this beau tiful plaza, we hope the monument starts a conversation. Take a photo. Take a mo ment.”

Support for the monument dedica tion was county-wide, with several county mayors in attendance. The program fea tured the Herriman High School Drum line, the Bingham High School Madrigals, the South Jordan Fire Department Color Guard and an invocation offered by Chap lain (Major) Thomas Berry from the 65th Field Artillery Brigade at Camp Williams. Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, also attend

ed the event, not just as the district’s con gressman, but as Foster’s father-in-law.

“We’ve been raised by generations of men and women who sacrificed for their country, who gave everything,” Owens said. “We had such a remarkable history of men and women who, from the very begin ning, created concepts like ‘We the peo ple’ and ‘We’re created equal.’ I hear that. Nothing like this has ever been experi enced in the history of mankind. With that process comes those who pay the ultimate price, those who know going in, there’s no guarantee they’ll come home.”

At the conclusion of the dedication, Gold Star Families were invited to come to the monument, introduce the name of their fallen loved one and place an item of remembrance at the memorial, along with a yellow rose.

South Jordan Mayor Dawn Ramsey wants the plaza to offer refuge and peace and invoke contemplation. She invites res idents to visit the monument with the in tent to educate, learn and share stories.

“Thank you to anyone who in any way helped or donated or played a part in help ing us to achieve this goal,” Ramsey said. “And most specifically, thank you to our Gold Star Families. Thank you for your sacrifice, thank you for your patriotism, thank you for your example to the rest of us. Thank you for the reminder that free dom is not free.” l

in West Valley City

Enjoy all the benefits of a brand-new home without the wait at Lennar’s Sunset Hills community. These single and two-story homes offer all the modern conveniences homebuyers are looking for, in a great location that offers stunning views of the Wasatch Mountains.

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Features, amenities, floor plans, elevations, and designs vary and are subject to changes or substitution without notice. Items shown may contain options that are not standard on all models or not included in the purchase price. Availability may vary. Actual views may vary. Views cannot be relied upon as being the actual view from any particular home within the community. Lennar makes no guarantees regarding continuing existence of any view from a home. This is not an offer in states where prior registration is required. Void where prohibited by law. Copyright © 2022 Lennar Corporation. Lennar and the Lennar logo are U.S. registered service marks or service marks of Lennar Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. Lennar Homes of Utah, Inc. Date 09/22

South Jordan City’s Gold Star Families Memorial Monument is the third in the state, and the first in Salt Lake County. It is meant to bring strength, hope and comfort to Gold Star Families within the city. (Pho tos courtesy of The City Journals)

Needs Beyond Medicine reduces financial stress for cancer patients

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

Acancer diagnosis brings up so much un certainty. Along with the emotional and physical fears of possible surgery and treat ment, cancer takes a financial toll on patients as well. Many patients miss work and people in rural areas might have to travel to get the chemotherapy or radiation procedures they need.

That’s where Needs Beyond Medicine steps in. The organization was founded by Philip Brown in 2006, and expanded to a 501(c)(3) in 2009. It offers living expense grants to cancer patients who need help pay ing for food, bills and transportation. The goal is to alleviate some of the stress that accompanies a cancer diagnosis.

“I don’t think people realize the toll [cancer] takes, along with everything else you’re dealing with in your life,” Brown said. “We help current cancer patients with non-medical costs. That includes transporta tion, groceries, rent or anything considered non-medical. We also do education out reach.”

A longtime advocate for cancer educa tion, early detection and care, Brown has his own connection to the disease. His mother passed away in 1996 after an 18-month-long battle with ovarian cancer. His mission is to raise awareness about cancer screenings in

the hope more lives can be saved.

The concept for Needs Beyond Med icine started when Brown was going to school to earn his bachelor’s degree. He got an internship working with doctors, nurses and social workers who created a task force to help cancer patients. Brown eventually took it over and has helped nearly 2,000 peo ple with the nonprofit’s relief program.

Because the group is not aligned with any specific hospital or provider, people across the state are eligible for its services. Patients are usually referred to Needs Be yond Medicine by a social worker who knows what the individual is going through.

“We’re Utah-based and cover the whole state. I think people don’t realize we help a lot of people in the rural towns who have to travel a few hours a day to get treatment,” Brown said. “We can work with all the can cer programs in the state, which is unique, so we’re able to help all the patients.”

On Friday, Nov. 4, Needs Beyond Med icine will hold its annual canSURVIVE gala at the Cottonwood Country Club (1780 Lakewood Drive) in Holladay, from 5-9:30 p.m. The fundraising event lets cancer survi vors tell their stories and helps raise money for the organization with a raffle and silent auction. All proceeds go to help Utah cancer

patients with living expenses.

Needs Beyond Medicine helps an av erage of 15 people each month as they go through their cancer journey. For informa tion about sponsoring the canSURVIVE gala or to donate items for the raffle and silent auction, email Brown at info@needsbeyond medicine.org. To learn more about the relief

program, visit needsbeyondmedicine.org.

“It’s shocking that each year we’ve done this, we’ve made a profit. Even the first one, which is kind of mind-boggling. I’ve been told if you’re making money, you should keep doing what you’re doing,” Brown said.

“It’s a public event and we just accept dona tions at the door.” l

are my priority”

Elected Official of the Year

District 43

Canyons School District Friend of the Taxpayer Utah Taxpayer Association

Business Champion Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce

Distinguished Service to Healthcare

Utah Hospital Association

Allies in Action American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

“I don’t let politics get in the way of doing what’s right for EVERYONE.

Heidi Jo Taylor (left) and Annette Page are cancer survivors who volunteer with Needs Beyond Medicine, a nonprofit that helps cancer patients with living expenses and provides education about early cancer screening. (Courtesy of Chad Hurst)

USA Wheelchair Football League to highlight amazing athletes

Move United is the largest grassroots adaptive sports pro gram in the world. Based in Maryland, the nonprofit part nered with the National Football League and the Bob Woodruff Foundation to create the USA Wheelchair Football League, the first-of-its-kind league for adults with disabilities.

Working with Salt Lake County, the league will host a wheelchair football tournament Oct. 22-23 at the Salt Palace Convention Center (100 S. West Temple St.) with nine teams, 20 games and dozens of athletes. Games will be held on three fields from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Admission is free.

“We use adaptive sports to push what’s possible for peo ple with disabilities and show all the ways that people with dis abilities can integrate into society, just like everyone else,” said Karalyn Stott, Move United senior program manager. “We’re excited to be coming to Salt Lake to spotlight all of our athletes and highlight the amazing things they’re able to do on the foot ball field.”

Salt Lake County adaptive recreation manager Taylor Smith has been an official with the league since they announced the program in May 2020. As the only female official, she’s worked at tournaments in Tampa and Chicago, and is excited to help bring the USA Wheelchair Football League to Utah.

“The NFL and the Bob Woodruff Foundation donated funds to make this program start happening for those veterans who wanted to stay competitive and continue doing things they love, even after they were injured,” Smith said. “[Being an of ficial] is stressful but it’s really fun and amazing. These guys try so hard and they really want to be there. You can’t ask for anything more of people who just want to play.”

Many athletes participating in the tournament are military

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

veterans, excited to participate in a team sport. This event high lights the athleticism of the sport which is competitive and fastpaced.

“So many of them lost that team feeling when they were injured overseas so they’re excited to feel that brotherhood and family again,” Stott said. “Others played the sport as a kid and got injured and now get to get back to a sport that they didn’t think they’d be able to play again.”

The wheelchair football tournament is one of the ways Salt Lake County is bringing adaptive sport programs to the state. Other adaptive recreation opportunities offered through the county attract people from all over Utah, and even Idaho and Wyoming, to take part in the athletic events.

With the popularity of pickleball, the county just an nounced an adaptive pickleball program that will run from Oct. 29-Nov. 19 at the Copperview Recreation Center (8446 Harri son St.) in Midvale.

The six-week program includes 90 minutes of instruc tional-based practice along with scrimmages and matches. For more information, visit slco.org/adaptive.

“This will be a new sport that we’re bringing in,” Smith said. “We haven’t done adaptive or wheelchair pickleball in the past. It will be our first one and we’re really excited about it because most of the population have really gotten involved in pickleball and we want to bring it that to the adaptive world.”

Salt Lake County has offered its para programs for 20 years and Smith said no one else in county recreation is offer ing adaptive programs, although several private companies do wheelchair sports.

The county has two groups, one for intellectual disabili

ties and one for physical disabilities because sports are played differently based on the population. Adaptive sports are open to all ages, but most wheelchair programs are geared to ages 5-15.

“It’s available for anyone who is open to playing, we’ll bring them in with open arms,” Smith said. “I think sports is valuable to anyone in the world. You learn communication skills, learn how to calm yourself down, you’re learning how to work hard and persevere through challenges in your life, so I think sports are vital in how you’re dealing with everyday sit uations.” l

Members of the USA Wheelchair Football League will compete at the Salt Palace Convention Center Oct. 22-23. (Photos courtesy of Move United)

With only 3% of eligible Utahns donating blood, the American Red Cross needs more donors

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

A cross the United States, there’s a need for blood every two seconds. Whether it’s used for traumatic injuries, cancer treat ments, illness or surgery, products used from blood donations are lifesaving. But in Utah, only about 3% of the eligible popula tion donates blood on a regular basis.

The American Red Cross in Utah pro vides blood to more than 50 hospitals in the state, including Primary Children’s Hospi tal, but since June, blood donations have been down by 20%.

“This summer, we got to the point where doctors had to put off elective sur geries because of a lack of blood,” said Sheri Van Bibber, an ARC district represen tative director. “We have to donate for each other. We can’t just go buy it.”

When COVID restrictions eased, blood donations increased as people could get a free antibody test with each donation. But now, blood supplies are steadily dropping. Van Bibber said one factor for the drop is that many blood drives that used to be held in businesses haven’t been scheduled be cause employees are working from home.

Another factor is that high schools and college campuses have been closed for the

summer, so donations from the education sector have also gone down, although fall blood drives are ramping up again.

“I think everyone was so tired of lock down. People really did come out during the pandemic to donate. But now we’re working to maximize resources because our hospital needs didn’t drop.”

Utah is one of only 37 states that al lows 16-year-olds to donate blood and many teens have become donors. Addi tionally, some regulations have changed, allowing more people to give blood. For instance, anyone who received a tattoo can donate three months after the procedure, in stead of six.

The ARC believes the eligibility to do nate blood should not be based upon sex ual orientation and is working to achieve this goal, but the ARC’s current guidelines state blood donations from gay men must be deferred for three months from the most recent sexual contact with a man. The ARC recognizes this policy has caused hurt and alienation in the LGBTQ+ community and is having conversations with its partners to get the deferment eliminated.

Another recent change allows people

who spent time in England from 1980 to 1997 to donate blood. In the past, the fear of transmitting the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, banned all donations. But two months ago, the ban was lifted.

“Even if anybody was over in Europe during the ’80s, they can now donate,” Van Bibber said.

For the 100,000 Americans diagnosed with sickle cell disease, most of them Afri can American, blood transfusions are a crit ical treatment. With no cure for sickle cell, blood donations from a close blood match are vital, but donations from this population remain low.

“We need more African Americans to donate because they hold the antibody to help each other,” she said. “That’s a huge piece that we’re working on.”

First-time donors are asked to show ID and then get a mini-physical and discuss their health history. The actual donation procedure only takes 5-10 minutes fol lowed by 15 minutes of rest while enjoying a snack. Donors can give blood every two months.

The ARC app allows donors to see

where their blood gets used and shows their blood type. Identifying blood type is usu ally a $150 test that must be prescribed by your doctor but it’s free for those who do nate.

One donation can impact three patients as a pint of blood includes whole blood, plasma and platelets. Platelets are used for people who don’t have enough white cells, which means their blood doesn’t clot. Plas ma is used with burn patients.

“We take care of all the needs here in Utah and if there’s an emergency like torna does or hurricanes or floods or fire, in those areas, the blood drives get shut down,” she said. “So we pull together extra resources and we send resources to where it’s need ed.”

For more information about blood do nation or to find a drive near you, visit Red crossblood.org.

“It’s good for your body to kick out that pint. It gets the old red cells out and gets new red cells replenishing, so it ups your energy level,” Van Bibber said. “We’ll take care of you for a minute while you’re taking care of others.”l

“ Robert and Mark were great! We had pipes burst at night and they were right there to help us get the water shut off and to help us get all the water out and dried. They were both professional, communication was great and they were thorough.I would recommend them to anyone!

here are lots of people in this world who scare me, like toddlers, Christian nationalists and the barista who always compliments my shirt, even when I’m wearing a blood-stained hoodie.

But dentists! Dentists are a higher level of fear. I'm sure they get tired of being compared to the sadistic den tist in “Little Shop of Horrors” but if the tooth fits…

My dentophobia is rooted in an experience when I was 5 where many of the details are still slumbering in my subconscious, waiting to burst when I’m least expecting it. The only thing I remember was the dentist was not my friend.

I start ed dreading my annual checkup. Mom would write our dentist’s name on the bathroom mirror in red lipstick, so she’d remember to schedule the appointment. But every time she wrote it, I’d take a wet washcloth and wipe it off. I’m sure she never noticed the smeared lipstick or the dripping-wet mirror.

Now that I’m older, I should be braver, right? I should be grateful I don’t have a medieval dentist who also works as the village butcher, barber and blacksmith. I’m lucky I’m not Tom Hanks in “Castaway” when he uses an ice skate to knock out his abscessed molar. Modern dentistry

It’s like pulling teeth

is a privilege.

My rational mind knows all those things, but I’ve never left a dentist’s office thinking, “Hmmm. That wasn’t too bad.”

I recently had my first root canal, which didn’t ease my fears. At all. I was upfront with the endodontist and told him I didn’t like him very much.

“I understand,” he said.

“No, really. I loathe you,” I said.

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

We went from there. He offered me nitrous oxide be cause if I’m going to be root-canaled, I’d rather be float ing somewhere near Venus. After I was nice and drifty, he told me I’d feel a little pinch as he numbed my mouth. Then he proceeded to nail my face to the chair while the nurse handed him a Black & Decker drill. He laughed ma niacally, donned a hockey mask ala Jason Voorhees and started excavating my back teeth.

At least, that’s how I remember it.

After the root canal, I had to make an appointment with my dentist to put a crown on my tooth. I called the receptionist who said I could schedule time on Sept. 12 at 2:30 a.m. or wait until June 2023. Typical.

I don’t know why I’m still terrified of all things den tal. The smell of a dentist’s office makes my stomach roll. The sound of a drill makes my jaw clench, which makes it really hard to work on my teeth. When it was time for my crown appointment, I sat in my car for a good 15 minutes, giving myself a pep talk.

“You’ve got this,” I said. “You’re a big girl.”

“Nope. I’m going to Starbucks,” I responded.

“No, you’re not. You’re going to act like an adult

and walk in that office.”

I stuck my tongue out at myself and went to get my crown. Not a cool crown like a Dutch sapphire tiara but a porcelain crown that I’m afraid to chew with. I’m pretty sure my dentist has a hook for a hand and he proceeded to stab my gums repeatedly, probably just for the fun of it. And then it was over. For now.

I’d rather face a zillion zombies, a multitude of mum mies, a van full of vampires or a ton of toddlers before seeing the dentist again. He’s the scariest monster I know.

Peri Kinder Life and Laughter

“Dozens of doctors told me that there was nothing more that they could do to expect to be in a wheel chair. I went from the top 1% in the army Special Forces to being in so much pain that I could not tie my shoe or hold my new daughter. I did physical therapy and pain killers for years, but nothing worked. Finally, I went to Dr. Smith and I improved exactly as he told me I would. I couldn’t believe it! My wife cried, “I have my husband back.”

Matthew