West Jordan Journal | July 2023

SPECIAL OLYMPIAN CHAMPIONS INCLUSIVITY WINS STATE MISS AMERICA QUEEN TITLE

By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com

Don’t tell Miranda Clegg she can’t do something. She’ll likely prove she can — with a beautiful smile on her face all the while.

The 24-year-old West Jordan resident is an advocate for inclusivity.

During the recent Miss Amazing pageant, Clegg was crowned Miss Queen after speaking about her passion.

“I did a self-advocacy speech about how to use your voice and to speak up to change laws,” she said.

Clegg wants to have more accommodations for people who, like her, have a disability.

Her mother, Barbara, said her daughter has been on a waitlist to receive services.

“Right now, the Division of Services for People with Disabilities Division has a huge waitlist because funding is very limited,” she said. “If that is increased, one area that they could make a lot of difference is with the number of programs that are servicing those with disabilities.”

Barbara Clegg said that her daughter wants to work, but since she has holoprosencephaly, with common symptoms of memory loss and not having the concept of time, the services she needs would include a mentor at the job. While they wait to receive services, Barbara Clegg is her full-time caretaker and driver, and doesn’t receive compensation. It also means she can’t hold down a traditional career.

West Jordan resident Miranda Clegg advocates for those who have disabilities and used that as her passion speech in the Miss Amazing pageant. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

Record breaking fraction chain links learning with fun

The longest equivalent fraction chain in the world, with 15,000 links, was created by 23 students in Kimberly Sander’s third grade class at Jordan Hills Elementary. Each link in the chain was a handwritten fraction equivalent to one-half, stretching from ½ to 15,000/30,000.

Students and parents helped spread the chain, which stretched back and forth across the school yard several times, on May 25 to document the feat. Sanders reached out to the Guinness Book of World Records to witness the accomplishment but received no response.

“We may not receive a Guinness World Record, but these kids are record breakers in my opinion,” Sanders said.

Students worked on creating the equivalent fraction chain for three months.

Sanders had originally assigned students to create fraction chains with seven links of equivalent fractions to help them understand the concept. The students were inspired to create even larger chains.

“It started with just seven chains, and then they wanted to make one to go around the classroom, and then it snowballed into this,” Sanders said.

This was the first time Sanders had done a fraction chain activity during a math unit in her third grade ALPS class. “I’d never done it before and I’ll never do it again. It’s been a deal,” she said.

She said it took a lot of time, hard work and organization. Students would make the chains in chunks of 20 to create chains of hundreds and then thousands.

During the first month of the project, the students worked on the project sporadically. Then it became necessary to work on it every other day until the final week before the deadline, when students worked to complete the chains every single day.

Parents said their students brought home

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strips of paper to make chains during both winter and spring break.

Third-grader David Evershed tried to get to school early a few times a week to work on the chains. “He was really excited about the project,” said his mother, Emily Evershed.

Whenever their motivation waned, Sanders reminded her students that they had committed to a goal and that the Guinness representatives were expecting a world record breaking chain on May 25. Sanders was proud and impressed when students completed the chain the day before the deadline.

“They got to where they could just mentally get those chains done in about 30 min-

utes—written and stapled—so I felt like we set a world record of just getting them done fast,” Sanders said. “It was just amazing.”

Principal Kaleb Yates said it was a great activity.

“There’s the math component, but even more than that is the camaraderie of everybody wanting to build something together and have fun doing it,” he said. The project also kept the students engaged into the last week of the school year. “With this, they’re 100% focused on their goal and accomplishing it,” Yates said.

Sanders said the project was a great lesson in teamwork, perseverance, setting and reaching goals and achieving success. She

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said the hardest part of the project was keeping the chains organized. They were kept in large plastic bags in the classroom. On the final day, the chains were pulled from the bags, spread across the field, assembled into numerical order, and stapled together. The students were thrilled at the sight of their hard work colorfully displayed on the school field.

“It feels really crazy seeing it all be spread out,” third-grader Nolan McDonald said. “We had a ton of trash bags in our classroom and then it didn’t seem like a lot but the amount of chains inside the bags just created all of this.”

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Kimberly Sander’s third grade class celebrates their record-breaking fraction paper chain. (Photo by Sara McDonald)

Students and parent volunteers spread the 15,000 link fraction chain on Jordan Hills Elementary School’s field. (Photo courtesy of Kimberly Sanders.)

“Miranda wants to educate people in the community about people with disabilities, that people don’t have to be afraid of those with disabilities or only identify those in a wheelchair or with Down Syndrome or something obvious. She’s been told by people she’s not disabled because of the way she looks. Miranda has an invisible disability because you can’t see it, but disability comes in all shapes and sizes. There’s just no one look that says, ‘this is what disability looks like,’” her mother said.

Miranda Clegg was diagnosed at age 3 after a store clerk asked, “What’s wrong with your daughter?” her mother recalled.

The clerk also worked for the DSPD and realizing Clegg’s symptoms, told her mother to bring her daughter to DSPD.

“They took one look at her and said we need you to go to children with special health care needs at Primary Children’s Hospital,” her mother remembered.

That was followed with a CT and MRI. Those were sent to two different medical centers; both concluded the same genetic result.

“The number of live births that happen with severe holoprosencephaly is rare and those who survive past the first year is even more rare. Miranda growing into adulthood is extremely rare,” her mother said, adding that in 2017, Miranda Clegg was included in a study that could only find 15 U.S. adults living with it.

Miranda Clegg advocated for inclusivity while attending Copper Hills High School and ended up being a trailblazer for other students with disabilities.

It began when as a freshman, some cheerleaders encouraged her to try out during club rush.

Barbara Clegg talked to the coach and was told, “I think we could do something with her.”

However, the coach’s vision was “different than what I pictured,” her mother said. “‘We’ll treat her nice and we’ll give her a shirt and we’ll let her sit on the sideline.’ That was kind of her vision.”

While people at Copper Hills were kind to her, it wasn’t enough.

“Kindness is easy, but actually involving her and having a relationship with her came a lot harder. So, while they were kind, they weren’t inclusive. People don’t realize that those with disabilities are lonely and want the same thing as their peers,” her mother said.

Her principal, Todd Quarnberg, supported her.

“You said she can be a cheerleader, so she’s a cheerleader’” her mother recalled the principal saying.

While she was given a uniform,

change came slowly.

“That first year was hard,” Barbara Clegg said. “They said, ‘she’s not going to travel with us because I have 42 girls and don’t have time to babysit one.’”

That’s when Miranda Clegg said, “give me a chance.”

She cheered at home games. Then, some other girls’ parents supported her, so she went to nearby away games and cheered. At the end of that year, her mother said, “‘If you don’t want to do this anymore, I understand.’ But she was in love with it.”

“I wanted to keep doing it,” Miranda Clegg said.

Her mother said each year her daughter advocated to do more with the cheer squad. It was her senior year, under a new coach, when it was a different story.

“She told me, ‘I’m going to take her to cheer camp.’ Once the coach accepted her, the other athletes accepted her more,” Barbara Clegg said. “Miranda did everything asked of her, gave more than 100 hours of service to earn her service award, and was named All American. Only 10 percent of American cheerleaders make All American and they don’t usually have special athletes. She went to Houston and represented Utah at a parade. She did everything she could with the same standards as everyone else besides overcoming other stuff.”

Miranda Clegg, who graduated from Copper Hills in 2017 and then from South Valley in 2021, has continued to cheer under that same coach with a Special Olympics team, Galaxy, through the Forever Athletics.

She has competed in the Miss Amazing program before, often using cheer routines for her passion presentation, but this year she decided to speak in front of an audience of 250.

“I felt educating people about people with disabilities is what I’m passionate about and I don’t want people to think we’re different because we’re like everyone else,” Miranda Clegg said. “I like getting up on stage and talking to the audience. I wasn’t nervous.”

The national Miss Amazing program aims to offer girls and women with disabilities opportunities and pathways for personal growth, dispelling stereotypes about limitations of their capabilities, which often result in them experiencing lower self-esteem. The pageant part of the program begins with Rising Stars at age 5 and continues through the mentor age group of 35-plus.

Miranda Clegg was the First Attendant in the junior division at age 17; then, she was Miss Teen Amazing in 2017; and in 2019, she was crowned Junior Miss Queen.

Now she is fundraising to pay her travel, room and board expenses so she can compete alongside other Miss Amazing Miss Queens at the national contest July 27-30 in Chicago. She also is trying to give about 100 hours of service before then, from handing out awards at a state unified basketball tournament to helping with lunch at Ronald McDonald House.

The national competition will be similar to the state contest that was held March 11, with an introduction, interview and passion presentation.

During those other portions, she was asked about her family and her dogs, Athena and Cosmo, and about her inspiration to be a forensic scientist. She also talked about getting sodas with her dad; her favorite is Dracula’s Kiss that is made with Diet Dr. Pepper, white chocolate and cream.

Winning the Miss Amazing Miss Queen title was special to Miranda Clegg.

“I was very proud of myself; it was a big accomplishment,” she said. “It means I now have a way that I can change the world and advocate for people with disabilities to get what is needed.” l

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Utah’s Miss Amazing Miss Queen Miranda Clegg won the state title and will compete in the national contest in July. (Photo courtesy of the Clegg family)

Art, math, science create a complete picture of learning

Art has some surprising real-world applications, said Angela Garside, arts integration specialist at Oquirrh Elementary.

“Origami principles have been used to help in the space program to get things up into space and have helped in the medical field when they do some of their surgeries to make things smaller and then unfold and be larger inside so they don't have a big incision,” Garside said.

Garside works with elementary students to provide artistic exploration of concepts they learn in the classroom. Origami is just one art application.

Some of the projects she plans begin with art and then integrate with the curriculum. Sixth grade students were allotted 100 beads to create an art piece. They applied math skills to calculate the percentages of each color they used.

Other projects begin as an academic lesson and then become art. Second graders learned about physical changes for their science curriculum by melting plastic cups. They had colored a design on them first, so that when they melted, the final products looked like blown glass bowls.

Fourth grade teacher Jessica Burraston said Garside uses a variety of elements of art to engage the students in learning.

“She’s really good at reinforcing what we’re doing in the classroom but also making it creative,” she said. Her students created 3D topographic maps of Utah with clay, which helped them better visualize and understand the various terrains they’d been learning about.

Fourth grade teacher Tori Davie said kids learn from and enjoy the hands-on activities.

“It allows them to express themselves creatively, as opposed to just sitting in the classroom,” Davie said.

This year, students experimented and learned with clay, paint, paper, watercolors and plastic. Their final products were displayed at the Annual Family Arts Night held at the end of the school year.

“My goal is just to give the students the opportunity

By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com

to show their family or the community what they have done, take some pride in ownership in the work that they've been doing and learning, and share that with the community,” Garside said. “They love to see their art and to be able to share something that they've done that they feel proud of.”

Lorelai, a kindergartener, was excited to see the clay turtle she made, its shell textured by the sole of her shoe, displayed at the art show along with the picture she drew of its habitat.

“It makes me happy and proud,” she said. l

Lorelai, a kindergartener, proudly shows the turtle she made from clay while learning about animal habitats. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

Watercolor pictures and poems created by fourth graders, inspired by their science lesson about Pando, the largest living organism, an aspen tree grove in Utah.

Clay dragon eyes, representing creatures in various cultural myths and stories, made by sixth graders studying world cultures. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

Kindergarten students created clay turtles and then drew a habitat for them. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

Origami projects displayed at Oquirrh Elementary Family Art Night. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

Sports Day gives students of all abilities the opportunity to be champions

By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com

South Jordan Elementary fifth-grader Conner Rosenthal was excited that he’d have the chance to jump “twice my height.”

“I’ve been practicing a lot on my jumping and for all the events,” he said, adding that he wants to participate in track and field when he’s in high school. “I like getting the ribbons and medals.”

Conner was gearing up for Jordan School District’s Sports Day.

The day is an opportunity for students of all abilities — those who have Autism, Down syndrome, learning disabilities, language disabilities, intellectual disabilities, those physically challenged with walkers and wheelchairs and other multiple disabilities — to come together to compete in a 50-meter dash, long jump, softball throw and “cross country,” or the 400-meter run.

Matched with other students of similar abilities in small groups, students are challenged within their own level during Sports Day. Some schools sent peer student-athletes to help, encourage and participate alongside those competing.

“I like how kids are competing against themselves and others, but more so, how they’re given a chance to show what they can do and have fun,” River’s Edge teacher Carnell Cummings said, who brought eight students to participate. “Today, it’s all about them. Sports Day makes them be Olympians for a day.”

Daybreak Elementary second-grader Oliver Casserilla was getting ready to compete.

“Oliver is nonverbal, but he loves to run,” his dad, Mark Casserilla, said. “Sometimes he just runs and runs; the teachers have to chase him because he loves to run so much. Sports Day gives him more opportunity to play sports.”

Oliver and some of his classmates already play baseball for the South Jordan Miracle.

“It’s great having all these opportunities for these kids, because a lot of times, they don’t have them. Just having this love and support and good energy is so helpful to them,” Casserilla said, who added that his son plans to compete in unified sports in middle and high school.

Daybreak parent Morgan Meyers also appreciates Sports Day.

“There are so many places, maybe 80 percent of the environments, where he doesn’t fit in,” she said about her second-grade son, Landon. “So having a place where he does fit in and is included and is supportive, just the way he is, is special. It’s also nice for these kids who are a little different to be surrounded with other kids who are different, so they can say, ‘I’m not the only one who doesn’t necessarily always fit the mold.’ Often, they go to their siblings’ events and they’ll say ‘that’s great, but where do I fit?’ So this is nice for them to see a lot of kids who don’t necessarily fit the mold.”

Landon was looking forward to the softball throw, participating with his friends and “doing this together.”

Meyers said she appreciates her son’s school as well as Sports Day.

“I love that he’s in an environment where he’s really supported. He’s with like peers and they have resources to provide for him what he needs as an individual and that he has opportunities like Sports Day to really shine,” she said.

Fifth-grader Malakai McIntyre and his twin brother, Elijah, were competing with their South Jordan Elementary classmates.

“My brother and I both got first place running last year,” Malakai said, adding that their ribbons are displayed at home. “Cross country is my favorite. I can run for miles and miles.”

He was looking forward to meeting up with his friends from a previous school he attended.

“I get to see them and race them,” Malakai said.

Elijah, who also was looking forward to seeing his old friends, was concentrating on the 50-yard dash.

“It’s my favorite because I can focus on one thing — just aim straight and run fast,” he said. “At school, we practice them all, throwing, jumping and running far.”

Their mother, Melanie Candelaria, was cheering on her sons at Sports Day.

“I think they’re competing against each other more than anybody else, but I’ve raised them to know they’re only competing against themselves, and they’re there to support each other,” she said. “Malakai has come a long way. He has hydrocephalus and a brain tumor. He wasn’t even supposed to walk, let alone run. Elijah was born clinically dead and spent five weeks in the NICU. He didn’t talk until he was 8. He used to walk on his tippy toes, but he had surgery last year on both of his legs and was in a cast for six weeks. The fact that they’re here and competing and just having fun is an absolute win for me.”

Still, Candelaria said the boys are “very competitive.”

“It’s great they have this opportunity,” she said. “Sports Day has provided much excitement for these kids; there’s a lot of joy and smiles.” l

Riverside Elementary’s Angel (Luis) Navaro Salinas gets a medal after his cross country run at Sports Day. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

Students from multiple West Jordan schools took part in Jordan School District’s Sports Day. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

Jake Romero is a rising star in Utah’s growing, competitive world of… steak barbequing

By Carl Fauver | c.fauver@mycityjournals.com

What’s handy about writing a story about your next-door neighbor’s unusual pastime is, you don’t have to go far to get the interview. It starts in the driveway:

“Whatcha up to this weekend, Jake?”

“We’re loading up the camp trailer to drive to my next steak cookoff.”

“Oh – going someplace secluded to barbeque – that’s nice.”

“Well, this is actually a competition. I’m trying to earn my way back into the Steak Cookoff World Championship in Texas.”

“The what?! Never mind – will you come over when you get back, so we can talk about it more? I think I smell a story.”

“Tell you what Carl – I’ll come over, if you mow down that ridiculous sea of dandelions in your front yard!”

Three days later – after the neighbor on the other side tamed the rough waters of my dandelion sea (funny, they both hate them –but those yellow, “mini-flowers” have never bothered me) – Jake Romero dropped over to introduce me to the Steak Cookoff Association (SCA, for those in the know steakcookoffs. com).

“My best friends Luisa Alfonso and Casey Casper introduced me to SCA competitions and my first one was in October 2020 in Las Vegas,” Romero explained. “Eventually, I qualified for the World Championship in Texas and attended it in March 2022. I was qualified for this year’s event; but we couldn’t go because that’s when our baby was born. And I am already qualified for the Texas finals next spring. In total, I have had 45 steaks judged since I started competing.”

Romero’s fiancé Sydnee joins him for nearly all of the competitions; and new son Austin (born March 14) has also been to a few. Not enough teeth yet, though, to sample Dad’s award-winning fare.

“Sydnee loves to help out,” Romero added. “She hands me seasonings. But only the competitors are actually allowed to do anything with the meat.”

Ah yes… like any competition, there are as many rules as my lawn had dandelions.

“I have only ever cooked ribeye steaks; but there are competitions for ribs, chicken or many different ancillaries (jalapeno poppers, wings, desserts, etc.),” Romero added. “Competitors can use any heat source they want. I use charcoal briquettes in my 12” by 16” grill. I normally cook two steaks – a practice cut, along with the one I submit for judging. A panel of five judges review our steaks, scoring on: appearance, doneness, taste, texture and overall impression.”

Romero has competed in Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Utah. The primary organizer of all SCA competitions here in Utah, Steve John-

son, says Romero is among the best grillers in our state.

“Jake finished 4th among all our Utah competitors in 2022 and is now 2nd in the state this year,” Johnson said. “He’s one of our top performers and definitely one of the guys to beat. When I first began competitive barbequing, there were maybe 10 to 15 competitors here in Utah. Now I’d say it’s 40 to 45. And our competitions here in the state draw grillers from all over the west.”

Based in Lehi, Johnson makes his primary living selling medical laboratory equipment. A dozen years ago, he found himself with some “extra space” in his healthcare supply building. So, he decided to open BBQ Pit Stop (bbqpitstop.com). But be forewarned: if you visit Johnson’s store, you will leave just as hungry as when you entered. This is NOT a sandwich shop.

“We sell smokers, grills, rubs, sauces, wood pellets and all kinds of other barbeque supplies,” he explained. “We also sell lots of specialty meats: briskets, brats – even hams and turkeys, seasonally. But we are not a restaurant. Compare BBQ Pit Stop to a golf shop. If you need help with your putting or your slice, you visit a golf shop for tips, and maybe some equipment. In our shop, we offer barbequing tips – along with sauces, spices and other things to help make the meat that much tastier.”

His business plan must be working. In addition to his Lehi store, Johnson has franchised out five more BBQ Pit Stops in: Layton, Logan, Murray, Payson and St. George. You can also view him offering barbequing tips on YouTube.

In just over a month this spring, Romero entered steaks into competitions in American Fork, Las Vegas, Nevada, Show Low (northeast of Phoenix), Arizona and Salt Lake City. Of the eight meat cuts he shared with judging panels at those events, six placed in the top ten. More importantly, one of the steaks finished first – earning Romero his “Golden Ticket.”

Steak Cookoff Association World Championship organizers are clearly fans of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Just like the movie characters – Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Mike Teavee, Violet Beauregarde and Charlie Bucket – the only way for grilling competitors to enter the Texas showdown is by holding a “Golden Ticket.”

Barbequers earn their ticket by placing first at a regional competition. Or they can get a “pass down” Golden Ticket, if they finish 2nd – and the 1st place winner has already claimed their Golden Ticket. Romero has earned his chocolate factory, er, World Championship ticket three years running.

“Winning or placing high is fun; but I do this because the people are nice and there’s a great sense of inclusion at these events,” he concluded. “We are competitive. But we also try to help each other. It’s a great activity for families. I just bought a camp trailer to stay at the events – and to have our friends stay with us.”

Steve Johnson sees it about the same way.

“Competitive grilling is fun for the whole family and we have cooks of all different ages,”

he said. “The comradery among our grillers is so much fun. It’s an inviting atmosphere. Sure, they all love to earn money and other prizes at our competitions. But they are also always willing to help each other out – to make it fun for everyone.”

Just a sea of happy, steak-grilling competitors – not unlike the mini-flower dandelion sea that adorned my front yard, one neighbor mowing ago. l

Jake Romero and fiancé Sydnee made their way down to Texas last year for the Steak Cookoff World Championship outside Dallas. (Courtesy Jake Romero)

Jake Romero carefully prepares his grill before placing his steak down a total of 4 times to create its perfectly-placed grill marks. (Courtesy Jake Romero)

Carr ying a legacy. And a new name.

Jordan Valley Medical Center is now Holy Cross Hospital - Jordan Valley. We're honoring our namesake and honored to care for our community. Find us at five Holy Cross Hospital locations and more than 45 clinics along the Wasatch Front.

Holy Cross Hospital

Jordan Valley

Formerly Jordan Valley Medical Center

West Jordan’s emergency manager stresses preparation

West Jordan wants businesses and residents to be ready for an emergency. Natural disasters are a real threat right now, with wildfires on the rise in addition to the flooding that is occurring as a result of Spring runoff. Utah also has the threat of M7.0 earthquakes.

“It is wise to be prepared with food, energy and financial security,” West Jordan Emergency Manager Jeff Mulcahy said.

If there was a widespread emergency in Utah, resources in Salt Lake County would be depleted fast. The surrounding Salt Lake County Emergency Management would be out of resources and low on help. It would take FEMA and other government organizations time to help those in dire need. Residents would be on their own for a long period of time and be competing with each other for resources.

Wildfires and flooding will have a bigger effect on the eastside as opposed to the westside, but there could be flooding anywhere in the state. West Jordan is mitigating risks and has sandbags ready for flooding.

“Residents and businesses need to take the precaution and prepare themselves as well. There might not be a big flooding hazard to the city but there could be flooding individually,” Mulcahy said.

Eighteen months ago, Mulcahy set up a public outreach for resident emergency preparedness. “The more training residents and businesses have, the more quickly they will recover.”

This emergency preparedness is patterned after an old FEMA program called Citizen Corps. Mulcahy calls the program Citizens Readiness Corps. The concept isn't new, but it is new to West Jordan where meetings are held monthly for residents to show up and learn about emergency preparedness.

“About 30-40 people usually show up for the meetings,” Mulcahy said.

Eventually Mulcahy would like to have volunteers who would become Emergency Preparedness Leaders. “The EPLs would be leaders and build a team in their community and head up Neighborhood Rapid Assessment and give information to the Emergency Operations Center.”

Mulcahy will be meeting with amateur radio operators to discuss setting up a West Jordan Amateur Radio Club to help with emergency communications. The residents could volunteer to work as communication operators and eventually work with EPLs and in the Emergency Operations Center. Many amateur radio operators check in weekly to a network promoted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

By Linda Steele | l.steele@mycityjournals.com

In April 2023 the city participated in a FEMA Emergency Management Course. This course provided emergency and disaster exercises. All city employees who are members of the Emergency Management Team participated in the course along with stakeholders such as Utah Transit Authority, Jordan School District, Rocky Mountain Power, American Red Cross, Salvation Army and other companies and individual volunteers.

Mayor Dirk Burton and Chief Administrator Korban Lee support Mulcahy in the effort to educate businesses, residents and employees who are the disaster responders. The city has put together a new EOC which will be in use when the remodel of the city hall is finished. The city will exercise a Comprehensive Emergency Plan twice a year.

“In the Spring of 2024 we will be facilitating a full-scale exercise in the city, meaning we won't sit in a room and talk about what we would do during a proposed scenario, but will roll trucks to test our operational coordination, communications, public information warning, mass care response and more.” Mulcahy said.

There is an emergency preparedness meeting for residents held the last Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at the West Jordan Fire Station 53 (7602 South Landing Blvd.). Information on these events can be found on the City of West Jordan website or Facebook page. l

Jeff Mulcahy Emergency Manager in West Jordan. (Courtesy City of West Jordan)

West Jordan Police Department. (Courtesy of West Jordan)

West Jordan Fire Department. (Courtesy of West Jordan)

Firefighter helps with the children squirting the fire hose. (Courtesy of West Jordan)

Pup Cups Coffee supports local animal rescue efforts

Rachelle Coburn had worked in the mortgage industry for 15 years and was ready for a change. She asked herself, “In a perfect world, what would I love to do?” The answer was to run an animal rescue sanctuary, but she wasn’t in a position to do that. So, she did the next best thing.

“I love dogs and I love coffee, so I thought ‘let’s see if we can help raise money for local rescues,’” she said. “Then I can work with them and learn the ins-andouts and build those relationships. So I just took a shot and here we are.”

Pup Cups Coffee opened in April at the Coffee and Treasures Thrift Store in West Jordan at 7136 S. Redwood Road. Partnering with animal rescue groups like Best Friends, CAWS, Adventure Buddies and Rescue Rovers, the coffee shop allows customers to round up their change to donate to animal rescue, or they can make a donation.

Teaming with a different rescue organization each month, Pup Cups Coffee will host adoption events where people can meet dogs looking for their forever homes. Since puppies are usually adopted quickly, Coburn spotlights older dogs in her shop, hoping people will provide a loving home for them.

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

On July 8 and July 29, dog and coffee lovers are invited to stop by Pup Cups Coffee for adoption events. Coburn said it’s a great opportunity to take the dogs for a walk, have them meet other pets and kids and spend some time getting to know them.

“We have an area with a permanent shade structure…and it's out back so it's quiet,” she said. “It's a neighborhood back there so it's quiet and calm, there’s no added stress because the dogs are already traumatized. If people already have a dog, they can bring them to meet the dog to make sure it's a good fit.”

Coburn’s husband, Bryant, owns the Coffee and Treasures and his suggestion to reconfigure the back of the store into a coffee shop was the perfect idea. It has allowed Coburn to connect with animal lovers to match dogs with the right home.

In the coffee shop, customers can learn about rescues who have spent more than 100 days in foster care, waiting for adoption. She also accepts donations of unopened bags of dog food, blankets, toys, puppy pads, Clorox wipes, poop bags and plastic gloves so rescue organizations don’t have to spend money on those items.

“They do a lot of fundraisers, they

have to apply for grants and things like that to get funding to provide care for the animals,” she said. “[That money can go toward] veterinary care, getting their vaccines, spay and neuters, and microchips. Some [dogs] have illnesses that they need to be treated, or injuries. So a lot of that money can go to the vet bills versus food and toys.”

Not only does the shop specialize in helping dogs, it also has an extensive drink menu. Coburn loves experimenting with flavors to bring new coffee and tea experiences to her customers. Her favorites include the Doxie Latte with butter pecan and white chocolate, and the English Sheepdog with Earl Gray tea, lavender and honey. A complete menu can be found at toasttab.com/pup-cups-coffee.

“I'm just a lover of all animals,” Coburn said. “This is just a starting point for me. I just can't resist, you know. If I could save them all and keep them all I would, but realistically I can't. I was trying to find a way to give back and help them find homes that aren't mine.” l

Rachelle Coburn, owner of Pup Cups Coffee, is joined by her husband Bryant Coburn and their two dachshunds, Frankie and Beans, their coonhound Hugsley, and Otis, a pit bull mix. Coburn’s coffee shop supports animal rescue efforts throughout the state of Utah. (Photo courtesy of the Coburn family)

Each of the 75 students in Westland Elementary School’s Junior Choir had a special role to highlight their skills in their spring production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's “Cinderella.” Even the wiggly second grader with ADHD.

“This year we actually have some kids who I think have more trouble sitting still, in general,” Junior Choir Director Amanda VandenAkker said. “But they have so much fun, and it makes me happy that they have something that they're not getting in trouble, they're singing and having fun.”

She was a little concerned about how one of the youngest and most active students would impact the performance, but he stayed on task as one of the featured dancers. “He does the moves exactly right, he stays where he's supposed to be, and I can tell that he really enjoys being here,” VandenAkker said.

VandenAkker wrangled nearly 80 first, second and third graders twice a week for 30 minutes for four months to prepare for the performance. Students were featured in group singing numbers, solos, dances and narration parts. Older students helped backstage.

“I try and make opportunities for everybody to have their own moments,” VandenAkker said. “This show definitely highlighted a lot of kids.”

Choir production creates a role for everyone

By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com

VandenAkker believes the experience of being part of a musical production at a young age helps them figure out who they are.

“I think it's important, because as kids get older and are in middle school, especially, and in high school, and they are not quite sure who they are yet, that they have a group—a family—to define themselves. [Music programs] are so important, because not everybody's a jock, and not everybody's a brain. This gives them a home. And so I do hope that some of these kids go on. I hope that they learn a love of music and participate in choirs at school as they get older, or however it is that they want to enjoy it, and that they see themselves as, instead of just a watcher, as somebody that can participate.”

She said music and theater are great outlets that can be a source of joy for many young people.

“There's so much around us that's negative, and there's so much depression and things of that nature right now, and this is just something that can make them happy, that they could do to affect their own happiness,” she said.

Like the coach of a sports team, VandenAkker teaches choir members to have a teamwork mindset.

“We talk about how our choir is a team,

and we need to be kind to each other, and we support each other, and we want everybody to be the best that they can be,” she said. “You sing the best that you can and it makes everybody sound good.”

The team was thrilled with the support from school staff and from parent volunteers, who created a giant clock, a chandelier made

out of glittering hula hoops, a fireplace prop out of a piano and 65 sets of mouse ears for the show.

“It really raises the level of excitement when [the kids] come in and they see all of this work that was put in for them,” VandenAkker said. l

Westland Elementary School’s Junior Choir performs Rodgers and Hammerstein's “Cinderella,” May 2023. (Photo courtesy of Amanda VandenAkker)

Groovy celebration held for Terra Linda Elementary School’s 50th year

By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com

Tricia (Perry) Troester, who was a kindergarten student at Terra Linda Elementary School in 1973, the year the school opened, said she got chills when she saw her name listed in the yellowed yearbook she dug out from among the pile of past years’ memorabilia at Terra Linda Elementary School’s 50th birthday celebration. She looked into the black and white faces of the school’s very first morning kindergarten class and remembered many of them.

Troester was one of the hundreds of past and current students and staff members who attended the open house May 25 to celebrate their time as a Terra Linda Tiger. Principal Yajaira Martinez said there was a good turn-out from students, their families and from the community. The celebration included a photo booth, food trucks, birthday cake, as well as a variety of 70’s themed games and activities, such as bingo, ring toss, hula hoops and disco dancing, all of which were popular in 1973 when the school opened.

Celebration Committee Chairperson Angel Nelson said many people spent time perusing the old albums and yearbooks.

“The most popular station, by far, was the old photo albums we had on display,” she said.

As she bounced between the various activities, Nelson said she discovered some great stories of past students, such as two women, who were in their 50s, whose lifelong friendship had begun when they attended Terra Linda Elementary School together as children.

Dorrelyn (Young) Smith, who has been a teacher at Terra Linda Elementary for 17 years, is known as the mom of Terra Linda, because she’s been there the longest. She has taught first, sixth, and fourth grade and has led the Terra Linda Tones choir for 13 years. She’s been at the school long enough now that she is now teaching the children of some of her former students.

Smith reminisced with past students and parents about the changes she has witnessed at the school over the years.

“I've seen great teachers come and go,” Smith said. “I've seen the times when we've had eight portables outside and

teachers in the kiva. I've seen the old playground replaced with the new. I've seen us go from no computer lab, to having a computer lab, to not having a computer lab because kids have chromebooks in the classroom now. I have seen the band grow big enough that we actually have a band teacher rather than a parent volunteer. I've seen the ceiling fall in the school, and I've seen the remodel.”

Smith believes the changes Terra Linda Elementary has experienced over the past 50 years are good. “As times have changed, we had to change, because kids change, and the way

they learn changes,” Smith said.

Terra Linda Elementary was originally built with an open classroom design. The current design has a secure entry and individual classrooms which are equipped with audio enhancement and digital projection systems.

The Terra Linda Elementary School building is the third oldest elementary school in Jordan School District. Westland Elementary School celebrated their 50th anniversary last year. Westvale Elementary School is 56 years old. l

Terra Linda Elementary fourth grade teachers Dorrelyn (Young) Smith and Angel Nelson dressed in celebratory ’70s clothing for an enthusiastic game of bingo. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

Tricia Perry Troester shows her daughter and grandson her kindergarten class picture from 50 years ago. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

Sixth-grade teacher Julie Barnson catches up with Quinn Burnham, a former student, on the disco dance floor at Terra Linda Elementary School’s 50th Birthday Celebration. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

Photo: Don Polo Photography

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Utah’s historic snowpack creates a colorful flower display in Canyonlands

Utah’s historic snowpack has gained much recognition for the most snow on record for the state, ever. Ski resorts relished in endless feet of snow that never seemed to stop. As seasons have shifted from winter into spring and now into summer, that snowpack is gushing down canyons, flooding neighborhoods and refilling the desperate Great Salt Lake, at least a little bit. While also bringing a colorful surprise emerging from the ground.

Canyonlands National Park, just south of Moab, is amidst a superbloom bringing color and lush flora to the desolate landscape. “The only year I remember with a comparable wildflower year to this one was 2005,” said Mary Moran, a retired Vegetation and Water Technician who has lived in Moab for the last 35 years.

“Above average rainfall and precipitation,” has brought thousands of native plants out of dormancy, said Neal Dombrowski, a horticulturist and botanist at Red Butte Garden. The high water saturation in the ground has allowed seeds to germinate. “These plants are producing seeds year after year and they don’t get the right conditions to grow,” Dombrowski said. “The seeds are waiting in the soil for that perfect condition, which in this case, is above normal precipitation, and they all germinate at once.”

“Just about every seed I think possible germinated,” said Robb Hannawacker, an interpretive park ranger in Canyonlands National Park.

There were curious patches of dense flower coverage while other areas saw regular desert floor. “Part of why is soil drainage,” Hannawacker said.

“Different wildflowers have different soil preferences; some are very picky; others are not,” Moran said.

The patchiness of the bloom, Moran said, is also based on the plants’ ecological counterparts. “There’s also the factor of pollinators, and whether they are abundant enough and in temporal sync with the flowers of that species.”

Although the water is greatly welcomed in this state of ongoing drought, “drought defines the desert,” Hannawacker said. “If we receive too much moisture, it is likely that nonnative vegetation may have a competitive edge.” Like cheatgrass. The same high water saturation allowing the vast array of native wildflowers to emerge allows cheatgrass to make “a near monoculture,” Hannawacker said. “Cheatgrass and other nonnative annual grasses have short lives starting from seeds in the spring, then growing quickly, outcompeting native wildflowers (spoiling that area’s superbloom).” While also creating greater likelihood of offseason wildfires from their drying and dying coupled with human ignorance. “When burned, cheatgrass is like gunpowder, creating unnaturally early season wildfires that are intense, fast and widespread,” Hannawacker said.

By Genevieve Vahl | g.vahl@mycityjournals.com

“The invasives can crowd out native species, encourage dominance of nonnative generalist pollinators over specialized ones that some natives rely on and carry wildfires in systems not adapted to fire,” Moran said. “I see biodiversity loss on this planet as a threat equal to that of climate change.”

Regulations in and around the park like no legal livestock grazing and strict enforcement of off highway vehicle travel helps keep intact essential ecological players to counter attacks from invasives. “These regulations help to protect our biological soil crust that is a pivotal component of a healthy Colorado Plateau desert,” Hannawacker said. What looks like black, lumpy crust on top of what would be the orange sand of the desert, microbial and cryptogamic organism structures keep the desert winds and rains from washing all the sand away.

“Living soil crusts are found throughout the world. In the desert, these crusts are dominated by cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), but also include lichens, mosses, green algae, microfungi and bacteria,” Vegetation Specialist Jane Rodgers wrote for the National Park Service.

Loose soil particles are joined together by the cyanobacteria leaving behind a sticky sheath material when activated by rains, forming intricate webbings of fibers across the desert floor in otherwise highly erosion-prone areas. “Basically, they hold the place in place,” Rodgers said. “These sheaths build up in soil over long periods of time. Not only do they protect the soil from blowing away; they also absorb precious rainfall (reducing flash flood runoff) and provide a huge surface area for nutrients to cling to.”

Crypto and native flowers work synchronously together. The layer keeps the soil and nutrients intact for native plants to thrive while acting like mulch in preventing desert weeds like cheatgrass from taking over.

Although regulations are in place, unfettered, unregulated human activity can be a major risk to this essential desert keeper. Walking off trail, livestock stomping through, motor vehicles going wherever, can ruin these decades-old soils in a matter of seconds. “Under the best circumstances, a thin veneer may return in five to seven years,” Rodgers said. Hannawacker and Rodgers both avidly promote staying on designated trails, walk single file if you find yourself in a crypto field and stay on roads within the parks. “To get that photograph, it’s tempting to walk on decades-old biological soils to get closer, but please do not,” Hannawacker said. “Your footprints invite more footprints, then more footprints and so on.” Those disturbed areas invite invasives right in, outcompeting native wildflowers. “It’s remarkable how well these microbial structures prevent cheatgrass from establishing, where many native species benefit from biological soil crust,” Hannawacker said.

“The desert will thank you for this in years to come, with bountiful wildflower displays in the crusted areas, as well as with land kept in place and a healthy ecosystem,” Rodgers said. Just as populous as the native wildflowers are the fields of thriving crypto, keeping our desert intact.

“Every good flowering year has at least some difference in its mixture of abundant species because every species responds differently to different weather patterns,” Moran said. The superblooming desert globemallow specifically took the reins this year. “This year it’s globemallow heaven,” Hannawacker said.

Also known as the apricot mallow for its namesake’s bright orange color, the bowlshaped flowers could be mistaken for the desert floor until further inspection, where hundreds of the plants clustered in fields sway in the breeze. These are an early colonizing species, ones to first take over disturbed areas after things like wildfires and abandoned mines, serving as a great revegetation plant that suppresses invasive species. They require full sun, providing habitat for pollinators like native bees and butterflies with its rich source of honey and nectar. Also serving as food to the bighorn sheep, livestock and desert tortoise.

The stems were used by the Yavapai people to make trays for drying saguaro fruit or slabs of pounded mescal. The Shoshoni people used the plant to apply to cuts, swellings or rheumatisms, decoctions taken internally for upset stomachs, colds and as treatment for infectious diseases. As seen in Canyonlands, globemallows are found in sandy, rocky or gravelly soil, in sandy washes and rocky hillsides as well as along roadsides.

The Canyonlands visitors center had a plant identifying display of the other native wildflowers in bloom. As a reminder, “within a national park, it is illegal to collect anything, such as wildflowers,” Hannawacker said. “These are the reproductive parts of plants, and the primary resource for thousands of local pollinators.”

“There’s an abundance of flowers and they are blooming for longer because of the available water, especially with our weather forecasts lately with a little bit of rain here and there which has prolonged the blooms,” Dombrowski said.

“I'm excited for the park visitors who may be creating their own extraordinary memories when they visit these natural areas,” Hannawacker said. l

Antelope horns, a native wildflower to the area, in bloom in Canyonlands National Park. (Genevieve Vahl/City Journals)

These periwinkle larkspurs created great contrast sprinkled amongst the orange globemallow fields. (Sierra Gasperoni)

A field of crypto, the black crust that preserves the desert from erosion, well intact. (Genevieve Vahl/ City Journals)

The superblooming native species desert globemallow taking the reins on the desert landscape this year. (Genevieve Vahl/City Journals)

Kids get a taste of local produce, marketing experience and the future of school lunch

By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com

Did you know oranges are good for your eyesight? The fifth and sixth graders at Advantage Arts Academy learned this and other facts as they prepared to sell local fruits and vegetables at their own farmer’s market, held May 11 in partnership with A & Z Produce and Lunch Pro.

Students prepared for the farmers market by researching a specific food, learning about its season, growing climate, role in the ecosystem and health benefits. Cindy Jahnsen, arts integration specialist at AAA, said the event gave students experience with food safety rules, customer service skills and math skills in weighing produce and calculating prices.

Rosie, a sixth-grader, became a fan of oranges after learning interesting facts about them and finding recipes that use them. “I learned about the produce I’m selling, and the more I learn, the more I want to eat them,” she said.

That was Dave Hirst’s goal when he organized the school farmer’s market.

“I really wanted to do something different and handson learning for the kids,” Hirst said. “I wanted kids to learn that food doesn't always come from a grocery store, and that food is fun and fresh and it’s colorful.”

Hirst is the director of operations and compliance at Lunch Pro, the food service management company that provides school lunches to Advantage Arts Academy and other local charter schools. They create meals that appeal to kids and that meet the USDA guidelines.

“We want kids to eat, and we want them to enjoy what they’re eating,” Hirst said.

He and his team are anticipating the changes coming to the USDA school lunch guidelines starting for the 2024-25 school year by experimenting with recipes with reduced sodium and sugar. At the Advantage Arts Academy farmer’s market, Hirst offered students samples of a new recipe his team had developed.

Hirst said school lunch guidelines change often and some, such as the extreme limitations and caloric restrictions of the federal government’s Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, have contributed to the negative reputation of school lunch food.

“The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act decimated school lunch,” Hirst said. “That really took the school lunch workers by surprise because manufacturers weren’t ready for that. To avoid that happening again, we’re starting now in our test kitchens. We're investing a lot of money and time finding foods that we can make so that our kids don't have to go through those same struggles.”

Utah State Office of Education Farm-to-School Coordinator Kate Wheeler said exposure and education are effective ways to combat negative views of school lunches.

“People still think of school lunches as a scoop of slop on a plate and that’s not always true,” she said. Her department encourages and supports school lunch coordinators to implement engaging activities, like a school farmer’s market, that educate children and community members about local agriculture and healthy eating.

“School lunch programs, in general, do a lot of really neat stuff like this, and just nobody knows about it,” Wheeler said.

Fun food education activities are held at many free lunch distribution locations during the summer months.

During the last week of June, some locations participated in Squash Summer Hunger by incorporating some of Utah’s 20 varieties of summer squash into their summer lunch offerings. There was a contest to see which participating location could get the most people to try a squash dish, as well as a social media engagement contest. l

Students researched fruits and vegetables and then shared what they learned as they sold them at a farmer’s market. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

Students created their own signs and calculated weight and prices at the farmer’s market. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

I really wanted to do something different and hands-on learning for the kids.

I wanted kids to learn that food doesn’t always come from a grocery store, and that food is fun and fresh and it’s colorful.

Dave Hirst

Read, create and connect through county library summer reading program

By Ella Joy Olsen | e.olsen@mycityjournals.com

Remember those lazy days of summer? When there was nothing to do but stretch out on the hammock with a good book and read? Well, summer is coming and the Salt Lake County Library System wants to encourage kids to stretch out with a good book, to keep those reading skills fresh throughout the summer. But summer is for more than reading. And this year the summer reading challenge encourages much more than that.

The program runs June 1 to July 31, and it isn’t just for kids. “Everyone can participate and everyone can win,” said Paula Burgon, Youth Services librarian at the West Jordan Library. “Adult, teen or child, everyone loves a reward. And the best reward is a book.”

The theme for this year is All Together Now and focuses on bringing families, friends and community together to read, create, learn, play and connect. It is a library sponsored reading program, so of course there are prizes for reading, but the program also encourages other types of activities which can be logged toward redeeming a reward. Participants can reach out to a new friend (connect), try a new game (play), paint a picture for a neighbor (create), eat a food they’ve never tried before (learn), or even write a nice note to the mail carrier (connect). Ultimately, it’s about creating unity and kindness in the local commu-

nity.

To get the party started there will be a Summer Reading Kickoff at three different branch libraries: Daybreak, West Jordan and the newest library in the system, the Granite Library. Look for food trucks, live music and crafts varying from branch to branch, such as making kindness rocks, blowing monster bubbles and beading bracelets. The kickoff will be on June 2, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Often parents will challenge their children to curl up with a good book by logging their own reading time, so the reading program creates connection within the whole family. And everyone who participates gets a prize: a new book of their choosing.

Kids (and parents) can pick up materials at any branch library starting now. Or participants can simply create an account and start recording their activities and reading online. However, the reading and activity log will eventually need to be returned in person to a branch library to redeem the prize. Finishers will also be entered into a drawing for passes to one of several local fun spots like the aquarium, zoo, fun centers and museums.

Historically, the program has been very popular. According to Laura Renshaw, manager at the Millcreek Library, “Last year, systemwide we had about 17,000 kids who fin-

ished and took home a free book. Plus there were 8,000 adults, 3,000 pre-readers and over 2,000 teens.”

The county library system consists of 18 branch libraries located from as far south as

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Herriman, west to Magna and east to Millcreek. For more information, visit your local branch or visit online at www.slcolibrary.org/ summer-reading/srp. l

The colorful children’s section at the Millcreek Library is ready for early readers. (Ella Joy Olsen/City Journals)

Utah Supreme Court project will give people access to free legal advice on housing issues

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

Asevictions and landlord-tenant disputes increase, the Utah Supreme Court is stepping in with what it hopes will be a solution.

The Court’s Office of Legal Services Innovation, in partnership with Innovation 4 Justice, announced a groundbreaking project. The Housing Stability Legal Advocate Pilot Program will train and certify nonlawyers working within community-based organizations to help bridge the gap in access to justice for vulnerable populations.

“We have so many unrepresented tenants in our court system right now,” said Utah Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen. “When an eviction case is filed, generally the landlord is almost always represented and the tenant is almost always not represented. We have a lot of lawyers offering pro bono services for those tenants. The number of tenants in the system is staggering.”

Social workers trained as HSLAs will be able to provide legal advice to tenants who are facing eviction or other housing instability issues. The program is designed for early intervention to keep tenants out of the court system. Housing advocates will also help people who have been evicted to find housing assistance, get the eviction off their credit report after seven years and explain the financial ramifications of eviction.

Many attorneys provide free legal advice and services for those struggling with housing instability and legal aid clinics are available for those who qualify, but the need still outweighs the availability of these services.

The HSLA Pilot Program will focus on four key areas: detect housing instability issues as people receive services at community-based organizations, provide legal advice before

housing issues move into the court system, offer legal assistance for post-judgment procedures and give legal advice related to other state and federal assistance programs.

“The idea was to test different ways to deliver legal services to people who currently aren’t being served with a lawyer. We know about 86% of families experience at least one legal issue a year and most of those never get any legal advice,” Hagen said. “This is difficult for clients who really need some type of help and really can’t afford to hire a lawyer to get the assistance they need.”

Several years ago, the Court authorized a Paralegal Practitioner License where paralegals could offer limited legal services involving debt, family and housing issues. The HSLA is another attempt to reach people who need legal assistance who

might not have the financial means to hire an attorney.

Under the Utah constitution, the Court has exclusive authority to regulate the practice of law. Its responsibility is to decide who’s admitted to the practice of law, who can become lawyers, and to regulate those people to make sure they’re maintaining high ethical standards.

In 2020, the Court established a regulatory sandbox for nontraditional legal services providers. The sandbox allows individuals and entities to devise innovative practices that relax the rules around who can practice law, without creating undo harm.

“The sandbox is an experiment to see if perhaps our own rules are contributing to the access to justice gap in Utah. To see if the reason people are having a difficult time getting legal resources is because our rules are too restrictive,” Hagen said. “In the sandbox we are gathering a lot of data and we’re using that to determine what works and what doesn’t so we can make better policy decisions in the future.”

The HSLA program is about six months out, but then community-based organizations can begin the certification process to get authorized. Organizations that can certify include homeless and domestic violence shelters, faith-based programs or most programs that serve low-income individuals.

For more information, visit innovation4justice.org.

“We’re really hoping this can help people before they face a legal issue in court,” Hagen said. “The degree in which people are affected by housing problems can’t be overstated.”

The Utah Supreme Court will roll out the Housing Stability Legal Advocate Pilot Program to help tenants access free legal advice for housing instability issues like foreclosure and eviction. (Stock photo)

Jaguar softball enjoys productive year

Photos by Travis Barton

The

11-5 in nonregion games and despite going 2-8 in region, they defeated state runners-up Herriman 10-9 in region play. West Jordan earned the No. 14 seed for the 6A playoffs, sweeping Layton 12-4 and 10-9 in the regional before losing to 3-seed Skyridge in the super regional.

Senior Tatum Ballard pitches for the West Jordan High softball team against Riverton. The Jaguars went 13-13 on the year, playing in a tough Region 3 that featured four of the final eight teams in the 6A championship bracket.

Sophomore Paisley McQueen was one of the top hitters for the Jaguars this year, batting .437 and leading the team in RBIs with 40 and nine homeruns.

Arianna Fjelstead led the team in hits with 37 on the year. The sophomore will be part of a talented returning contingent including Paisley McQueen and Isabella Knight.

Jaguars went

Grizzlies baseball challenges for region title, upset in super regional

Photos by Travis Barton

Gage Olsen helped lead the Copper Hills High baseball team from the plate and the mound as the No. 2 starter. The senior led the team in batting with .407 average, 35 hits and 25 RBIs.

Senior Zach Nope led the team in stolen bases on the year. The Grizzlies finished the year 17-9, tying for second with Mountain Ridge at 11-4 despite winning the season series against Riverton who would win the region championship. Copper Hills faced region foe Bingham in the super regional as the No. 4 seed for the 6A state tournament, but would lose two close games to the Miners, 5-3 in both games.

Cole Skiby at the plate during a 6-1 win over Riverton. Skiby was part of a strong senior class with Gage Olsen, Connor Snook, Kohen Bullock and Austin Taylor. The team will return quality starters in Peyton Adams and Leandro Pena next year.

O2 Utah promotes cleaner air through elections and policy

House Bill 220, constructed and proposed by environmental nonprofit O2 Utah, passed unanimously in both chambers and was signed into law on March 14 with sponsorship from Sen. Kirk Cullimore and Rep. Andrew Stoddard, developing legislation to begin reducing the unfettered dumping of toxic halogens into our airshed.

O2 Utah’s mission is to “clean our state’s air and eliminate our contributions to climate change through elections and policy,” according to their website.

“I thought we needed an organization that followed a three-step plan,” said David Garbett, the director and founder of O2 Utah. “Step one, getting involved in elections; two, building relationships with policymakers; and three, giving them policy.”

Once an attorney with public lands groups, Garbett’s legal focus centered on air quality. “I didn’t see anybody putting forward a plan that said follow these steps if we want to get clean air,” Garbett said. “Before was a lot of telling legislators to do better, but not telling them how to do better.” Thus, the genesis of O2 Utah.

“I think that campaigns are really where policy starts, it’s the best opportunity for us to start influencing decision makers and helping build relationships,” Garbett said.

Although a nonprofit, O2 Utah is also a 501(c)(4), an organization that can endorse candidates, campaign and make donations. The organization campaigned to support Cullimore and Stoddard during their reelection in 2022, communicating with voters that these two candidates were going to work toward solving air quality issues in Utah. A messaging experiment they ran during that time found that swing voters are 16% more likely to support a pro-air quality candidate.

With legal backgrounds, Garbett and his team of five others have the capacity to write legal proposals that actually have weight, translating science concepts into legislative language and programs. “It’s one thing to have science on paper, but that is not going to get policy itself.”

“It’s a part of our theory that we need to give legislators a roadmap to get clean air, and we call that road map Prosperity 2030,” Garbett said. This “northstar” of theirs aims to cut emissions by 50% along the Wasatch Front by 2030. Those emissions reduced from the three main local polluters they’ve identified: transportation, homes and buildings and industrial sources.

HB 220 is one section working toward Prosperity 2030, focusing solely on industrial sources like halogens released as byproducts, like bromine. The bill conclusively requires the Division of Air Quality (DAQ) to make a recommendation to the legislature on a state halogen emissions limit by the end of 2024. In the meantime, DAQ must set a tech-based standard for bromine and other halogen emissions, requiring companies to use certain tools to limit

By Genevieve Vahl | g.vahl@mycityjournals.com

emissions. DAQ must identify and quantify all industrial sources of halogens. And, halogen emissions must be controlled no later than 2026. This compromised bill quickly passed through the House and Senate floors before Gov. Spencer Cox signed it into law on March 14.

Bromine can be found on the periodic table in the only element group that can exist as solid, liquid and gas. “The main polluter here are particles, sometimes called soot particles, that are typically measured as PM2.5, particulate matter 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller,” Garbett said. “These are really, really tiny particles that are damaging because if you breathe them in, they cause all kinds of problems.”

These particles come out of tailpipes, smokestacks, vents in homes and buildings. Anytime there is combustion. But that only accounts for 25 to 30% of the particles in the air during bad inversions. The majority of the particles come from chemical reactions that change gasses into these tiny particles. “Because we have that condition where the air is really still and there is sunlight at the top of that inversion, it causes chemical reactions that change gasses into tiny particles. That’s where bromine comes in,” Garbett said.

Combustion adds particulate matter, tiny soot particles, to the air. Combustion also produces gasses, which react in chemical reactions that change those gasses into more particulate matter in the air—a secondary formation. Creating a vicious cycle of reacting in those two ways, where bromine is a hypercharged producer of particulate matter.

“It’s a super reactant that when combining bromine during inversion with gasses that are already in the air, it makes a lot more particles form than you’d have otherwise.” But it’s not something the state nor the EPA have previously regulated.

US Magnesium is the main producer of magnesium in the country, located here because magnesium is extracted from salt deposits, also the only place bromine is found naturally. “It’s either the ocean or the Great Salt Lake,” Garbett said. So when processing these salts to extract magnesium, bromine is a byproduct. “Which they basically have been dumping into the airshed. Finding that it’s making our inversions anywhere from 10 to 25% worse,” Garbett said.

HB 220 evolved as it moved through the House and the Senate, with heavy opposition from industry. They got as far as amending the legislation to a “toothless study bill,” claiming they wanted more information before being sanctioned with limits and restrictions, taking a page from the “big tobacco playbook.” But thanks to the sponsors Cullimore and Stoddard, they amended the bill back to having teeth, successfully passing through the Senate. “Most of the coverage didn’t understand or appreciate that it went from a study to real action demanding bill because of the Senate,” Garbett said. Eventually garnering enough support, the bill passed unanimously in both chambers.

“The legislature took a great step,” Garbett said. “I want to commend them for that, it was a really big deal.”

Garbett and his team at O2 Utah are so adamant about improving the quality of air we breathe because of the capacity at which the poor air impacts our lives so negatively. “The best research says that we’re dying here in Utah two to five years earlier because of our bad air,” Garbett said, “and that has so many different health impacts and is a big drag on our economy.”

From employees calling out sick when the inversion is really bad, asthma flaring up

and needing medical attention, to people dying from heart attacks because the lungs have to work harder that ultimately puts more stress on the heart, the health impacts lead to economic impact, stunting the potential of this place. “Those sorts of impacts add up and it’s estimated to cost our economy, on a conservative estimate, about $2 billion annually.”

“Take US Magnesium for example, one cost of their product should be dealing with the pollution that makes people sick,” Garbett said. “They’re just offloading costs onto the public and that doesn’t get priced into the goods they’re producing.”

Developing science into direct legislative action to begin mitigating these negative impacts on our community in the Salt Lake Valley is exactly O2 Utah’s goals when passing important legislation like HB 220. “We can’t just have unfettered dumping of bromine into the air,” Garbett said.

Now the organization is going to continue following the path of their Prosperity 2030 goal, looking for any and all opportunities to do that.

“To see industry lose on an issue was really exciting. The people won here, clean air won. Thanks to hard work from legislators and sticking with that,” Garbett said. And the work of his small team working to improve the quality of life here in the Salt Lake Valley.

“The most important thing the public does is set priorities. The public doesn’t have to know the science, they don’t have to know the details,” Garbett said. “What they do know is that they hate our dirty air. That’s what should be conveyed to legislators, to help them understand this needs to be a higher priority.” l

Clear blue skies up Little Cottonwood Canyon in the fall. (Genevieve Vahl/City Journals)

A view from the foothills overlooking the valley with a layer of inversion looming over. (Genevieve Vahl/City Journals)

Make the farmers market your regular grocery outing

By Genevieve Vahl | g.vahl@mycityjournals.com

FARMERS MARKET CALENDAR

SUNDAY

Wheeler Sunday Market *

@ Wheeler Historic Farm, Murray

May 21 - Oct. 15 | 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

9th West Farmers Market

@ 1060 S. 900 West, Salt Lake City

June 13 - Oct. 10 | 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

MONDAY

Herriman Farmers Market *

@ J. Lynn Crane Park, Herriman

June 5 - Oct. 9 | 5 - 9 p.m.

Springville Farmers Market *

@ Springville Civic Center, Springville

July 3 - Oct. 30

July - Sept., 5 - 9 p.m.

October, 5 - 8 p.m.

TUESDAY

West Jordan Community Market

@ Ron Wood Park North parking lot, West Jordan

Second Tuesday of each month, June 13 - Sept. 12

July 11, Aug. 8, Sept. 12 | 5 - 8 p.m.

WEDNESDAY

New Roots Redwood Farmers Market *

@ Redwood Farm, West Valley City

June 21 - Oct. 18 | 4:30 – 7 p.m.

Park City Farmers Market

@ Canyons Resort Lower Level parking lot

June 7 - Oct. 18 | 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Orem Farmers Market *

@ Orem City Center Park, Orem

July 5 - Oct. 25

July - Sept., 5 - 9 p.m.

Oct. 5 - 8 p.m.

VA Medical Center Farmers Market

@ VA Medical Center, Building 8, Salt Lake City

Aug. 2 - Sept. 6 | 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

THURSDAY

Bountiful Farmers Market *

@ Bountiful Town Square, Bountiful

June 15 - Oct. 12 | 4 p.m. - dusk

West Valley Farmers Market *

@ Centennial Park, West Valley City

June 22 - Oct. 5 | 5 - 9 p.m.

Lindon Farmers Market *

@ Lindon City Center Park, Lindon

July 6 – Oct. 26

July - September, 5 - 9 p.m.

October, 5 - 8 p.m.

Liberty Park Farmers Market

@ Liberty Park, Salt Lake City

June 16 - Sept. 22 | 4 p.m. - dusk

FRIDAY

Utah Farm Bureau Farmers Market at Murray Park *

@ Murray Park, Murray

July 28 - Oct. 28 | 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.

SATURDAY

Downtown Farmers Market *

@ Pioneer Park, Salt Lake City

June 3 - Oct. 21 | 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Sunnyvale Farmers Market *

@ Sunnyvale Park, Salt Lake City

June 17 – Oct. 14 | 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Daybreak Farmers Market *

@ 11247 S. Kestrel Rise Road, South Jordan

June 10 - Oct. 14 | 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

(Oct. 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.)

Provo Farmers Market *

@ Pioneer Park, Provo

June 3 - Oct. 28 | 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Farmers Market Ogden *

@ Union Station on Historic 25th Street, Ogden

May 27 - Sept. 9 | 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Utah Farm Bureau Farmers Market at Murray Park *

@ Murray Park, Murray

July 28 - Oct. 28 | 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Utah Farm Bureau Farmers Market at South Jordan *

@ 1600 Towne Center Drive, South Jordan

Aug. 5 - Oct. 14 | 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Midway Farmers Market

@ Midway Town Square, Midway

June - October | 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Spanish Fork Farmers Market *

@ 775 W. Center St., Spanish Fork

Last Saturday in July - last Saturday in October 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Eagle Mountain Farmers Market *

@ Cory B. Wride Memorial Park, Eagle Mountain June 10 - Sept. | 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Draper City’s Farmers Market *

@ Ballard Arena, Draper June 17 - Oct. 14 | 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

* Signify the markets or markets with vendors accepting SNAP EBT benefits

As summer is finally launching into full swing, so are the countless farmers markets providing farm fresh, local foods and goods to the Salt Lake Valley. They offer ways to support the local farmers, local economy and engage in practices much more sustainable than the industrial scale food system the country has become reliant on.

“Farming enables us to connect with the infinite ecological processes that keep us alive,” said Alexandra Parvaz, the farm co-manager of Keep It Real Vegetables out of Murray. “Farmers markets are just one out of many creative solutions to create a thriving and vibrant local food system.”

The weekly events begin to break down the degree of separation between the consumer and where their food comes from, creating

a space where consumers and producers can interact on a personal level, building community to support one another.

“As much as two-thirds of total revenue comes from the market,” said Jacob Meltzer, a farm hand at Keep It Real Vegetables. As their primary source of income, markets offer farmers an opportunity to make a living from their goods.

Yet our food system has come to place little value in those producing the very thing life is predicated on. “It is a very disheartening reality that farmers and people that grow food are not paid livable wages,” Parvaz said. “I think farmers markets illuminate the possibility for these conversations to be held so that as a community, we can push towards more just food systems. Ultimately reprioritizing

Some fresh blackberries and eggs at a farm stand. (Genevieve Vahl/City Journals)

Carrot bundles in plethora. (Genevieve Vahl/City Journals)

An assortment of cauliflower types and colors. (Genevieve Vahl/City Journals)

Beautiful bouquets of freshly cut flowers. (Genevieve Vahl/City Journals)

what we’re investing in.”

Like how SNAP EBT benefits have been incorporated into the structure of farmers markets, offering people of all income levels the access to fresh, local food. With a SNAP EBT Horizon card, you can exchange a desired amount of money on the card to tokens usable at the markets to purchase eligible items like fruits, vegetables, herbs, meats, fish, poultry, breads, dairy, maple syrup, pickled goods, jam, honey, dressings, cider, seeds and nonhot foods. SNAP does not cover purchases of wine, beer, liquor, cigarettes, tobacco or any hot food to be eaten at the market. Double Up Food Bucks is an additional program that matches SNAP benefits dollar-for-dollar up to $30 per market day at participating markets, meaning folks could get an additional $30 of free Utah-grown fruits and vegetables per market day with their SNAP EBT Horizon card.

“You can cash in your food stamps and it’s matched by a grant so even people who are low-income can get really high quality food,” said Tyler Montague, owner and operator of Keep it Real Vegetables. But what you don’t know you don’t know so, “it’s a matter of letting more people know about that,” Meltzer said.

While benefiting both the farmer and consumer, shopping at the farmers markets also benefits the earth in numerous ways. “It’s less miles for your food to travel than shopping in the grocery store,” Montague said. “The more you shop local, the less packaging, the less travel, the fresher the food, the less energy spent refrigerating and transporting it.”

“We’re all for better, more improved use of urban spaces to grow food,” Parvaz said. “Not only can we get more food to be accessible, but we can also address a lot of troubling social and environmental problems associated with food that isn’t grown locally and isn’t that accessible.” By avoiding things like industrial pesticides and fertilizers that create separation from a land ethic.

Although the food at the farmers market is arguably slightly more expensive, “the quality of the freshness is unmatched,” Montague said. “And there’s a lot of things at the farmers markets that you can’t get in stores. It’s part of a healthy food economy and it’s the best place to go grocery shopping.”

It gives these farmers faith when seeing people with their grocery totes, making their rounds, filling their bags as if they were shopping at the grocery store. “When you’re at the farmers market running errands with intent on filling up your fridge, that can really take it to the next level,” Meltzer said.

So the next time you are in need of a kitchen restock, consider shopping at one of the many farmers markets happening around the valley. Here is a list of the farmers markets happening, at least one each day of the week, to begin making the farmers market your grocery store. l

Salt Lake County Jail Library named Best in Category by the National Association of Counties

WhenCOVID shut everything down, only two outside partners were allowed into the Salt Lake County Jail: chaplains and librarians. Considered an essential part of the jail community, the Salt Lake County library staff brought education and connection to the incarcerated population.

This year, the National Association of Counties recognized the Library Connections program at the Salt Lake County Jail as Best in Category for Libraries in the Achievement Awards. It was the first time the county has received a Best in Category for Libraries award.

“The Achievement Awards demonstrate excellence in county government and the commitment to serve our residents every day,” said NACo President Denise Winfrey. “This year’s winners represent some of the most innovative and collaborative efforts we have seen in over 50 years of presenting these awards.”

Serving roughly 2,000 daily residents, the jail library provides much-wanted reading materials but also participates in the jail’s Life Skills program, offering classes to help incarcerated individuals as they re-enter society. The courses offer valuable information and resources to keep inmates from returning to jail.

Jenn McKague, senior librarian at the jail, said the Life Skills program is not just

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

library courses, but 240 hours of intensive instruction in communication, mindset, anger management, victim empathy and relationships.

McKague and her staff teach classes about the resources a local library can provide including computer literacy, resume writing and language skills. Librarians also offer art activities, book clubs and yoga and meditation classes to inmates.

“The individuals who sign up for this, maybe they're incentivized for a pizza party, and in jail, that's a big deal, but for those who are able to stay in the program, and graduate, it's huge because you have to make yourself vulnerable. You have to get really honest with yourself,” McKague said. “In Life Skills, they have a graduation, and it’s very impactful and powerful.”

She recently had a prisoner who had been released right before the Life Skills graduation and he actually went back to the jail to graduate. He told McKague, the first thing he did when he was released was to get a library card.

McKague works with Deputy Isaac Miera, who manages the program. Miera made an impression on her with the compassionate way he treats people in the jail system. She has adopted his approach based on kindness and respect and hopes society can change the way they think about incarcerat-

ed people.

“Isaac said, ‘This is how I would want my family to be treated,’ and I just love that,” she said. “It’s a really positive interaction. The jail trusted us to stay there during COVID and they consider library services an essential service in the jail, and that’s pretty huge.”

The county library also offers professional development courses for cadets with the county sheriff’s office, to educate cadets about the free resources available at the library. Using the Brainfuse platform, online educational tutoring is available from kindergarten levels up to higher education. There’s also access to LinkedIn Learning, career skills, computer literacy and exam preparation.

As inmates re-enter society, they know they can use county libraries as a way to stay educated, up-to-date on technology and connected to the community. Over the last decade, the jail library has become much more than just lending books. It’s become a portal to change, growth and hope.

“I think it is easy to assume that people in jail are inherently guilty,” McKague said. “But when I walk through those doors, I leave every bias outside. I'm there to provide a good service and that's the same for all of my staff members.”l

The Salt Lake County Jail won Best in Category for Libraries by the National Association of Counties. The jail’s library staff helps incarcerated individuals learn skills and practices to help keep them from returning to jail. (From left) T. Austin, E. Johnson, Jenn McKague, A. Irving, G. Crist, J. Callister, G. Densley.

Not pictured: K. Jorgensen (Photo courtesy of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office)

TheUtah Days of ’47 Rodeo has something to entertain the whole family for as little as $17, plus you have great views of the mountains and downtown Salt Lake City from the Days of ’47 Arena. Come early and experience the FREE Frontier Fun Zone area that will feature shopping and food, pony rides, petting zoo, mechanical bull rides, live music and much more. Gates will open at 4:30 p.m. daily with the rodeo starting at 7:30 p.m. sharp.

The Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo is one of Utah’s longest-standing traditions – celebrating Utah’s heritage since 1847. The rodeo, and other Days of ’47 events, commemorate the day – July 24, 1847 – when a determined company of Mormon pioneers real-

Let’s Ride Utah

ized their dreams upon entering the Great Salt Valley. The Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo is a private, non-profit, volunteer, charitable organization. Our mission is to honor Utah’s pioneer heritage and educate Utah’s kids.

The Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo in Salt Lake City takes pride in setting the Gold Standard in rodeo and in 2023 they will bring that standard to the ranks of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA).

The 2023 event will payout an estimated $750,000 and will play an important role in determining Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) qualifiers and eventual world champions. Not only will contestants have

a chance to walk away with a pocket full of cash, but they will get the opportunity to win a gold, silver or bronze medal, a staple at this rodeo since 2017, making it the only Gold Medal Rodeo in the world.

“We are excited to once again partner with the PRCA, WPRA and their members that dream of qualifying for the NFR in Las Vegas each year,” stated Dan Shaw, Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo President & CEO. “It is our hope we can make that dream come true for a number of contestants, while also bringing world class rodeo action to our fans here at the Days of ’47 Arena. July has always been a profitable month for rodeo athletes, and we are honored to now elevate that even more and put Utah on the map among

top paying ProRodeos.”

Beginning in 2023, the Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo will be the largest paying professional rodeo in the State of Utah.

The 2023 Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo presented by Zions Bank, is slated for July 19-22, 24 and will take place at the state-of-the-art Days of ’47 Arena at the Utah State Fairpark (155 North, 1000 West), custom designed and built for rodeo. The venue—an outdoor arena located in the heart of Salt Lake City—features over 10,000 stadium-style seats.

For more information on the event and to buy your tickets visit www. utahdaysof47rodeo.com.

R.C. Landingham captured the 2022 Gold Medal in the bareback riding. Photos by Ric Andersen.

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AlthoughI don’t like crowds, parades or people, in general, when my husband suggested we attend the Pride Parade last month in Salt Lake, I painted a rainbow on my face, donned my “More Love” shirt and jumped in the car.

After a year of devastating anti-gay and anti-trans legislation across the country, we wanted to show our support for the LGBTQ+ community, even if that meant standing in a crowd of more than 50,000 parade attendees singing at the top of their lungs.

Because how do you fight hate? With a celebration of love.

The theme was “Queer Pride is Unapologetic” and that message rang throughout the parade. When the crowd saw the first rainbow banners a block away, it burst into applause and continued cheering for two hours. I sang out loud to every Lizzo anthem. I chanted until I lost my voice. I clapped until my shoulders hurt. I danced in ways that completely embarrassed my husband. I smiled until my face was sore.

Love was palpable. It brought me to tears more than once as I watched the support, kindness and joy being showered on this parade by thousands of people, of all ages, faiths, races and gender identities.

It was an event of unrestrained joy with enough sequins, bright colors, sky-high wigs, hella high heels and drag queens to

Take pride in love

Peri Kinder Life and Laughter

bring a smile to RuPaul’s face. Couples were holding hands, hugging, kissing, smiling, dancing and lifting a big middle finger to oppression and hate.

It was great to see nearly 200 businesses and organizations put on their rainbow best to spread the love. Entries included Delta Airlines, Westminster University, Intermountain Health, the Cougar Pride Center and ABC4 Utah.

The Salt Lake City Public Library had a large group of participants, because librarians are on the front lines, defending free speech every day and fighting book bans with humor and flair.

I’ve never been to a better parade. I’ve never celebrated a better message. With suicide rates rising for LGBTQ+ youth, hate is not acceptable. Intolerance is not acceptable. The only thing that’s acceptable is inclusion, joy, kindness, grace and love.

After the parade, we walked through

the festival, talking with vendors, enjoying live music and eating tasty foods. We learned about drag queen bingo at a local church, chatted with a BYU student who wrote a book about coming out as gay and took pictures for lots of happy couples.

We watched people get tattoos, we bought new T-shirts, we smiled at strangers, we stood in line for lukewarm BBQ. We visited with friends. We saw bravery. We saw community. We saw free mom hugs. We saw compassion. We saw gay Darth Vader. We saw celebration. We saw dogs in tutus. We saw love.

Threats against the LGBTQ+ communi-

ty have quadrupled over the last few years, and organizers spent extra money for heightened security at the parade and festival. State leaders, churches, communities and individuals should be careful about comments, rules and legislation that contribute to these dangers. Be careful who you exclude, it could be someone you love.

For the LGBTQ+ community, continue living unapologetic. The world needs more dancing, more sequins, more hella high heels, more bright colors, more sky-high wigs, more connection, more dogs in tutus, more rainbow T-shirts and more love.

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