Sugar House City Journal | July 2020

July 2020 | Vol. 6 Iss. 07

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BLACK LIVES—AND THE STORIES BEHIND THOSE LIVES—MATTER

By Drew Crawford | d.crawford@mycityjournals.com

A

n essential and often overlooked action that everyone can take to ensure that Black lives truly matter is to listen to the stories that Black people have to tell and take them seriously. This includes both the everyday experiences of Black people as well as the lessons that history can teach us.

Many stories are uncomfortable in nature and they force people to grapple with white privilege and racism. However, despite this, they offer the hope to bring the community together and build a future that is both sensitive to the experiences of blackness, and antiracist in nature.

The experiences of Black people are all around us and in light of the protests occurring in the world, many are eager to open up about them.

Stories such as those like of Breasha Acquah. Acquah comes from a mixed racial background. Her father is a Haitian immigrant and her mother is African American. After graduating high school, Acquah moved to Utah from Fort Hood, Texas, in the summer of 2012 to attend Brigham Young University. At first, she enjoyed attending a school environment where most people shared the same faith background as her and had a positive experience for the first couple of months that she was

here, until things gradually started to change.

“It just became slowly and surely just very isolating, the lack of ethnic diversity and the lack of people that shared my personal experiences just began to weigh down on me quite a bit, especially with some of the microaggressions and racial instances that happened, I didn’t really have a support system or anywhere to go to, that really hindered and altered my perspective of my experience there,” Acquah said.

In certain senses she faced a similar campus culture that other new students do, with a lot of talk centered around relationships and marriage. For Acquah though, being Black made her an undesirable romantic partner.

“There was a huge emphasis and a push on dating when I first came to Provo and just interacting with those of the opposite sex. It was really hard because there wasn’t a lot of people of my similar racial group. Of the people that were there, a lot of people weren’t interested in dating a Black woman,” Acquah said. “And so, it was a very isolating and shocking experience to be told to my face that people weren’t interested in me or getting to know me as a human because I was Black.”

Protests for racial justice have been held across the country over the past month, including various locations In addition to having to fight an uphill in Utah. (Photo by Vince Fleming/Unsplash) battle in the Continued page 6

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A Career of Service, Inspired by Dad Dr. Jonathan Daniels reflects on how his father, a World War II veteran, helped shape his service

Mental health treatment increases during pandemic says hospital director

“

Growing up, Dr. Jonathan Daniels aspired Like his father, Dr. Daniels also volunteered to be an aviator like his father and his grandfather to serve. He was in the Air Force ROTC at the before him. Dr. Daniels became a navigator, de- University of Utah in the mid-1970s and signed voting 13 years of service flying in the backseat up for Vietnam even though he had a high draft of the F-4 Phantom II as a navigator/weapons systems officer. He served another 13 years in the U.S. Air Force as a physician, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

“My dad has always been my hero,” said Dr. Daniels, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Rocky Mountain Women’s Health and a member of the medical staff at Salt Lake Regional Medical Center.

His “hero,” Courtney Daniels, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, celebrated his 100 th birthday earlier this year. He spent a storied career as an aviator, flying B-17 bombers in World War II, as well as hundreds of missions piloting the B-29 bomber, the B-50 bomber, and the C-130. He also flew the C-47, supplying the city of Berlin, Germany with food, fuel, and medical supplies during the Berlin Airlift, which commenced on June 26, 1948.

“I always wanted to fly,” said Courtney Daniels, who grew up on a farm in Mount Emmons.

“When Japan dropped their bomb on Pearl Harbor, the next day I went down to the federal building and signed up for flying cadet school.”

Mr. Daniels was a 21-year-old college junior in 1941. He was dispatched to England in 1944 aboard the B-17, “Maid Marian”- named after his wife. He was assigned to the 8 th Air Force, 34 th Bomb Group, flying 25 combat missions out of Mendelsham Airfield, including 18 as the lead crew. Missions entailed bombing German railroads, oil fields, and airfields. On at least one mission, his Bomb Group led the entire 8 th Air Force. One of his close friends, Gale Halverson, also of Utah, gained fame during the Berlin Airlift as “The Candyman” for flying missions that dropped chocolate candy bars to children, a practice Daniels and his crew also adopted. He went on to serve in the Korean War and Vietnam, completing his military career at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., retiring in 1968. He then went into carpentry and home-building.

“I’m a happy 100-year-old man,” he said.

Page 2 | July 2020

number that would have spared his service. He served with the Air Force in Florida, as well as Hill Air Force Base in Utah., and in North Carolina. Following his seven-year commitment to the Air Force, he continued in the Air Force Reserve and was accepted to medical school at the University of Texas. With a demanding internship requiring 80-100 hours a week, he retired from flying and continued to serve as an Air Force physician.

“I wanted to fly, and I got to do that,” said Dr. Daniels. “When I got to the end of my initial commitment with the Air Force, I decided I wanted to do something to help people. When you’re in the military in a combat crew, your job is to kill people. I was trained to do that. I was trained to drop nuclear bombs.”

Despite that rigorous training, he wanted to do something different. “I really appreciate the ability to be able to help people and save lives,” Dr. Daniels said. “It’s a real privilege.”

Dr. Daniels has served more than 20 years as a physician, delivering more than 4,000 babies throughout his career. In July, he will wind down his time with Steward Medical Group. He will continue to do call coverage with Steward Health Care and also work in Elko, Nevada to provide greater access to OB/GYN care to residents within that 100,000-population community.

Several years ago, Dr. Daniels experienced a nagging desire to return to the skies and since then has obtained his private pilot’s license and is currently working on his instrument rating license. One of his first flights as a private pilot was to take his father back up in the air, flying him around Salt Lake City. He recalled that when his father gave a talk at a Veterans’ hospital several years ago, he told several stories.

“He didn’t focus on the war and the good bombing he did. He focused on the Berlin Airlift, the good things that helped people,” Dr. Daniels said. “Sometimes we have to fight wars, but we should also do good, and help people as much as we can.”

By Kirk Bradford | k.bradford@mycityjournals.com

The field of mental health has transformed over the past decade,” said James Reichelt, director of St. Mark’s Hospital Behavioral Health unit.

Reichelt has worked at the prison, jails and the Fourth Street Clinic before arriving at St. Mark’s.

The City Journals interviewed Reichelt to gain a better understanding of mental health and how it has changed in response to COVID-19. “You may have noticed its effects on the homeless population. They function much like a family unit in the sense, they look out for each other and sometimes sleep near each other for safety. The homeless shelter recently had a large spread. It’s effecting their lives in how they adapt to social distancing or even lacking access to health care. They no longer can live the way they were, in the same way you and I can’t.”

He discussed the different stigmas attached to someone who struggles with substance dependency resulting in homelessness and how important it is to break those stigmas. “I try to train my staff to come from a place of love and compassion. You don’t know what that person has been through that leads up to being in one of our care units.”

Years ago this wasn’t always the approach. It was more of a tough love approach. “Just last week we had a patient on our floor, they checked him in at 3 a.m. and needed some blood work and other things but (he) was detoxing and finally getting some rest,” Reichelt said.

“The old thinking was to get him up and required moving to a separate area to have it done. I told my staff to let him get some rest and first thing in the morning let’s take care of it. Another time we had a patient who had lived with his brother. The entire family was engaging in behaviors dependent on substance abuse. The brother had gotten verbally aggressive with our staff and the thought was to have security remove him but we didn’t, we realized that he worried for his brother. We assured him his brother was OK and let him spend a few minutes with him. It’s slight changes like that, that allow us to build trust for someone to open up and get the help they need.”

St. Mark’s Hospital has three main divisions: Inpatient Psychiatric Unit, Intensive Outpatient Program, and Perinatal Outpatient Program.

Reichelt explained that inpatient and outpatient units are the starting point to helping a person get stabilized. It’s most common to be detoxing from drugs and/or alcohol that many start using to self-medicate an underlining condition.

“Once we get them stable, physically, mentally and medically we find the most appropriate program. This depends on their needs, their symptoms and their insurance if they have it. Even those who do not have insurance. We help them get stabilized and with enough medication upon release to get into treatment.”

The St. Mark’s mental health unit has the capacity for 17 people. Before COVID-19 struck, they were seeing on average nine people per day. Afterward, Reichelt said, “We are seeing on average 13 people per day, we can’t share a room if we go over now because of the requirements to stay safe from spreading the virus. I’ve seen substance abuse issues rise and the need for both inpatient and outpatient treatment rise.”

Reichelt expressed St. Mark’s desire to help. “We understand how difficult that phone call is to make, for someone to reach out and ask for help.

If someone is thinking about doing it, please keep in mind the goal of staff on all aspects of mental health including the first call is to start from a place of understanding because it takes courage and strength for someone to call us and we know it. Throughout the state now we are also seeing more and more telehealth. We can do assessments over the phone and point someone in the right direction closest to them. The curious thing about this pandemic is we are seeing more and more people who want to change, they want to feel better. They want to get through this pandemic and to deal with all the stressors and anxiety which can be difficult but if they can get the tools to do it, they can get through it with some sense of joy and happiness.

Sometimes that takes getting a little help.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health Reichelt said to call and do an assessment and see what the options are available. Call St. Mark’s at 801-268-7433. You can also find more information online from the National Alliance on Mental Illness at namiut.org. Hope4utah.com also contains resources to learn more online l

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July 2020 | Page 3

Local bakery pitches in during the pandemic, two bread loaves at a time

By Carl Fauver | c.fauver@mycityjournals.com

“

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

Those were among the wise words of advice Fred Rogers offered his preschool-age television audience on his long-running PBS program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

And they are the same words the Borg family has included on the message of hope they have been putting on the plastic bags they’re using to seal and donate loaves of bread, two at a time.

The Borgs own and operate Schmidt’s Pastry Cottage stores in three Salt Lake Valley locations. For three months now, they

Steve and Lucy Borg started Schmidt’s Pastry Cottage nearly a half century ago. The longest running of their three current locations is in Taylorsville. (Brett Borg)

Journals

have been donating bread to anyone who asks for it.

“My mom would kill me if she saw the numbers; we are inching toward 50,000 loaves of bread (given away)—which normally cost $2 to $3,” said Brett Borg. “We are accepting donations for the bread, but are only spending that money on ingredients.

Our stores are covering employee costs.”

Brett’s parents, Steve and Lucy Borg, own Schmidt’s stores in Taylorsville, Sugar House and South Jordan. Their Crossroads of Taylorsville shopping location (5664 S. Redwood Road) has been open the longest of the three, since the “mid-1980s.” Chelsea Pacheco is that store’s assistant manager.

“Our manager will be out until mid-July so, for now, I am our only full-time employee at this location, along with about 10 part-timers,” Pacheco said. “We make about 180 loaves of the free bread each day. Sometimes there are a few loaves left over the next day. But most of the time it all goes. Some people make donations… some people buy other things, while getting their free bread… and some just grab their two loaves and go, which is fine.”

So why are the sourdough, French and Italian loaves given in pairs?

“My dad said if we only give one loaf of bread, then we are the only people who get to feel good about helping during this (pandemic) crisis,” Brett said. “But if we give two loaves and tell people one is for them, and one is to give to another person then others also get to feel good about what they are doing.”

The bread giveaway has also allowed the Borgs to retain their entire 45-person staff (at all three locations), without any reduction of work hours. A Paycheck Protection Pro-

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gram (PPP) loan also assisted the Borgs in covering a couple of pay periods.

“I have heard many emotional stories from our customers who are giving bread to others,” Pacheco said. “It makes me feel so good to work for Schmidt’s. Steve (Borg) is just a really great guy.”

In addition to the in-store bread giveaways, Schmidt’s has also taken their show on the road a couple of times.

“On May 17, we gave away 900 loaves of bread outside Cyprus High School in Magna, and two weeks later we gave out another 650 loaves at Kearns High,” Brett said. “Several members of our family were involved, particularly in that second giveaway.”

In addition to both his parents still working full time for the stores, Brett’s wife, Jenny, is a cake decorator for them. His twin sister, April, also works for Schmidt’s, along with a younger sister (Kristi), an uncle (Ralph), and nieces and nephews.

The stores’ flour providers—Ardent Mills and Honeyville—have each donated about 5,000 pounds of flour to the bread giveaway effort.

In addition to accepting cash donations for their bread giveaways at their store locations, Schmidt’s is also accepting online donations through the mobile payment service, Venmo.

“Some of our tweets about the bread giveaways have been retweeted, even by national journalists,” Brett said. “We have received about $4,000 in Venmo donations from all over—New York, Florida, Canada.

Another $2,000 to $3,000 have been dropped off at our stores.”

As Fred Rogers’ mother would be quick to tell the former TV host, that’s a lot of “people who are helping.” l

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Requirements for doing business have changed, marketing services aim to help local busines

By Drew Crawford | d.crawford@mycityjournals.com

A

change in consumer behavior as a result of COVID-19 has caused many businesses to change their strategies on how they attract and retain their customers.

To address these concerns, marketing companies operating in the valley have been promoting their services to impacted business in an attempt to help them maintain and attract a customer base.

“We decided that small businesses need [results] as well, and we wanted to develop an affordable solution to do that,” said Meghan Trapp of Hurrdat, a marketing group that has an office in Holladay.

Hurrdat released Local Search Fuel at the beginning of the year, a SAAS (software as a service) product that provides local search engine optimization (SEO) services to help companies get views from Google My Business listings, Facebook and Apple Maps.

“We are able to offer it for free for 90 days to our local customers, because we know with COVID, with their businesses being closed, or reopening but not reopening in the same hours or same methods as before, that it’s really important that they optimize their information now,” Trapp said, explaining that the company had originally planned to release the service at the end of Fiscal Year 2020.

Trapp emphasizes that businesses can utilize this software to communicate information that still makes them relevant and addresses COVID-19.

“A lot of local businesses right now have either a facemask policy or an amended return policy or are talking about specific prod-

ucts that they have available or not available, or restaurants for curbside delivery, takeout, dine in, it’s different for different industries.”

Through using Local Search Fuel companies can manage their online listings to make sure that their information is consistently displayed.

“That’s a trust signal that Google values when it decides who it’s going to show for its search results,” Trapp noted. “And we know that because we’ve pared it down to the core tactics that are required for local search success, we’re able to offer at an affordable price point.”

The services provided by Hurrdat which cost $125 monthly, include the SEO application where businesses can provide their information as well as a live customer support team that is available for help with using the software.

In addition to accessible SEO technology that can enable businesses to elevate their listings, Nate Gibby, the marketing director of Serfwerks, has begun to offer free marketing consultations on a first come, first served basis to help businesses get market share during COVID-19.

Gibby’s main goal during COVID-19 is to spur businesses to think freshly about their marketing strategies and positioning.

“We try to help clients understand this and then develop a position that will make a salient differentiation in the mind of their audience, such that it will drive behaviors,” Gibby said using an example about how people think about Target and Walmart. “We do mostly consulting, we help develop a cam-

paign, and help them execute on that.”

Gibby feels that COVID-19 offers a unique time for companies to reflect on what they do well and to think about what they offer their customers.

“Most of the time, particularly with small- to medium-sized business, marketing is not viewed as strategically at all. It’s looked at as I’ve got this widget to sell so let’s just put up a website, let’s get a brochure out there, and let’s sell our stuff,” Gibby said.

“There’s not really thought given to how to sell it, what the messaging should be, and how you’re going to effectively be thinking of your target audience.”

Gibby said that the greatest difference that COVID-19 has made for business is that it has changed consumer’s lifestyles as they shop from home a lot more and are cautious about going out.

“What we’ve tried to do is view this as an opportunity to make a difference in our community, because a lot of these businesses who are shut down have a unique time where they can sit back and really evaluate what they’re doing and we can help them do it better and strategically,” Gibby said. “I think we all have an obligation to be of assistance where we can to help people come

out of this.”

Gibby says that businesses wondering what they should be doing to recover from a marketing standpoint should be thinking in a couple different tiers.

“One is to say, ‘Hey, we’re open, come back,’ and ‘Here’s what we’re doing to keep you safe,’” Gibby said.

According to Gibby, a more in-depth option is a tier two approach, where businesses offer innovative problem solving.

“I think that you can elevate it to tier two if you find ways to be part of the solution and find unique ways to engage your customers.

People need to approach their marketing in such a way that they give their clientele a way to come back.”

Gibby has also come up with other marketing strategies to address the pandemic that include developing thought leadership and forming community partnerships.

“Being open for business doesn’t compel a consumer to do business. Businesses need to provide real value to their audience to get them to come back, which you can accomplish by communicating real and meaningful value and communicating your efforts to be a part of the solution,” Gibby said. l

The requirements for doing business have changed.

MyS ugar HouseJournal .com

July 2020 | Page 5

Continued from front page dating world because of the color of her skin, Acquah was verbally abused from time to time in public places that should have been safe.

“There was just a time in late 2012 or early 2013 when I got called the N-word four different times in public spaces. It was once on BYU campus, once on a public bus,” Acquah said. “Once in a JCPenney this little boy yelled it at me, and the mom got angry and upset at him for yelling at me, but she didn’t say anything about the fact that he used a really racist word, or the fact that he was cursing. He was literally 5 or 6 years old.”

Even Acquah’s two best friends who are also people of color had a hard time entirely relating to her unique experiences as a Black woman. Combined together, all of these terrifying events began to push Acquah to the breaking point and to make matters worse, she didn’t really feel like there was anywhere to go.

“I had to stay because BYU is just a really affordable education that I just wouldn’t be able to study anywhere or get that quality of education for that low of a price, so I had to stay, but it was just really difficult,” Acquah said.

Over time these events led Acquah to come to terms more with her blackness, which she had struggled with reconciling as a kid.

In 2015, Acquah, who had previously relaxed and straightened her hair with chemicals, decided to cut it all off and grow out her natural hair. Allowing her intrinsic beauty to show was a catalyst for helping her realize how unique her experiences are.

“When you have a huge ’fro that defies gravity and has tight curls, you have to care for it and spend a lot of time on it. That in itself actually helped solidify my black identity because you can’t hide when you have such noticeable hair,” she said.

Systemic racism though, still remained an everyday reality that Acquah had to face.

“At that point in time in my life I just didn’t have the language or the ability to articulate things the way that I can now and to address and accurately identify racism when it happened to me, so at that point in time I was just really shocked and didn’t know what to do.”

“It wasn’t until a few years ago as an adult that I came to really understand what blackness was to me,” Acquah said. “A lot of things happened kind of consequentially.

There was a lot of killings of honored Black men by police officers. There was Philando Castile in 2016 and as well as I believe in that same weekend Alton Sterling was killed.

There was Eric Gardner and [the shooting of Michael Brown in] Ferguson, [Missouri].”

The taking of Black life, as shocking as it was, caused Acquah to begin to wake up to just how bad things could get. Similarly, though, Acquah was inspired by public figures such as Colin Kaepernick of the NFL

Page 6 | July 2020

taking a moral stand by kneeling for the National Anthem.

“There was just a lot of political and social movements going on at the time that I instantly identified with, but then I noticed that all of my white peers and fellow church members were very, very against for whatever reasons, but I realized that there was something very, very different in my perspective and line of thinking that a lot of my views people thought didn’t align with Mormonism,” Acquah said.

“But then I started to realize that I’m Black, and I just view the world differently because these are things that I’ve witnessed, you know, and that my father has experienced and that my peers and friends and cousins experienced growing up.

It was just very personal in a way that wasn’t for a lot of my peers.”

Over time Acquah met Black friends in Utah who shared her experiences, joined accommodating religious groups within her faith and switched her minor to Africana Studies. Doing this helped to educate her and she came to realize that she wasn’t alone in her experiences.

Acquah now describes her blackness using newfound language that she has developed over the last five years.

“It’s so intimate to me and it’s so a part of my daily life,” Acquah said. “I would say that it’s just two sides of one coin where it literally is the pain, the oppression, the ways that I have to navigate life always being conscious of how I’m being perceived—specifically in Utah it’s usually white people, but just by the world in general.

“And so my blackness shapes how I get dressed in the morning, it shapes how I style my hair, it shapes how I speak if I have to code switch during different social situations if I’m going to speak more articulately, or relax a little and speak more with a Southern or colloquial speech pattern,” Acquah said.

“And so, it’s something that I’m always cognizant of and thinking of every day.”

As part of her evolving self-awareness Acquah has also learned how to embrace her blackness by resonating with the experiences of her ancestors.

“It’s also beauty. Historically speaking, I come from really powerful and influential people. My father is from Haiti. Haiti was the first and only island to revolt against their masters and create an independent and sovereign country. And with that there’s just beauty, and rebellion and resistance,” Acquah said.

“On my mother’s side my grandparents

were Black people in the South and partici“Part of the founders of Utah were Black pated in the civil rights. I just come from a enslaved people. They helped to build the long heritage of resistance and people who state, they were a part of the pioneer generwere just able to make the best out of just re- ation; they weren’t allowed their freedom,” Reeve said.

“Their freedom was not granted to them by people in Utah, but they were reliant upon the United States Congress.”

To Reeve, these stories are illustrative of problematic issues that are at the core of Utah’s past. If they are approached the right way though, Breasha Acquah Reeve believes that they can actually be a teaching tool that instructs ally, really awful situations over and over and us how to overcome present racism. over again.”

Although, understanding the issues does For Acquah this has helped her to cre- not change the reality of the past, it helps atively express herself in a system that has people come to terms with what happened so many times stacked against her. that future generations can heal and clearly In addition to listening to current stories recognize prejudice according to Reeve. of Black people’s experiences, historians in “Another lesson is what does racism Utah show us what it was like to be Black look like? How do we learn to overcome racin Utah in the past. Through sharing these ism? I think that history can be one way of stories, historians hope to correct the racial doing so. We understand what it looked like record that has often gone ignored. in the past and it has the potential to help us W. Paul Reeve, chair of Mormon Studies improve the future. I think that confronting in the History Department at The Universi- that is actually healthy,” Reeve said. ty of Utah, is working on a project that at“Knowing the names and understanding tempts to amend the whitewashed narrative their experiences is diversifying the Utah stothat people are taught about while learning ry. Black history is Utah history. Their stories Utah history. are our stories. Their stories represent Utah “It’s a digital database wherein we are history,” Reeve said. attempting to name and identify every person Overall, even though it has been a long baptized into the LDS faith between 1830 and time for Acquah to become fully comfortable 1930. It’s centered around bios, but if you go with her identity and talk about it, she feels to the site there’s also a map that also points that everyone can benefit from understanding to the location of baptism,” Reeve said. “One where Black people are coming from when of the things that I didn’t anticipate when I they share their stories and talk about race. started the project is the number in Utah.”

“When you can come at something from Reeve created the database with one a multitude of different perspectives and of his intentions being to show people what background it gives you a clearer understandwe can learn from the margins. He tells the ing of what exactly is happening. I think that stories of Black Latter-day Saints from the a lot of people get uncomfortable when I, as ground level instead of the perspective of a Black person, talk about decentering whitetheir leaders in order to bring humanity and ness or decentering white people. I think that dignity to people lost to the annals of time. white people get defensive about it, but when “What I hope people learn is that there you learn from other people there’s always were Black Latter-day Saints from 1830 all going to be something that you never thought the way to the present. They’ve always been of before. There’s always going to be some there, but they’ve been erased from collective observation that’s important to them that you Latter-day Saint memory and also typically never really noticed or thought of,” Acquah not included in Utah history.” said.

Some of the biographies talk about the “I think that when white people listen racism that these early Black Utahns encoun- to stories and hear from Black people everytered at church, the 1852 servant code that body is better off, because on white people’s legalized slavery in Utah, and racial passage side they get more understanding and more that allowed socially accepted Black people enlightenment and views of certain situations to receive Latter-day Saint religious rituals that maybe they wouldn’t have got if they and be accepted as white. hadn’t heard it.” l

But then I started to realize that I’m Black, and I just view the world differently because these are things that I’ve witnessed, you know, and that my father has experienced and that my peers and friends and cousins experienced growing up. It was just very personal in a way that wasn’t for a lot of my peers.”

Sugar House City Journal

Online therapy groups during COVID-19 have pros, cons say organizers

By Bill Hardesty | b.hardesty@mycityjournals.com

R

ecently, the City Journals covered a story about how the COVID-19 shutdown has affected group therapy initiatives like AA and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints’ 12-Step program. The article was from the participant’s point of view.

This follow-up is from the perspective of a facilitator or organizer of a group.

In the world of Narcotics Anonymous (NA) no one directs or facilitates a meeting.

Individuals called Home Group Members are responsible for the meeting like setting up chairs, unlocking the doors, and beginning the meeting. After that, the meeting goes where the meeting goes.

NA is a 12-step program modeled after the AA 12-step program. They don’t focus on any particular drug because addiction can be played out with a variety of drugs. They strive to find their higher power and do service.

Their hotline (801-25-CLEAN (25326) or Spanish 801-33-AYUDA (29832) is staffed by six volunteers who can direct callers to meetings held through the Salt Lake Valley.

RJ (no last name to protect privacy) is a home group member.

“Some participants find online frustrating,” RJ said.

RJ explained that a big part of their meetings is giving hugs and looking into people’s eyes.

“Even when people say they are fine, you can tell something is wrong by looking into their eyes,” RJ said.

Sometimes in a Zoom meeting, people either don’t show their faces or when things get painful, they just turn off the video or sign off.

“One positive part of being online is that we have people from all over the world tapping into a meeting,” RJ said.

With the state moving to a yellow status, RJ said they are talking about returning to some face to face meetings or maybe even a hybrid where some participants are social distancing in a room while others are still online.

It is up to each home group to decide if and when to move to face to face meetings and what they will look like.. l

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An al fresco graduation ceremony unlike any before

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E

very year Highland High School graduation ceremonies are held at the University of Utah campus. There are an average of 400 graduates every year. Each of those graduates brings their family members to the ceremony.

This means that the venue should be able to hold at least 3,000 attendees.

This year’s graduation came with the dilemma on how to hold a ceremony with the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing guidelines. In fact, there was a lot of talk about the ceremony being canceled during the beginning of the coronavirus quarantine.

Many students, teachers, and parents felt it was unfair to the graduates not to hold some sort of ceremony for all of their hard work.

The faculty got creative. They pulled off a memorable experience for the students and family who graduated from high school this year. This ceremony was one of its kind. In Highland High School’s history graduation ceremonies have never occurred in Sugar House Park adjacent from the school.

The city closed Sugar House Park on June 3 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. to the public.

Only graduates were allowed to enter the

park with one vehicle. Any additional vehicles were prohibited unless parents were legally separated. Many vehicles were packed to the brim of people. There were friends and students packed into the back of trucks waving signs of congrats to their fellow alumni.

Horns were honking and the public address system alerted everyone to stay in their vehicle. To keep the row of vehicles moving, graduates were allowed to exit their vehicle and walk to an outdoor platform to accept their diploma as teachers stood across the street cheering them on. Family members had to stay in their vehicle and take photos of the graduate accepting their diploma from afar.

Many family members did not stay in their vehicles due to the excitement, although most cheered with their seat belts fastened and their air conditioner cranked up. The valedictorian of Highland High, Adelle was seen cruising through the park with support from her family. Leilah Seui’s family created a banner and walked in front of their vehicle showing their support. l

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Utah State Parks offer over 300 miles of trails. (Joshua Wood/City Journals)

U

tah’s State Parks welcomed more visitors than normal this spring as residents sought a safe escape from COVID-19 quarantine. With restrictions easing throughout much of the state and people looking for safe ways to get out, officials anticipate that visitation to continue. To keep people safe during peak seasons, officials encourage visitors to practice responsible recreation in state parks.

“We didn’t close any doors,” said Eugene Swalberg, public information officer with the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation. “Many of the parks saw greater than normal seasonal visitation.”

Initial lockdown measures restricted visitation to Utah State Parks to county residents only in April. Then, as restrictions eased in May, park visitation took off. The four state parks near St. George, for example, all saw higher than normal attendance this spring even with limitations in place. In fact, some parks had to limit visitors on busy days as parks like Quail Creek State Park filled up.

“Many reservations were canceled due to COVID for a period early on,” Swalberg said. Reservations and day use then increased as restrictions eased and people looked for ways to practice social distancing in the great outdoors.

Even in cooler Northern Utah, park visitation was on the rise this spring. East Canyon, Deer Creek and Willard Bay all saw

more people in April than in years past, according to Swalberg.

In Southern Utah, campgrounds in state parks have been full, while day use has also increased. Kodachrome Basin State Park reported full campgrounds in spring once county-level restrictions were eased for state parks. The appeal of open spaces has continued to attract visitors.

“Once you hit the trails, you’ve got room to spread out and practice social distancing,” said Nathan Martinez, park manager at Kodachrome Basin State Park. “I think people were tired of being cooped up. They wanted to get outside and do some hiking, and this is a great place to do your social distancing.”

Utah has 44 state parks and museums and over 2,300 campsites. Visitors can hike or bike 324 miles of trails in state parks. The parks reflect the diverse landscape of Utah and offer visitors the opportunity to get out.

A list of parks and COVID-related updates can be found at stateparks.utah.gov.

For those who journey to the parks, the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation encourages visitors to be safe when visiting.

“The buzz word is responsible recreation,” Swalberg said. “We encourage social distancing, and for people to not congregate at trailheads, clean up after themselves, and to stay home if they’re sick.” l

Sugar House City Journal

Area parks play big role in locals’ mental and physical health

By Drew Crawford | d.crawford@mycityjournals.com

Mike Berger

A

s a therapist for the blind and visually impaired, Mike Berger’s work requires the best version of himself. Part of this entails being in good mental shape, so he makes sure to take frequent runs in Sugar House and Fairmont parks.

Five times a week he will run from his place located near 2200 South and 900 East near the Smith’s and loop around the park.

He will then make his way downhill and do a loop around Sugar House Park, logging about 4 miles in total. During the uncertainty of COVID-19 running has been a constant that anchors Berger to Sugar House.

“I love seeing people out. It feels like a city and everyone’s active. I think in some ways COVID has made people want to be out and be active, exercise and be healthy and try and take care of their mental health,” Berger said.

Berger is an avid runner who has previously ran three marathons. He feels like the running has been hard on his body but has been worth it. His advice for running a marathon is suggestive of the measured consideration that he has exhibited in his training.

“Run at your slow pace for the first 18 miles and if you feel good, just go with what you’re comfortable with. Don’t push yourself for your first one.”

Through the process of getting his bachelor’s in sociology from The University of Utah his eyes were opened to systemic issues. Learning about these led him to want to focus his attention on helping people who are marginalized.

After graduating, he moved to Chicago to get his master’s in social work from DePaul University and get his certified social worker credentials.

When Berger moved back from Utah, he received a grant to get another master’s in teaching for the visually impaired.

All of this work and experience in school led Berger to find his calling.

As a practitioner at Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Berger is as devoted to the health of others as he his own. He does early intervention for young kids, ages 3 to 5, and teaches families and parents how to be effective in finding and using resources and learning skills that will prepare the kids to start becoming independent.

“You have to really know how to teach a kid that’s blind. You have to know a lot of behind the scenes of what these kids really need to be independent,” Berger explained.

“Seventy percent of adults that are blind are unemployed or underemployed. That’s adults that aren’t cognitively delayed, and they should be able to work. I’m trying to change that. I want to give them their independence.”

An essential part of being a therapist for Berger is to make sure that he is taking care of himself, and being at the park helps him to

MyS ugar HouseJournal .com

Many Sugar House residents have found parks to be essential to their mental and physical well-being. (File photo by Justin Adams/City Journals)

follow his self-care regimen.

“A lot of what I’ve done is mentally straining, so I try to pair that with taking care of my body and being healthy, so I’ve always tried to be active and be a part of my community. I love Salt Lake and I was raised in Sugar House and I love the community feel and my neighbors,” Berger said.

Kerry and Mike Magiske

When you’re an avid outdoors family like the Magiske family is, it can be incredibly difficult to receive the news that the Alta Ski Area is closed for the entire season because of COVID-19.

Since moving here from Colorado 10 years ago, Liberty Park has always been a place where Kerry Magiske’s kids could enjoy the outdoors, bond together as a family, and even hit certain growth milestones for motor skills like riding a scooter.

So, it was a natural place to take her 11-year-old daughter Kiera and 7-year-old son Tristan as Hawthorne Elementary closed, Alta closed, and The University of Utah, where Magiske is studying to become a nurse practitioner, stopped offering classes in person.

“We love to do outdoor recreation.

That’s probably one of our family’s favorite things to do. We do a lot of skiing in the winter. We’re just outside a lot of times at Liberty Park because it’s a 10-minute walk from our house,” Magiske said.

“As some other things closed, we found that we were spending more time there walk-

ing, biking, skateboarding, rollerblading, games of walkie-talkie hide-and-seek in the park. We bring the slack line sometimes or the hammocks.”

On the days that they would play hideand-seek, each family member would bring their own walkie-talkie and play the game, limiting the boundaries to just half the park.

Family members would hide in clever spots such as the nooks and crannies of the Chase Home Museum. On other occasions, to try and trick the others, Mike and Tristan would hide inside of the porta-potties.

When somebody wasn’t successful during their search, a family member could chime in over the walkie-talkie and taunt the seeker to let them know that they weren’t close to being found.

Magiske says that the greatest benefit of going to the park for her family has been the psychological benefit and the value of being in nature. Being able to move around and exercise has provided a much needed break.

“The outdoors to our family is intrinsically tied to our health,” Magiske said. “It’s probably one of our most important things that we do together as a family.”

Rachel Wright

Rachel Wright moved to Utah from Washington, D.C. to try something new. She moved here to do an accelerated program at Westminster College to get her teaching credentials and make a switch from the nonprofit world.

“It was an intense year, but a great pro-

gram,” Wright said. “I teach up in Davis County, and I’m a fourth-grade teacher.”

She and her husband moved from Tremonton to Sugar House because of the appeal of the area’s walkability.

“When you go for a walk, you’re looking at beautiful architecture, and it’s just a unique feel which we really like,” Wright said. She lives near I-80 and the new University of Utah Sugar House Health Center.

Wright has had to spend most of the days during quarantine teaching her kids over Zoom technology, so walking to local parks with the family’s border collie has become important for her.

“I think for me in particular it was a way to decompress. I would take my dog, we would go on a long walk circling the neighborhood, through Sugar House Park, and down through Fairmont Park,” Wright said.

“It was probably twice a week that I would go before quarantine. I would get my exercise other places, but once quarantine happened and the gym closed, those daily walks became my go to for movement.”

For Wright, the park is a constant in her life during unpredictable times.

“I can put in my podcast and walk, have the beautiful view of the mountains, and people around,” said Wright, who has started walking with friends who are also teachers.

“Being here during a pandemic has sort of solidified that we really like Utah and having the outdoor spaces is really key for getting through a situation like this.” l

July 2020 | Page 11

Nibley Park staff tell kids to ‘have a great summer!’ with a parade

By Jerilyn Langston Toro | j.toro@mycityjournals.com

S

o, it is the end of the 2019/2020 school year for used to everyone enjoyed cheering their teachers students and faculty at Nibley Park Elementary on for their hard work this year. The parents and school. Because there were social distancing teachers are looking forward to holding a field guidelines to follow, the faculty created a fun way day again because it provides students with valuto celebrate the end of the school year. able lessons on team building and developing self Every year Nibley Park holds a celebration esteem. Students look forward to it because it is for K-8 students, faculty, and volunteers to end the fun to spend the day outside with friends playing school year and kick off the summer break. Field games.

Day is a tradition that many look forward to every One thing is for sure, Nibley Park Elemenyear. Aside from being rained out, there have not tary faculty want to wish everyone a fun and safe been many field days canceled. summer and they are looking forward to seeing This school year is one for the record books. It everyone next year. l was a celebration unlike any held in the past. This year instead of the students competing during a three-legged race or participating in team building activities, they looked from their front room windows and waved to their teachers as they passed by their home. Other students greeted the faculty with signs and cheers as they arrived at the school.

The teachers didn’t want to leave the end of the school year without expressing their gratitude for students working hard while in quarantine. All faculty members of Nibley Park Elementary were a part of a parade that was escorted by the local police and fire department around the school’s boundaries. The teachers decorated their cars with balloons and streamers to wish each student a safe and fun summer.

Even though it was a small celebration compared to the big field day event students are Nibley Park held a parade and celebration for students, faculty and volunteers. (Jerilyn Langston Toro/City Journals)

Highland track standouts reflect on season that wasn’t

T

By Josh McFadden | josh@mycityjournals.com

he 2020 track and field season was supposed to be memorable one for a couple of Highland High School athletes. It definitely was a season to remember, just not in the way anyone expected or wanted.

It was over shortly after it began.

Like the thousands of other Utah high school student-athletes, Highland’s Annie Murdock and Moira Hicks felt the bitter disappointment of COVID-19 robbing them of their aspiration. For these two Rams, it was their final chance to compete together and with their teammates.

“I was pretty devastated,” Murdock said. “I had a lot of goals for this upcoming season and was bummed that I wouldn’t be able to reach them.”

Coming into the 2020 campaign, Highland track and field head coach Gary Rowles had touted Murdock as the “fastest returning sprinter in the state.” Luckily, Murdock had already signed with the University of Utah, so she didn’t miss out on recruiting possibilities. However, the outstanding competitor lost other opportunities.

“It’s been hard knowing that Moira Hicks was one of the top returning 100-meter sprinters in Class 5A.

Page 12 | July 2020

our high school careers have been cut short,” she said. “For some, this was their last season to do what they loved with people they’ve gotten close to. A lot of athletes aren’t continuing to play in college, so this was going to be a big season for them to finish out on. I know for some of us, we had big goals like school records, personal records and new events to try, but we didn’t get the chance to reach them. Even beyond sports, knowing that our graduation, prom and other big events are being cancelled has been rough. We’ve been looking forward to them for four-plus years.”

Hicks was the Region 6 champion in the 100-meter hurdles in 2019, had her sights set high this season. Now, she’ll always wonder whether she could’ve gotten there.

“It has been quite difficult realizing that I’ll never be able to break the school record in the 100-meter hurdles or place at state, as were my main goals going into this season,” she said.

“I had gotten so close to accomplishing these goals last year and was so confident that I’d do it this year.”

There are other aspects of being on the Highland team that Hicks

won’t get to experience.

“My first thoughts upon hearing of the cancellation of my fourth and final, track season were how much I was going to miss spending every day with the friends (peers and coaches alike) that I’ve gotten to know over these years of track,” she said.

In the months since the coronavirus put an end to in-person classes and the sports season, both Murdock and Hicks have learned from these challenges.

“I’ve learned that it’s OK to be disappointed, sad and even angry about everything that’s happening,” Murdock said. “I have good days and not so good days, and that’s all right. I’m optimistic about the future and grateful for the opportunities and experiences I’ve had over the last few years.”

“Through this situation, I have come to realize just how important it is to give your 100% in everything that you do, as it’s never, never guaranteed that you’ll be able to come back and try again later,” Hicks said.

“I’ve learned to value every moment you are able to spend with your friends and every moment doing something you love. Nothing lasts forever.” l

Sugar House City Journal

Logistics still need tweaking, but girls wrestling officially sanctioned

By Greg James and Julie Slama | g.james@mycityjournals.com j.slama@mycityjournals.com

T

he Utah High School Activities Association has sanctioned girls wrestling .

“Yes, I voted to sanction it,” UHSAA board of trustees member Marilyn Richards said. “I’m a fan of making an opportunity where the interest lies.”

The UHSAA currently supports 14 sports and activities for 155 member schools.

Utah is the 20th state to sanction girls wrestling.

The sanctioning laid the groundwork for an official state championship tournament to be held in February 2021. In the meantime, there are many obstacles to overcome, including classifications, weight classes, regions and logistics. Some schools still need practice times and coaches.

Girls will no longer wrestle against boys, which has been a huge sticking point.

In 2016, Davis County student-athlete Kathleen Janis, and her family, sued the school district to allow her to join the junior high wrestling team. After the suit was settled, Janis was allowed to try out for her school’s team. As a graduating senior, she wrestled for three years at Layton High School.

Sage Mortimer, from Spanish Fork, is the No. 1-ranked female wrestler in the country at 100 pounds, and yet she still finds boys who refuse to compete against her.

As a non-sanctioned sport, the athletes were forced to participate in coed teams throughout their high school seasons. Coed wrestling can be difficult for the girls. Boys of the same weight class are generally stronger, and boys did not want to wrestle against their female counterparts.

“It’s a boys only team,” they were told by many league organizers.

The national organization, USA Wrestling, has sponsored several girls only meets to help promote the sport.

In February, there was a fifth girls state championship at Telos High School in Orem.

Westlake High School won the title, Fremont placed second and Cyprus was third. In 2019, Kearns took home the championship.

The number of girls participating in wrestling has increased steadily. In 2019, 78 girls participated in the state tournament; this past season 117 did. Cyprus had a team of 16. According to the National Federation of High School Associations, the number of female wrestlers has nearly doubled the last three years.

“Girls are already wrestling in schools, so this way they can put things in place,” Richards said.

“We have had girls every year,” Hillcrest Athletic Director Sally Williams said. “We have not had enough to hire a separate coach.

Being sanctioned will give girls an equal playing field.”

MyS ugar HouseJournal .com

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Grifols, we Atwe Grifols, believe we this believe current this and current extraordinary and extraordinary situation require situation companies require companies toto strive to to strive than more ever to than ever to At Grifols, At believe Grifols, this we believe current this and current extraordinary and extraordinary situation require situation companies require companies strive strive than ever more tothan ever to fi nd aserve Donation Center nearest you. ing the word. When school starts, At IAt think Grifols, At weGrifols, believe we this believe current and current extraordinary and extraordinary situation require situation companies require companies to strive more to more strive than more ever to than At Grifols, we believe this this current andpatients extraordinary situation require companies to strive than ever to ever to serve and patients communities. and communities. serve patients serve and patients communities. and communities. more girls will be interested, especially when serve serve patients serve and patients communities. and communities. patients and communities. they see the environment. We are a team; we want to win a title this year.”

STEP 1 1 STEP1 1 STEP STEP STEPSTEP 1 STEP 1 The Pirates have had 18 girls attend 1 Obtain Obtain antibodies antibodies from those from those who who Obtain Obtain antibodies antibodies from those from who those who summer conditioning. Carrero expects 25–30 Obtain Obtain antibodies antibodies from those from those who Obtain antibodies from those whowho have recovered have recovered from COVID-19 from COVID-19 have recovered have recovered from COVID-19 from COVID-19 to join the team by the time the season starts. have recovered have recovered from COVID-19 from COVID-19 have recovered from COVID-19 “I have scheduled a couple of duels alHuman blood Human can bebe blood broken can down be be broken into many down parts intointo like many liquid parts plasma, likelike liquid which plasma, which Human blood Human can broken blood can down into broken many down parts like many liquid parts plasma, liquid which plasma, which HumanHuman blood Human can be blood broken down be broken into many down parts intoparts like many liquid parts plasma, like liquid which plasma, blood can becan broken down into many like liquid plasma, which which ready,” Carrero said. “I know Westlake and contains antibodies. contains When antibodies. the body When becomes thethe body infected becomes with infected a virus, the with a virus, thethe contains antibodies. contains When antibodies. the body When becomes body infected becomes with ainfected virus, the with a virus, contains antibodies.

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Schools in the Midwest often offer women’s wrestling as a competitive sport.

STEP STEP2 2 STEP STEP 2 2 2 “Sanctioning is a great thing,” Carrero STEP STEP 2 STEP 2 Separate Separate convalescent convalescent plasma plasma Separate Separate convalescent convalescent plasma plasma said. “Wrestling could give these girlsSeparate op- Separate convalescent plasma Separate convalescent convalescent plasma plasma portunities after high school. There are into many its into components its components into its into components its components into its components into its into components its components places for these ladies. The sport is growing donation Plasma is is similar donation tosimilar giving isgiving similar blood, to giving except blood, the blood except isblood cycled the blood through is cycled acycled a a Plasma donation is giving blood, except the is cycled through athrough and growing fast. Ladies should join thePlasma ride.

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HOW HOW CONVALESCENT CONVALESCENT PLASMA PLASMA HOW HOW CONVALESCENT CONVALESCENT PLASMA PLASMA HOW HOW CONVALESCENT CONVALESCENT PLASMA PLASMA HOW CONVALESCENT PLASMA HELPS HELPS TREAT TREAT COVID-19 COVID-19 HELPS HELPS TREAT TREAT COVID-19 COVID-19 HELPS HELPS TREAT TREAT COVID-19 COVID-19 HELPS TREAT COVID-19

the plasma into thethe plasma different into components, different components, one ofwell-established whichone is the of which antibodies is thewith that antibodies can years that can defeat virus.

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Convert into a medicine Convert Convert into aaainto medicine a to Convert Convert into medicine into amedicine medicine toto to Convert Convert into into medicine a medicine to toto treat patients treat patients treat patients treat patients patients treatpatients patients treat treat

We can purify and concentrate the antibodies collected from donated plasma We can purify We and can concentrate purify andand the concentrate antibodies the collected antibodies from collected donated from plasma donated plasma We can purify We and can concentrate purify the concentrate antibodies the collected antibodies from collected donated from plasma donated plasma develop a concentrate special for thosethe still sick with COVID-19 or possibly We cantopurify Weand can purify medicine and concentrate the antibodies collected antibodies from collected donated from plasma donated plasma toto develop a to special develop medicine a special forfor medicine those still for sick those with still COVID-19 sicksick with or possibly COVID-19 or possibly develop a special to develop medicine a special those medicine still sick for those with COVID-19 still with or possibly COVID-19 or possibly protect those who have not been infected.

With this medicine, doctors will to develop atospecial develop medicine a special formedicine those still for sick those withstill COVID-19 sick with orCOVID-19 possibly or possibly protect those protect who have those not who been have infected. notnot been With infected. this medicine, With this doctors medicine, will doctors willwill protect those protect who have those not who been have infected. been With infected. this medicine, With this doctors medicine, will doctors aprotect consistent and precise dosing of the antibodies can fight COVID-19 protecthave those who have those not who been have infected. not been With infected. this medicine, Withthat this doctors medicine, will doctors will have a consistent have and a and consistent precise dosing and precise of the dosing antibodies of the that antibodies can fight that COVID-19 cancan fight COVID-19 have atoconsistent have a consistent precise dosing and precise of the antibodies dosing of the that antibodies can fight that COVID-19 fight COVID-19 possibly them get back to faster or as can a temporary defense have a consistent have ahelp and consistent precise and dosing precise of life the dosing antibodies of serve thethat antibodies fight that COVID-19 can fight COVID-19 toto possibly help to possibly them get help back them to life get faster back or toor serve life faster as a or temporary serve as defense aastemporary defense possibly help to them possibly get help back them to life get faster back toserve life faster as a temporary or serve defense a temporary defense until ahelp vaccine developed. to possibly to possibly themisget help back them to get life faster back to orlife serve faster as aortemporary serve as adefense temporary defense until a vaccine until isuntil developed. adeveloped. vaccine is developed. until a vaccine is a vaccine is developed. until a vaccine until is a developed. vaccine is developed.

This medicine is the This This isis Thismedicine medicine Thismedicine medicine isthe theis the This medicine This medicine the isisthe the Anti-Coronavirus Hyperimmune

Globulin Anti-Coronavirus Anti-Coronavirus Hyperimmune Hyperimmune Globulin Globulin Anti-Coronavirus Anti-Coronavirus Hyperimmune Hyperimmune Globulin Globulin Anti-Coronavirus Hyperimmune Hyperimmune Globulin Globulin Girls wrestlers such as Angie Magana will no longerAnti-Coronavirus compete against boys as the Utah High School Activities Association has sanctioned girls wrestling. (Greg James/City Journals)

For more info visit - WWW.GRIFOLSPLASMA.COM/EN/ENDCV19 For more For info more visit - -WWW.GRIFOLSPLASMA.COM/EN/ENDCV19 visit - WWW.GRIFOLSPLASMA.COM/EN/ENDCV19 For more For info more visitinfo WWW.GRIFOLSPLASMA.COM/EN/ENDCV19 visit - WWW.GRIFOLSPLASMA.COM/EN/ENDCV19 For more For info more visit info - info WWW.GRIFOLSPLASMA.COM/EN/ENDCV19 visit - WWW.GRIFOLSPLASMA.COM/EN/ENDCV19

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July 2020 | Page 15

Life

Laughter AND

by

PERI KINDER

Food & Pandemic

This stupid pandemic has changed our relationship with food. With most restaurants and bars closed, people are looking for new ways to stay nourished and inebriated.

Working from home for several weeks, we prepared three meals a day, plus snacks, for five people and a needy puppy. And by “snacks” I mean we pretty much ate all day long. We wore a groove in the tile from the living room to the pantry.

When the lock-down started, I innocently said, “Think of the money we’ll save by not eating at restaurants. We’re going to lose so much weight not eating fast food!”

Things went downhill fast.

Not only do we spend a dump truck load of money for groceries each week, but we’re stress-eating 24 hours a day. I’ve baked cookies, cakes, muffins and brownies – and that was just this morning.

My daughter and I take turns making meals. We try to find things everyone will enjoy, which is absolutely impossible. We have lots of pasta and rice dishes, fish sticks and take-out pizza. My daughter is a vegetarian, so her meals are full of veggies, chickpeas and quinoa, or what my hus-

band calls “sadness foods.”

One vegetarian dinner started the “Things I would never eat, even if I was going to die” conversation. My husband’s list is basically vegetables, but I have a bounty of foods I would never want to eat again. Things I was forced to eat as a child top my list.

For not growing up in the Great Depression, my mom was

said, “Those are just the eyes of the potato” which gave me a potato phobia for several decades as I envisioned eating little potato eyeballs.

My grandma made lima beans to spite me. She’d serve a big bowl of pale-green mushiness mixed with greasy, globular pork fat, then shame me for not eating it.

adept at whipping up meals that could have been served in a Dickensian orphanage. She’d buy things at the grocery store and I’d cry because I knew what was coming.

Jars of dried beef? Creamed chipped beef on toast. Sour cream? “Beef” stroganoff made with noodles, sour cream gravy and textured vegetable protein.

Once I complained about lumpy mashed potatoes and my dad

“When I was a little girl, I’d be happy and grateful for lima beans,” she’d say. “I wasn’t spoiled.”

“Were lima beans invented when you were a little girl?” I’d ask, which usually got me another spoonful of the vile stuff.

Stewed tomatoes, tapioca pudding (eyeballs again), my dad’s flour pudding (don’t ask), deviled eggs (obviously) and potato salad (eww) round out my list

of things I’ll never eat again.

But back to today, where my food choices are substantially subpar. If I’m going to die from a ridiculous coronavirus, I might as well eat what I want.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. And it’s not some murderous chef with a flamethrower.

Following COVID-19 restrictions, some restaurants are opening again. The hubbie and I donned our face masks, took a swig of hand sanitizer, put on some plastic gloves and hit a Mexican restaurant for the first time in months. The chile verde almost brought me to tears. The margarita definitely did.

It will be an interesting summer as picnics, BBQs, family reunions and vacations are being reimagined. So many of our celebrations revolve around food and sharing it with the people we love.

The trick is finding the balance to do it safely.

Our dishwasher runs nonstop. The grandkids (and husband) complain about eating asparagus.

But we’re creating new recipes, experimenting with flavors and planting a garden. We’re finding new ways to stay nourished and inebriated. l

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First month of sales tax numbers show uneven impacts of COVID-19

By Justin Adams | justin.a@thecityjournals.com

T

he forced closure of many businesses in the Salt Lake Valley because of COVID-19 precautions was not only a concern for business owners, but also city governments whose monthly revenue is heavily dependent on sales tax distribution. However, there is a two month delay from the time the sales tax is collected to the time it gets deposited into a city’s account.

That meant that city leaders around the valley weren’t able to see the initial economic impact of COVID-19 on their city budget until the month of May, when the Utah State Tax Commission released its report for the month of March.

The report surprisingly showed that many cities in Salt Lake County saw increases in taxable sales relative to the same month in 2019 meaning people actually spent more money in spite of all the store closures. How could that be?

Interestingly, it seems that the smaller a cities’ economy is, the better they have fared so far during the pandemic. Of all the municipalities in Salt Lake County, the nine smallest economies all experienced increases in sales from March 2019 to March 2020.

Of the six largest, four experienced decreases (Salt Lake City, Sandy, Draper and Murray).

Herriman City, for example, had less taxable sales than any other city in the county in March 2019, with just over $18 million.

However, in March 2020, that number grew

to $26 million. That’s a growth of 43%, the highest in the valley. (Of a city’s taxable sales, 1% of the sales tax goes toward local government, with half being allocated based on where the purchase occurred and the rest being allocated to cities based on population.

Because of this, the amount of sales tax funds a city receives isn’t exactly proportional to the amount of taxable sales in that city.)

So what has caused cities with smaller economies to fare better during the pandemic? Basically, smaller cities have a higher proportion of “essential” businesses. In a smaller and younger city like Herriman, a larger portion of its businesses are things like grocery stores and fast food, which were able to not only stay open, but to even see record sales.

Herriman Assistant City Manager Tami Moody told the City Journals that what many consider a weakness of Herriman (it only has fast food and grocery stores) turned out to be a strength during this time.

“Herriman obviously has fast food and grocery industry. Those two have actually been the industries that have fared better than most. Fast food is already set up to have a drive-up window. When this all started, people were heading to the grocery store to make sure they had everything they needed,” she said.

On the other hand, cities which saw the biggest decreases in taxable sales had a few things in common. One, large shopping malls

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Cities with smaller economies were more likely to see an increase in their taxable sales this March, relative to their sales from March of 2019.

that were forced to close. With the closures of The Shops at South Town and Fashion Place Mall, Sandy and Murray saw -5.9% and -16.6% drops in taxable sales. Two, a couple of cities lost sales from the closure of venues for professional sports and other entertainment, such as Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy and the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City. Interestingly though, West Valley City which has both a shopping mall and a major

sports/entertainment venue, yet was still able to produce more sales tax than it had in 2019.

Of course, all these numbers come from March, the first month that the virus began to seriously impact the United States and people bought so much that they literally emptied grocery store shelves. The sales tax report numbers for April and May will likely yield more insights into the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on city budgets. l

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July 2020 | Page 17

Pandemic: How to save money and support the local economy

by

Bryan Dean

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The world is a new place, at least for now there is a new normal. Many of us are waiting to see if the new normal will become the normal, or if the old normal will come back. Either way for now we have to live in this pandemic shaped economy.

According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis the personal savings rate hit a historic high of 33%. With the uncertainty of the current situation, and scars from the 2008 recession still fresh, it’s understandable that people would be very hesitant to spend. Not to mention how much toilet paper can one person stockpile?

But there is another side of the story, the economy. If everyone stops spending then everyone would stop earning. So how does one balance the line, spend enough to keep the economy strong but save enough to be responsible.

I propose that the answer to that question is not how much you spend, rather how and where you spend it. Here are five ways to balance the save money vs. build the economy problem.

1. Buy Local has to be a priority now. Over the last 10 years

our economy has been strong. Its been OK, not awesome, but OK if people shifted some of their spending from local. But remember the more local you spend your money the stronger your local economy is.

Now buying local is not as easy at it sounds. Sure it is easy to make the choice to buy your products at a local store instead of Amazon or a website. But it goes deeper than that. Every shopping decision has a different factor of localness.

For instance if you need to buy a power tool or some home improvement product, you can buy it from Lowes or you can buy it from a locally owned hardware store. Both Lowes and the hardware store create local jobs, and they both pay local taxes. but more of the profit at the hardware store will stay local.

Look for local products. Harmons grocery stores does a great job at showing you what products are local. I wish all stores did this.

Last month I was at a hardware store, OK honestly I was at Lowes, I needed a ladder. As I looked at the assortment I realized that

Little Giant ladder systems were a Utah business, so it was an easy decision.

2. Buy Services not Products. If you are trying to help the economy you will likely do more good buying services rather than products.

Let’s consider an example.

When you purchase a lawn mower, the majority of the purchase price goes to the manufacturer which is probably not a Utah Company. But when you pay someone to mow your lawn, nearly all of it stays local. The person who is mowing your lawn is much more likely to do business with the business you work for than say Honda.

3. Launch a side hustle or two. I realize that this is not really saving money, unless you consider the age old advice a dollar saved is a dollar earned, then this is just the flip side of that. In today’s world there are an abundance of ways you can start a side hustle. Sell some of your unneeded stuff on eBay, breed your dog (everyone wants some type of oodle these days), rent out storage on apps like Neighbor, drive for Uber or Lyft, I saw a new App to rent your RV,

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4. Get rid of the storage unit. I laugh everytime I pass one of these storage unit businesses. I realize that there are certain legitimate reasons that one would need to rent a storage unit, but I don't think most people are using it for that type of reason.

I remember my dad taking me to a storage unit that he rented.

It was full of things, I don't know where it all came from but every few months we would go down and sort through some things, and take some new items to add to the collection.

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I implore you stop buying stuff you don't need and for sure stop paying for storage on stuff you don't use, and for most of you if you put it in the storage unit you probably don't need it, clean it out, sell it, and save that monthly storage unit fee. l

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July 2020 | Vol. 6 Iss. 07

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BLACK LIVES—AND THE STORIES BEHIND THOSE LIVES—MATTER

By Drew Crawford | d.crawford@mycityjournals.com

A

n essential and often overlooked action that everyone can take to ensure that Black lives truly matter is to listen to the stories that Black people have to tell and take them seriously. This includes both the everyday experiences of Black people as well as the lessons that history can teach us.

Many stories are uncomfortable in nature and they force people to grapple with white privilege and racism. However, despite this, they offer the hope to bring the community together and build a future that is both sensitive to the experiences of blackness, and antiracist in nature.

The experiences of Black people are all around us and in light of the protests occurring in the world, many are eager to open up about them.

Stories such as those like of Breasha Acquah. Acquah comes from a mixed racial background. Her father is a Haitian immigrant and her mother is African American. After graduating high school, Acquah moved to Utah from Fort Hood, Texas, in the summer of 2012 to attend Brigham Young University. At first, she enjoyed attending a school environment where most people shared the same faith background as her and had a positive experience for the first couple of months that she was

here, until things gradually started to change.

“It just became slowly and surely just very isolating, the lack of ethnic diversity and the lack of people that shared my personal experiences just began to weigh down on me quite a bit, especially with some of the microaggressions and racial instances that happened, I didn’t really have a support system or anywhere to go to, that really hindered and altered my perspective of my experience there,” Acquah said.

In certain senses she faced a similar campus culture that other new students do, with a lot of talk centered around relationships and marriage. For Acquah though, being Black made her an undesirable romantic partner.

“There was a huge emphasis and a push on dating when I first came to Provo and just interacting with those of the opposite sex. It was really hard because there wasn’t a lot of people of my similar racial group. Of the people that were there, a lot of people weren’t interested in dating a Black woman,” Acquah said. “And so, it was a very isolating and shocking experience to be told to my face that people weren’t interested in me or getting to know me as a human because I was Black.”

Protests for racial justice have been held across the country over the past month, including various locations In addition to having to fight an uphill in Utah. (Photo by Vince Fleming/Unsplash) battle in the Continued page 6

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