West Jordan Journal | March 2023

CATCHING KINDNESS

By Jet Burnham |

Parents are concerned about kids and kindness.

“The PTA sends a needs assessment at the beginning of the year asking parents what their top concerns are,” Westland Elementary PTA President Wendy Langeberg said. “Consistently, kindness/anti-bullying is the top concern of parents, followed by internet safety and pedestrian/bike safety.”

To address these concerns, the PTA holds a Kindness Month each year. This year’s theme was “Catching Kindness.”

“I think kindness is so infectious because you can just catch it, and then you see other people being kind and you want to be kind and it just grows so quickly, if you could just get it going,” PTA VP of Public Relations Hillary Moser said.

Starting on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and ending on Valentine’s Day, school staff members handed out tickets to students who were caught being kind. Tickets were entered into a weekly raffle and every Friday, 20 winners won goodie bags. The class with the most tickets earned matching kindness T-shirts.

Second-grader Juliet earned tickets for getting a piece of scratch paper for a student, for helping a classmate and for inviting a new student to sit with her in the cafeteria. She said being kind is something everyone should do.

“Because if you do kindness then it will help people and we want a kind world, and the teachers really want you to be kind so then people don’t feel bad. If they feel bad, then you feel bad,” Juliet said.

Clark, a sixth grader, said it’s easy to look around and find someone to help. He got a ticket from his P.E. teacher for staying after class to help collect balls. Clark believes kindness is as contagious as sadness.

“We want some more goodness in the world so that it spreads and eventually you don’t have a war between Ukraine and Russia,” he said.

Kindness Month culminated with a family service project and game night. Students and their families donated 136 sets of pajamas for Primary Children’s Hospital, which they wrapped with ribbons. They also wrote personal notes for the recipients.

Moser, who has three kids attending Westland Elementary, said kids love pajamas and that Pajama Day is one of their favorites during spirit week. When she learned that Primary Children’s Hospital is always in need of pajamas, she knew it would be a great project.

“We’ve done a really wide variety of service projects and they’ve always been very successful,” Moser said. “But these last few years, I’ve really tried to think of ideas that the children can connect with. We just hope our children realize that there are kids in our community and in our district and in our

area that spend time at the hospital, and not just going to the doctor’s office for an hour. They spend days and weeks where they need pajamas and they’re not at home using their own pajamas. And so we hope that connects in their mind with kids in our community that have that need.”

Students will continue to write down acts of kindness on

cut outs of leaves and flowers to be displayed on the Watch Kindness Grow bulletin board outside the school cafeteria.

“We always try to do something that we leave up for at least the next couple of months that we hope reminds kids to continue to be kind, not just this month when we’re highlighting it and celebrating it, but all year long,” Moser said. l

Top Left: Students write personal notes for Primary Children’s Hospital patients as part of Westland Elementary School’s annual service project. Top Right: Westland Elementary families prepare pajamas to donate to Primary Children’s Hospital. Bottom: Westland Elementary students take personal responsibility to be kind. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

West Jordan resident among those to receive $10,000 prize from Zions Bank

ZionsBank held their Holiday Bankcard Sweepstakes. It was a big day for Kimberly Sorensen of West Jordan, Kyle Grotegut of Lehi and David Tucker of Pocatello, Idaho to win $10,000 just by entering the Sweepstakes.

They were invited to go to their local Zions branch to collect their winnings. They were presented with a large $10,000 bill. They were very surprised, they had no idea they were going to receive such a large sum of money.

“We thought maybe it would be a couple hundred dollars,” Kate Grotegut said, wife of Kyle Grotegut. Kate went with her husband to receive their prize. Kate and Kyle plan to make memories with their children and pay off some debt.

Kimberly Sorensen was very shocked, and she wasn’t quite sure how to use her funds. “I’m sure my grandkids will have ideas, they want me to buy them Converse shoes,” she said.

The Holiday Bankcard Sweepstakes was open to everyone. Anyone could participate by mailing in an entry. Clients received an automatic entry into the sweepstakes every time they used a Zions Bank debit or credit card between Oct. 24, 2022 and Jan. 28.

“Zions is celebrating 150 years of being in business, and this was one of the many things that Zions is doing to celebrate it. This is what we call the Holiday Winning Sweepstakes. We are super excited, we have a lot of stuff coming up, this isn’t the last thing we are doing, there is more to come definitely,” David Cruz said, branch president of West Jordan Financial Center Zions Bank.

“Zions cares about their customers, they are a community bank. Zions isn’t just a big corporation. We love our customers and care about them. When customers come to the branch, they know they can contact me for

Jou r nals

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By Linda Steele | l.steele@mycityjournals.com

anything. Customers don’t just have to call customer service, they come to me and I take care of them,” Cruz said.

The sweepstakes are open to employees as well as customers. Zions’ vision is to give back to their clients. There is no other bank in Utah that has sweepstakes for their customers. It is unique and Zions always has different campaigns going on throughout the year where they give a variety of things, like scholarships for students. At the end of last year Zions had campaigns for students. “This year we are doing the same thing, there is a

lot more to come. And we will let the customers know we are working on more campaigns and make it exciting for the customers,” Cruz said.

Zions was founded by Brigham Young in 1873 with a capital stock of $200,000. Zions has a legacy as one of the oldest financial institutions in the Intermountain West. Today they are one of the premier banking institutions in the country. Zions has maintained its unique and pioneer spirit of doing business.

In the ‘60s and ‘70s , Zions grew into a major statewide banking system by acquiring some

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community banks around Utah. In the ‘80s when banking laws became more liberal, Zions Bancorporation’s holdings expanded into other states in the West.

Today Zions operates more than 450 full-service offices in 11 Western and southwestern states. Zions is one of the 50 largest banking companies in the United States and a member of the S&P 500 Index. Zions keeps in touch with the community. “Zions is the bank of the community,” Cruz said. l

EDITORIAL

Ty Gorton

Amanda Luker

Stacy Bronson

Anna Pro

Zions Bankers, from left to right, Zions Bank Channel Strategy Manager Lydia Levin, Salt Lake Suburban Region President Mike Van Roosendaal, Kimberly Sorensen Holiday Sweepstakes winner, West Jordan branch manager David Cruz and relationship banker Desiree Palesh. (Photo Courtesy Jared VanLeuven/ Zions Bank)

Adult Night Out at the Viridian Event Center

The Salt Lake County Library’s Viridian Event Center is sponsoring events for adults. Adult Night Out events are held quarterly. A big New Year’s Eve Bash gets the year started out right. The adult activities continue throughout the year with a Valentines Dance, a Scavenger Hunt and finally the Adult Night Out Gala. There is a lot of fun for adults to enjoy with their partner, a date or even if you want to just go by yourself.

“We are trying to focus on giving adults a fun night out, whether it’s date night or going with friends, it is free, and that may be something that couples want to have access to,” Cali Holcombe said, events coordinator at the Viridian Events Center.

“I'm glad that we are back to our normal numbers. For the Valentine Dance we had 700 tickets and we are all booked out, which is great. This shows that people want to have things to go to now, and we are back to our pre-covid numbers.”

This year is the second round of Adult Night Out events.

There are so many wonderful events and programs at the Virdian for children and teenagers. The library wanted some fun activities for adults to enjoy that don’t

By Linda Steele | l.steele@mycityjournals.com

cost a lot of money, but still provide an opportunity for going out and having fun.

“The Viridian saw a gap in programming for adults. The library has great things for children and teenagers, but for the adults we weren’t reaching, that is why we decided to focus on adults. We like to be able to showcase the library that it’s much more than just books. Books are wonderful, that will always be the first thing people think of a library, is books. We have so many more resources, and so many programs and that's always our goal is to bring people to the library to have a good time. The library can be so much more than just checking out books and using computers. We have lectures, dances and all these resources for the community to come together. That is our main goal to create a meeting space specifically for adults to have a good time at the library” Holcombe said.

At the Valentine Dance there was dancing to live swing music, dance instruction, photos and mocktails. The next Adult Night Out is Friday, May 19 with the Scavenger Hunt on Saturday, May 20.

For more information go to slcolibrary.org. l

Attendees enjoy dancing at the Adult Night Out at the Salt Lake County Library’s Viridian Event Center. (Photo courtesy Audrey Livingston)

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mascots at Salt Lake County library event

all-star

By Heather Lawrence | h.lawrence@mycityjournals.com

The NBA All-Star events in Salt Lake were the perfect backdrop to celebrate All-Star readers in February. A winter reading event sponsored by the Salt Lake County Library kicked off Jan. 3. Readers who stayed engaged during the program were invited to meet the Jazz Bear and other NBA mascots Feb. 15 at the Viridian Center in West Jordan.

“We’re very fortunate to host the NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake County and to be able to offer such a unique prize to our readers,” said County Library Program Manager Nyssa Fleig. “We hope offering a once-in-alifetime event like this will help create readers for life.”

The party kicked off just after 6 p.m. when the mascots came in, turned up the music and shot off their confetti cannons. All attendees got to enter through a balloon arch and then made their way to a decorated event room. Two big screen TVs showed NBA AllStar footage. Kids could play cornhole, or

life-size chess and connect four while they waited to meet mascots.

The event brought out families from all over the valley, like Salt Lake City’s Aimee Broadbent and her 9-year-old son Deklan.

“I like to read…just a bit,” Deklan said, with a joking twinkle in his eye.

“He loves it!” Broadbent said.

His favorite books? “I like scary stories.”

The All-Star Winter Reading wasn’t just about reading—it challenged kids to stay engaged during the winter with different activities and report their progress online.

“I did all the activities. I read, I played basketball, and I colored in every activity,” Deklan said.

Broadbent said they’d participated in and attended the event before. But with the All-Star game happening this weekend, there’s some added excitement.

People had their choice of several mas-

cots to meet, greet and get photos with, starting with Owlexander the library’s owl. Unified Police and the Salt Lake County Sheriff brought their mascots—a dog named Sgt. Siren and a horse named Sgt. Lightning.

Three NBA teams sent their mascots: the Miami Heat’s fireball Burnie, Clutch the bear of the Houston Rockets, and Blaze the Trail Cat of the Portland Trail Blazers. And from the NBA G League (minor league basketball), the SLC Stars were represented by the Jazz Bear’s cousin, Buster Bear.

But for loyal Utahns like the Waltons of Taylorsville who had played Jr. Jazz and seen lots of Jazz games, meeting the Jazz Bear for the first time was the most exciting thing about the night.

“We participate in the library reading events all the time because the girls love to read,” said Melena Walton of her daughters Ella and Lila. “We did the library’s preschool class when they were younger and came to reading time and puppet shows.”

The girls, now 14 and 10, kept busy during the winter with skiing and Jr. Jazz basketball. They stayed engaged with the other winter challenge activities like being creative, getting outdoors and trying new things.

But they definitely made time to read— Ella in the Star Wars novels, and Lila the Half Upon a Time series. Of course they’ve made their way through the Harry Potter and Fablehaven series. And when it comes to how they read, they’re traditionalists.

“I like the feel of a book in my hands, not an e-reader. I like turning pages in a real book, it’s just different,” Lila said, and Ella agreed. l

Top: The Jazz Bear welcomes reading challenge finishers to the meet and greet at the Viridian Center on Feb. 15. (Heather Lawrence/City Journals) Bottom: Melena Walton of Taylorsville and her daughters Ella and Lila met the Jazz Bear for the first time. Ella and Lila didn’t find the reading challenge difficult—they love to read. (Heather Lawrence/City Journals)

The Other Side Village provides unique solution to chronic homelessness

It’s a revolutionary idea. Build a neighborhood where the chronically homeless can learn how to own and care for a home, be a good neighbor and invest in building a community. It’s the mission behind The Other Side Village and will become reality this summer.

Located at 1850 W. Indiana Ave., The Other Side Village’s pilot phase is an 8-acre area that will include 85 homes, each ranging in size from 280-400 square feet. Most of the homes will be given to those who sign up for the Welcome Neighborhood program, some will be used for staff and community buildings, and several will be used as short-term rentals to raise money to support the project.

“This will create a place for those who haven’t really fit into other places, so they can build their own sense of identity and their own sense of safety,” said Samuel Grenny, manager of Welcome Neighborhood. “It’s a peer-led model, so everything that happens in the community is determined by members of the community and it gives them the ability to define their safe, shared space in a way that is best for them.”

The Salt Lake County Council approved a $2 million investment to support the village which isn’t just about homes for the unsheltered, but creating a social system and culture that changes lives.

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

Welcome Neighborhood is a program that transitions people out of the homeless lifestyle and into The Other Side Village community where people are invested in personal growth and home ownership. When a new occupant arrives, they are given guidance to adjust to the new environment. This includes help with drug or alcohol addiction, mental health counseling and classes in how to be a member of a therapeutic community.

“The only criteria is we don’t allow sex offenders or people convicted of arson charges. They must be chronically homeless and interested in living in a clean and sober community,” Grenny said. “They must have a desire to improve their life. This is permanent supportive housing, not a transitional model.”

Part of the program is teaching residents how to have healthy, strong relationships with each other. They’ll learn life skills like how to keep a neighborhood clean and how to resolve conflicts. It borrows from a housing model that shows people need base-level resources, like having a roof over their head, before asking them to take on challenges like personal growth and addressing health issues.

“People actually want expectations to be had of them,” Grenny said. “People actually thrive when they feel they’re capable of something. The Welcome Neighborhood

is where people spend two, three or four months identifying and working on core areas that are important to them and will help set them up for success with their housing so they’re not cycling through it.”

After the resident completes the program, they are allowed to choose their forever home in The Other Side Village. Welcome Neighborhood is already working with future residents and 17% of the homes are taken. By the time the village opens in the summer, Grenny expects the first phase to be 25% full.

“Really core to our model is the self-reliance aspect, teaching skills to individuals to live as self-sufficiently as possible,” Grenny said. “We hope everybody gets to be the best

GEETA NAGPAL, MD Granger Pain & Spine

version of themselves. We have a social enterprise where neighbors are able to work, making $14 an hour. They learn job skills and all profits go to paying for the operational needs of the village.”

Salt Lake City gave The Other Side Village a 40-year lease on city-owned land to develop phase one of the project. The $2 million investment from the Salt Lake County Council will help fund the phase, estimated to cost $14 million. For more information, visit TheOtherSideVillage.com.

“This budget is an example of what we can accomplish when we all work together for the greater good,” said Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson.l

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The Other Side Village in Salt Lake City was given a $2 million boost from the Salt Lake County Council. (Rendering courtesy of The Other Side Village)

While hiking in Escalante National Forest, teenagers Natalie Rowe, Kimberly Watson, Malachi Chaya and their church group discovered a hiker who had been lost in the wilderness for four days.

“I think he just wandered off the trail because the trail wasn’t marked,” Natalie said.

The three teenagers are sixth and seventh-graders at Mountain Heights Academy, an online charter school. When they formed a team to enter the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest, they decided their project would address outdoor recreation safety because of their experience.

The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest challenges students to use science, technology, engineering and math to solve a problem in their community.

Through research, the students discovered that Search and Rescue teams have seen a dramatic increase in requests for help in outdoor recreation areas. Just last year, there were 1,043 search and rescue incidents within Utah’s five national parks.

“There has been a huge increase in hikers since the pandemic, people wanting to go outside, and so there’s a lot more people out hiking that aren’t very experienced,” Kimberly said.

For their project, the teens are developing transmitting and receiving devices with

Student projects may save lives, win prizes

By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com

long range wave capabilities that could be used for communication along hiking trails without reliable cell service.

“We could make stations every mile along the way, so if you need help, you can press the button,” Natalie said.

Mountain Heights Academy teachers encourage students to compete in contests because they provide authentic, immersive and engaging learning experiences inspired by students’ interests. The school has developed a culture of participation in contests. All three team members have older siblings who’ve participated in the contest previously. Natalie’s older sister Mariella is a mentor for the team this year.

“The school is a network of ideas,” science teacher Lora Gibbons said. “It’s something we try to build on each year. So an idea may start to surface and it may start to be developed by students in the next year or two—that’s the beauty of having that kind of flow each year. That’s really what gives our program that depth to explore ideas that maybe we would never come up with if it was just a couple of them.”

MHA teams have been selected as top 300 Samsung finalists for several years. This year, seven Utah schools made the top 300 and received a $2,500 prize package. Jordan District’s Jordan Academy for Technology

team was also one of the finalists.

The JATC team’s contest project is a similar idea to MHA’s team. Their transmitting device will automate school attendance and track students’ location in case of an emergency. The current application is for school-use, but students said its application could be expanded to retirement homes and hospitals.

The JATC team is composed of students from Mountain Ridge, Riverton and West Jordan High Schools, who, through classes offered at JATC, have experience in coding, website building, designing, programming, circuitry and hardware, and hold certifications in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

“Pretty much all the skills for this project came from the JATC,” Jaxon Smith said, a senior at Mountain Ridge High School.

Many JATC class assignments are project-based and students are encouraged to develop projects for competitions.

“I know that learning accelerates when it’s a project,” Web Development Instructor Melissa Mansouri Smith said. “They’ll learn far more than if I was just teaching. It always feels like it’s where the real learning really begins because they just accelerate so much faster without some of the constraints when the project is what the focus is, instead of for certain assignments.”

The students also gain real-world experience by consulting with experts about their project.

“We met with the safety manager and were confident with our ideas going in,” Smith said. “He gave us a list of new ideas and important things to focus on. It helped us make important changes to our focus which

required us to rewrite and come up with a new design. It was good input we didn’t know we needed.”

Neither team advanced further than Phase 1 in the competition this year, but both will continue to work on their product. The MHA team is using the same product for the eCYBERMISSION virtual STEM competition. The JATC team is interested in continuing to refine their design until they have a final product.

The two schools used their $2,500 prize package to stock their classrooms with new equipment. Mountain Heights Academy reinvests each year’s winnings. The money won by last year’s team paid for arduino kits, sensors, smart home kits, a laser cutter and 3D printer. This year’s team used the kits to learn about transmitting and coding concepts and will be using the 3D printer to create a cover for their device. The equipment is also used for other contest projects and class assignments.

“Next year, we’re opening a new class to an elective called the innovation lab,” STEAM Program Coordinator Andrew Hulse said. “It’s essentially going to be a makerspace of sorts, where we’ll go through some learning opportunities as far as how these things work, but then students will be able to utilize all these fun tools and gizmos and gadgets that we have to create their own projects.”

Other Utah schools selected as top 300 finalists include Wasatch High School Alternative, Olympus Junior, Green Canyon High, West High and Elk Meadows Elementary. West High School was selected to advance in the competition as the Utah finalist. l

The JATC Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest team: Dalton Britton, Jaxon Smith, Aiden Maher, Jacob Crook, Amanda Leiua and Vi Cuo. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

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Schools rich with mental health resources for struggling parents

By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com

Your teenager has no friends and clams up when you ask what’s wrong. Your child cries every morning before school. Your child’s friend tells you that your child has been talking about suicide.

Many parents don’t know what to do in these situations to help their child. They may not realize that their child’s school has free resources that can help.

“If you have a child that is struggling, I would recommend that you work with your school counselor,” Jordan School District Counselor Consultant Stacee Worthen said. “Schedule an appointment, talk about your concerns.”

Jordan District has prioritized reducing the workload of school counselors to better serve students and their families. Secondary schools have between 250 and 305 students assigned to one counselor, well below the state average of 350:1. Every Jordan District school has a full-time psychologist and either a licensed social worker or mental health professional. Most secondary schools have all three.

Students can meet regularly with school mental health professionals with parental permission.

“Our goal really is to work with the parents and the students together to really see what’s going on,” Worthen said. “We always want parents to understand our job is to support the parents so that we can support the students. We’re never going to do something without looping in that parent and making sure that this is something that they feel is in the best interest of their child, because parents are that first safety net, and then we’re just trying to provide additional safety nets to help and support so that child can be successful.”

One parent said she received help from the school counselor who worked with her high school-aged child to address some anxiety.

“She worked with my child and then had me come in at the end and tell me what I could do to support my child,” she said.

If it is determined that a child would benefit from regular therapy, the school mental health team works with the family to develop a Mental Health Access Plan. The district will cover the costs of the first eight visits with a private practice therapist. A member of the school’s mental health team will assist with finding a therapist that meets the family’s needs and even help coordinate the insurance.

Jordan District’s wellness webpage is a rich resource for parents and students, providing crisis support talk or text numbers as well as helpful tips and informative articles. A link to a local community mental health provider spreadsheet is provided to help parents easily find a private practice therapist for

their child or themselves.

JSD has a partnership with the Cook Center for Human Connection which provides many mental health resources, and parents of JSD students can access free parent coaching, parenting classes and support through Parentguidance.org.

Another resource for families is Jordan District’s Family Education Center, located in South Jordan, which offers free classes for students and parents. Classes address topics such as anger management, parenting skills, divorce, anxiety, addiction and social skills. Families can also access free counseling and a lending library of over 1,000 helpful books. For more information visit guidance.jordandistrict.org/jfec/ or call 801-565-7442.

In addition to district resources, some passionate staff members from Herriman High School, which experienced a rash of student suicide deaths in 2017, have developed their own programs which support parents with struggling children.

Herriman High School psychologist Casey Pehrson Ed.S., NCSP developed a presentation and children’s book that addresses self-care habits. Her S.E.L.F.I.E. method, which is backed by research, provides simple and practical daily habits of self-care that improve energy and mood.

“The practical takeaway when they walk out of here is that they’ll feel, ‘I can do this, I can actually take this to go and it will help me,’” Pehrson said.

Pehrson has taught the S.E.L.F.I.E. method at various professional conferences and community events. The next free presen-

tation will be held Mar. 23 6:30 to7:30 p.m. at Elk Ridge Middle School. Attendance is open to everyone.

“We came because we have a child who is struggling with some emotions and stuff,” said a mother who attended Pehrson’s presentation at Copper Hills High in January. “And so we thought we’d try to pick up some tips to help this child. It was helpful. I really liked it a lot.”

Earlier this year, Herriman High counselor Cindy Watkins M.Ed., CMHC taught a Proactive Parenting series of classes to empower parents with skills to help them im-

prove their children’s emotional health.

“So much of the time we as adults are reactive rather than proactive with our children and their emotional health,” Watkins said. “The Proactive Parenting workshops were to teach the parents skills that they could implement to navigate away from reactive parenting towards proactive parenting by modeling and teaching their children effective skills and habits to manage their day-to-day emotional health.”

One parent said she attended the classes to learn how to help her children who struggle with anxiety. She said the information was very helpful.

“It was all very practical tips, which I loved, because that’s what, as a parent, I need,” she said.

David Kozlowski, a Herriman High teacher and licensed therapist, hosts the Light The Fight podcast to help parents build, maintain and improve relationships with their children. He gave a TED Talk on the same topic. His website has details about his parent-teen partnership program and parenting seminars.

Worthen said there are new resources, parenting classes and information about free mental health screenings being posted on Jordan District’s website and social media all the time. She encourages parents to check often.

“I just encourage parents, when they’re worried about their children, you can always reach out to the schools,” she said. “They want to be a resource; they want to help. They’re there to help support the student and the parent and work together as a team to try and see what resources we can help find together to help their child. Don’t be afraid to reach out, don’t be afraid to call. Just go to the website and look at all the resources that are available.” l

Additional online resources for parents and children who are struggling with mental health:

; To text or talk to a licensed therapist 24/7: text or dial 788 for the Utah Crisis Line, text or dial 988 for the National Crisis Line, text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line.

; SafeUT app: a child or parent can connect with a licensed clinician about depression, anxiety, suicide prevention, bullying and life challenges or to anonymously report an at-risk student.

; Helpful articles for parents can be found at safeut.org/parents, LiveOnUtah.org, seizetheawkward.org, and Upliftfamilies.org

Jordan District has prioritized reducing the workload of school counselors to better serve students and their families. (Stock photo courtesy Unsplash)

From doctor and academic to manufacturing plant: Family Engagement Center helping refugees improve English-speaking skills

Ender Gonzalez is a doctor and his wife Amarilis is a college professor. At least, those were their professions when they lived in Venezuela. Now they are refugees living in Herriman and working in a manufacturing plant, scanning documents and folding boxes.

“I feel limited,” Ender Gonzalez said. His job doesn’t utilize any of the knowledge or experience he gained working as a doctor for so many years. However, because of their limited English skills, Ender and Amarilis are unable to work in their professional careers in this country.

Underemployment is the reality for most refugees, said SilviAnnie Silveira, who teaches English classes for adult refugees. She said many people who were professionals in their home country end up working at fast food restaurants when they relocate to the United States.

“So next time you’re going to get a burger, you might be getting one made by a doctor or a business owner or a professor or a nurse, because that’s who they are,” Silveira said. “It hurts them, not just financially, but their sense of self-worth. Their self-esteem is really bruised right now, but you know what? They keep going. They have this unshakable faith and they just keep going. I think this is a golden opportunity for the Herriman community to learn resilience with and from them. They teach me every day how you can restart your life and recreate and reinvent yourselves because that’s what they’re doing and that takes an immense amount of humility, of good attitude and faith.”

Ender and Amarilis are students in Silveira’s English class offered through Jordan District’s Family Engagement Center. Ender Gonzalez said learning English has been difficult but he remembers all the long days of studying and hard work it took to become a doctor.

“I have a background as a hard worker, so I think about that, and so I will learn,” he said.

The Gonzalez family fled Venezuela where they were being persecuted and oppressed.

“The situation became very tense for us,” Ender Gonzalez said. “The pressure grew to the point that I received death threats.”

Starting over in Utah has required a lot of sacrifice, but the Gonzalezes express gratitude for their situation.

“The peace and tranquility we have here is priceless,” Ender Gonzalez said. “It was a huge frustration that I couldn’t give a nice life to my kids, but now, here, they have all the opportunities to develop themselves and to grow.”

Amarilis Gonzalez said working in man-

By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com

ufacturing is very different from her job at the university training school teachers—she has traded her professional fashion shoes for steel-toed safety shoes—but she is not complaining.

“I learn, and I do it with all my heart, because this helps me to help my family and to move forward,” she said.

Ender and Amarilis would like to return to working as a doctor and a professor, if they can. But like many refugees, they have to first master a new language and a new culture.

The Family Engagement Center, housed at Copper Mountain Middle School, offers many resources to refugee families. It first opened in 2020 as part of Jordan District’s Language and Culture Department. Parents receive help navigating school registration, applying for the free lunch program, connecting with free dental and health clinics, accessing food and clothing and other necessities for settling into their new culture.

Silveira said when parents don’t have English skills and are unaware of how to be involved in their child’s education, their child is more likely to drop out of school or get involved in gangs.

At the Family Engagement Center, Silveira teaches English as well as other classes to help adults transfer their skills into their new culture. She walks them through the process of how to replace their driver’s license with a valid Utah license. Another class familiarizes computer-savvy adults with En-

glish computer keyboard commands.

Through the Department of Language and Culture Services, families can access community resources, interpretation services and bilingual psychologists and teacher specialists.

“We have an amazing team, but the problem is just the volume of people that we have to serve,” Silveira said. “We are all trying our best here.”

In November 2022, Jordan District reported it had 62 refugees, 740 newcomers and 4,778 English Language Learners representing over 63 different languages.

Many schools are in desperate need of bilingual teachers, assistants and secretaries because their bilingual employees are getting burned out because they have so much they are asked to do, Silveira said.

Silveira believes every school needs a Family Engagement Center. She encourages community members to ask their school principals and local legislators to provide this resource in their neighborhoods to prepare for the continued influx of families. She said doing nothing is not an option.

“Whatever the community puts on these people who are now part of the community, that will come back, in a much better way or in a much more challenging way, it depends on what the community decides to do right now,” Silveira said. “The most intelligent thing to do is to help them to be absorbed by the Herriman community. Otherwise, what’s

going to happen is, if it’s a problem that you don’t take care of, it will become your problem sooner or later. So, I think it’s everyone’s opportunity to keep helping.”

Silveira said the Family Engagement Center would be more effective with support from volunteer community members. Volunteers can listen to students read, help them practice interview skills or explain cultural norms. She is also looking for people to share their expertise on topics such as job skills, taxes, computer skills, health care, immigration, legal issues or other topics her students need support in.

Amarilis Gonzalez said it would be helpful if there was someone who knew the equivalency and diploma validation process for a specific industry to assist those who want to resume their professions here in Utah.

“That’s our next big challenge,” Silveira said. “To help them with this equivalency of the professional careers they had [in their country] and how they can serve the community and live better.”

Silveira said she can’t do it alone and asks for more support. She is overworked and emotionally strained by the stories her students share, but ultimately, she loves her job.

“There hasn’t been one single day that I haven’t left the classroom richer or more humble or with a deeper desire to offer more, to make myself someone better so I can teach them better,” she said. “They’re amazing people.” l

Amarilis and Ender Gonzalez (at center) with their son Ender Jr (left) and daughter-in-law Maria Jose Barboza (second from the right) with their English teacher, SilviAnnie Silveira (at far right). (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

School custodian job a stepping stone for various careers

By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com

Mark Nelson started his career at age 15 when he began working as a school sweeper. He transitioned to full-time custodian in college and became a head custodian of an elementary school at age 22. He continued to work his way up and has been Jordan School District Office Head Custodian since 1999.

Nelson said his job as a custodian is fulfilling and challenging.

“I know everyone thinks a custodian just vacuums and dumps trash, but our jobs involve everything from heating and ventilating and control systems that run them all,” he said. “You almost have to have a computer licensing degree to run some of this stuff nowadays—it’s all computerized. You’ve got to know formulas and how things work. It’s good because you learn a lot of skills with this—everything from plumbing and electrical—these jobs require you to continue to learn. Some people don’t like that—they thought it was gonna be a mindless job—and it can be, I guess, but if you put your mind to it, you can learn so much.”

Jordan School District Head Custodian Steve Peart said custodial work is a good entry job for anyone planning to work in a trade or in an education career.

“A lot of our maintenance workers—the carpenters, electricians—they have been custodians to start out with,” Peart said. “So it’s a good stepping stone in several ways. You can either get promoted through custodial or you can get promoted through education or you can get promoted through a trade.”

Peart said people who like physical labor or are social do well as a custodian. Future teachers get an education in how a school runs while working as a school custodian during college.

“At the elementary level, it’s almost like you’re part of a family,” Peart said.

There is currently a shortage of school custodians and sweepers in Jordan District that is putting a strain on current resources. A variety of positions are open. Full-time custodial positions begin at $14.93 per hour with full health and retirement benefits. School sweepers (age 14 and up) start at $10.30 per hour.

School sweepers work one and a half to three hours a day, Monday through Friday, with holidays off, which makes it an ideal job for middle and high school students wanting to learn good job skills, Peart said.

“It’s a good part time job for going to school and still doing homework and still being involved in after school activities,” he said.

Another perk of beginning a career with Jordan District at a young age is that state retirement benefits start accruing with the first full time position.

“A person that starts off as the assistant custodian, works through college, and then later on becomes a teacher and then administrator, or becomes a civil engineer for a state agency, or a district attorney, all of that time counts toward their retirement at their highest salary,” Peart said.

Because he started at such a young age, Nelson could have retired at age 50 with full retirement benefits. His story is not unusual. Many of his coworkers have more than 40 years with the district. They remain in their job because they enjoy the work, the people, the environment and the purpose.

“Being a custodian is not the most glamorous job but it is a job that needs to be done,” Nelson said. “I care about people’s work environment. I know we’re supporting kids’ education. Even down to the sweepers, we’re all part of that process and part of that system that educates people.” l

Custodian Mark Nelson maintains the Jordan School District Administration Building from top to bottom.

(Photo courtesy of Sandy Riesgraf)

Grizzlies finish second in region with five games decided by 3 points or less

By Greg James | g.james@mycityjournals.com

The Copper Hills boys basketball team has cornered the market on close games this season. A large percentage of their games have been decided by five points or less.

“Our games all year have been down to the wire. It is nothing new for us,” Grizzlies head coach John Watkins said after a nail bitter win over Riverton. “We have only had a couple of games where it has not been a one-possession game. Our boys are pretty familiar with that situation. We have lost a few of them, but hopefully, it is becoming a chance for us to learn from these moments.”

In the final home game of the season, the Grizzlies carried a lead throughout most of the contest. Riverton kept it close. With five minutes remaining junior Logan Weidauer grabbed a missed free throw, banked in the shot and was fouled to stretch out the lead. Copper Hills’ defense held down the stretch and Weidauer sealed the 64-55 win over Riverton with some late free throws.

“In this game, we made some defensive stances. We got some steals and rebounds and that helped us out,” Watkins said.

Copper Hills has had 12 of its 20 games decided by five points or less. Keeping the team’s composure has been difficult, but freshman point guard Isaiah Reiser has held his ground.

“He probably averages the most minutes in the state. He (Reiser) is part of a family that has put in the time and effort. I knew last spring when I watched him play, he was mature enough to play varsity basketball. Mentally and physically he shows it every game,” Watkins said.

The 5-foot-10 point guard has averaged three assists per game and nearly 9.5 points. He scored 23 points in the road loss at River-

ton on Jan. 20.

“We have players that work hard. Logan (Weidauer) is probably top six in the state in scoring,” Watkins said.

Weidauer has averaged 18.9 points per game along with nearly seven rebounds.

“Kyson (Hymas) was our only returning starter from last year. He does big things for us. He has big buckets, plays big defense and gets rebounds. We have had great games from Ashtyn Howick and Josh Pommerening comes in and does a lot of little things for the team. They are a group that likes to play for each other. I don’t always see that. It makes us hard to beat. It is fun to coach that,” Watkins said.

The Grizzlies tied with the Bingham Miners for second place in Region 3 with a 7-3 record.

The UHSAA final RPI rankings were released following the regular season with Copper Hills getting the No. 11 seed. The Grizzlies were scheduled to play West Jordan in the first round on Feb. 22 at home. (after press deadline).

Last season Copper Hills went into the state tournament ranked sixth overall. They lost in the second round to Skyridge 56-55.

“This is a team that even with some gut punches shows up the next day and says ‘let’s go,’” Watkins said. “We need to win the hustle stuff. If we can stretch the court and hit outside shots to help us get to the rim; of course, if we can limit our turnovers, most likely it will come down to the end like it has all season. If we can make the big buckets, then we will be there. Kids like these players. They want to win a basketball game for their team.” l

receiving guidance by someone who has been around and understands your needs can help you find the perfect service.

Junior Logan Weidauer was the sixth highest scorer in the state. (Photo courtesy of Dave Reeder)

Grizzly softball returns with talented squad

Photos by Travis Barton

SCHEDULE:

March 6 vs. Kearns

March 9-11 @ Las Vegas tournament

March 15 @ Granger

March 16 vs Tooele

March 21 @ Riverton

March 23 vs. Herriman

April 4 vs. Taylorsville

April 6 vs. Bingham

April 7 @ Skyline

April 11 @ Mountain

Ridge

April 13 vs. West Jordan

April 18 vs. Riverton

April 20 @ Herriman

April 25 @ Bingham

April 27 vs. Mountain Ridge

May 2 @ West Jordan

May 3 @ American Fork

May 5 vs. Plesant Grove

Left: Head coach John Flores and his Grizzlies squad will take the field again in March, a year after going 13-14 in a region with three of the top teams in the state in Riverton, Bingham and Mountain Ridge.

Right: Madison Jennings returns for the Copper Hills softball team this spring. The talented senior led the team in wins from the mound (8) and RBI’s (30) from the plate.

While the Copper Hills softball team lost Sophia Hess and Olivia Spear to graduation last year, the group returns plenty of production from a year ago in Madison Jennings, Skye Gonzales, Star Gonzales and Anslie Yazzie.

The West Jordan High baseball team is back in March a year after finishing 1611 and earning the No. 8 seed for the state tournament.

The Jaguars finished third in region, going 9-6 behind eventual state champs Riverton and region champs Bingham.

As the eight-seed, West Jordan lost two tight games in the super regional to Farmington to end the season.

Some talented seniors were lost to graduation such as big hitters Mason Alcaraz and DeAngelo Pavone along with major throwers

Jaguar baseball takes the mound again

Photos by Travis Barton

in Weston Robins, Logan Jensen and Kameron Bartholomew. But the squad returns talent in the form of Austin Burr, Ethan Baldwin and Brayden Olson.

The season leads off March 6 for the home opener against Springville with region play starting April 11 at Bingham.

It will be West Jordan’s last season in the region for at least the next two years as West Jordan transitions to 5A with the northwest part of the valley region that will include Murray, Cyprus, Hunter, Granger, Taylorsville and Kearns. l

SCHEDULE:

March 6 vs. Springville

March 7 vs. Alta

March 9 @ Brighton

March 17 @ Hillcrest

(played in St. George)

March 17 @ Crimson Cliffs

March 18 @ Juab

March 18 @ Skyline

March 21 vs. Kearns

March 23 @ Cottonwood

April 11 @ Bingham

April 23 vs. Bingham

April 14 @ Bingham

April 18 @ Riverton

April 19 vs. Riverton

April 21 @ Riverton

April 25 vs. Mountain Ridge

April 26 @ Mountain Ridge

April 28 vs. Mountain Ridge

May 2 vs. Herriman

May 3 @ Herriman

May 5 vs. Herriman

May 8 @ Copper Hills

May 9 vs. Copper Hills

May 10 @ Copper Hills

Women’s Day with Mary Kay

By Holly Curby | hello@hollycurby.com

Thisyear’s International Women’s Day theme, Embrace Equity, challenges women and allies in using their sphere of influence to create a fair and equal world. Such equity is important for social, economic, cultural and political advancement of women.

The first fight for women’s rights is said to date back to 1908, where 15,000 women took to the streets in New York City to protest for better pay, shorter working hours, as well as the right to vote. The following year, the Socialist Party of America declared the last Sunday in February the first National Women’s Day in honor of the strike. In 1910, in the midst of an international conference, it was proposed and unanimously voted among more than 100 in attendance from 17 different countries to officially create International Women’s Day around the world. In 1914, the globally recognized holiday marked March 8 as the official day to celebrate women going forward.

Since then we have seen strides made in efforts of women’s equality, including the first woman referee of a big game in February, first woman attorney general for Israel, first woman director of Major League operations for the New York Mets major league baseball team, and the first woman Vice President of the United States. We are also seeing more and more Fortune 500 companies that are run by female leaders such as General Motors, The Hershey Company, Nasdaq, Inc., and Mary Kay.

Mary Kay is a company that has embraced both equality and equity for women while providing jobs for hundreds of women right here in Utah. In honor of the 100-year anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in America, Mary Kay was recently named as one of the USA Today’s women of the century, an honor recognizing those who have significantly impacted their community and their country. For more than 50 years, Mary Kay Incorporated has empowered wom-

en while changing the world of business. After experiencing inequality in the workplace herself, Mary Kay Ash knew she had to make a change not only for herself, but for all women. In 1963, Mary Kay Ash launched her business and disrupted the idea of business as usual, turning the male dominated workplace on its head in the process of change champion and groundbreaking businesswomen. Mary Kay Ash dedicated her life to empowering women and putting them in control of their own futures, and as result implemented a mission to enrich the lives of women and their families around the world.

Local Independent Sales Director Christy Flater has put herself in the driver’s seat of one of the best in class car incentive programs by earning the use of nine Mary Kay ca-

reer cars. All of this is done through her hard work, applying the skills taught and the valuable resources and education offered by Mary Kay. “I’ve been enriched by my independent business with Mary Kay. I am blessed to be offered the opportunity to travel with the most positive people, engage in a daily growth environment, and coach women to work with their divine strengths, recognize their positive influence within their homes and their communities,” Flater said. “Our culture is the foundation of Mary Kay, and it is only as strong as the next generation that upholds it.”

According to Flater, Mary Kay created a culture in the salesforce to share ideas and build each other up. It is a place where Flater said, “I can fail forward to success, while having cheerleaders tell me I can do it, all while they lead by example.” That is exactly the goal of this year’s International Women’s Day as www.internationalwomensday.com claims that “together we can work collectively to impact positive change.”

International Women’s Day invites you to show the world your embrace by striking a self-hug pose to show solidarity. Share your #EmbraceEquity image across social media using #IWD2023 #EmbraceEquity.

Want to learn more about the culture, mission and benefits Mary Kay offers? Check out Holly’s Highlights podcast season two episode five. Join us as Flater, our special guest, shares with us about the impact of Mary Kay in her life, her goal in helping serve and encourage other women, and how we can get involved with such supportive endeavors such as the Mary Kay Ash Foundation. Holly’s Highlights podcast is available at www.hollycurby.com and wherever you listen to podcasts including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora and even “Alexa, play Holly’s Highlights podcast season two episode five.” l

Women from Risen Life gather for a women’s retreat to encourage and build one another up. (Photo courtesy Addie Knudsen)

• NOT medicine

• NOT shock therapy

• NOT invasive

• IS safe and effective

• IS COVERED by most insurance

Jags basketball fighting along

Photos by Travis Barton

“When you’re depressed you’re always fighting to live… to survive the next day. NeuroStar made such a difference… all of a sudden I felt empowered, I felt strong, I felt like I wasn’t a victim anymore.” ~DEBBIE

NeuroStar is like physical therapy for the brain. It uses magnetic pulses, similar in strength to MRI, to reignite dormant connections in the brain and give you control of your depression. With NeuroStar, you can live on your terms.

their

Left: Head coach Christian Wouden speaks with his players during a close first half against Riverton. Wouden and the West Jordan High boys basketball team finished the regular season 6-16. Right: Gage Muffet looks to block out Riverton’s Logan Dunfield during a 47-39 loss to Riverton. West Jordan was set to play Copper Hills in the first round of playoffs as the 22-seed.

Intermountain Health performed a record-breaking number of organ transplants in 2022

Kristine Fogarty didn’t even hesitate. When she learned her friend and coworker Carrie Riggs needed a life-saving liver transplant, Fogarty went online to register as a living organ donor. No one in Riggs’ family could donate, but Fogarty’s bloodwork came back as a potential match.

“I told her, if you need someone to match you, I’ll do this because it’s important and it will save your life,” she said.

Fogarty was one of only 13 living liver donation transplants performed at Intermountain Health during 2022, a year when the facility performed a record-breaking 300 adult transplants, thanks to the generosity of organ donors, their families and a team of transplant caregivers.

The Intermountain Transplant Program performed a total of 104 liver, 159 kidney, 29 heart, and eight kidney/pancreas adult transplants last year, the fourth consecutive record-breaking year for the program.

“Living donors are incredible people,” said Diane Alonso, MD, transplant surgeon and former medical director of Intermountain Health’s abdominal transplant program. “They are often undergoing major surgery to give new life to their aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, neighbors—and sometimes to someone they don’t even know. They truly are giving the gift of life and we do our best to be great stewards of that gift.”

The uptick in transplants is due to generous donors, an increase in donor organ availability and advancements in technology and medicine. Liver transplants at Intermountain Health exceed the national average because they are able to match a wider range of donor organs to recipients.

Live transplantation saw the largest increase, with 32 living kidney transplants and 13 living liver transplants.

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

“Intermountain has created the environment and provided us the necessary tools and medical team to be successful,” said Jean Botha, MD, transplant surgeon and medical director of Intermountain Health’s abdominal transplant program. “I couldn’t be prouder and more honored to be working sideby-side with these caregivers who are changing lives in our communities.”

Within a couple of months, Fogarty passed all the screening tests and was approved to be a living liver donor for Riggs. The transplant was performed in October 2022 and both women are doing well. Riggs said she doesn’t know how to adequately thank Fogarty for saving her life.

“I thought I had to wait for someone to die and that scared me,” Riggs said. “Kristine was my lifeline. She saved my life. We are now closer than ever.”

The success of Intermountain’s transplant program, which serves patients throughout the nation, is the result of caregiver teams across the Intermountain system and community partners working together. The addition of an Intermountain Life Flight long-range medical jet in 2022 enhances organ transplantation by retrieving donor organs from across the United States.

Intermountain also launched a new platform called iReferral with InVita Healthcare Technologies and DonorConnect, the organ procurement agency for the Intermountain West. iReferral streamlines the organ donor referral process and automates the identification of potential donors.

To learn more about organ donation or register to become an organ donor, go to intermountainhealthcare.org/donatelife.

Fogarty said although her experience was scary, she’d do

it again if she could. She challenges others to look into becoming a living donor to give another person the opportunity to live.

“Do it. Save a life. Get this feeling of purpose in life that you helped be part of a miracle. There are so many people out there waiting,” she said. “Living donors are very rare. There were only 13 living donors for livers last year. There’s more people dying than 13. That’s why that number needs to change.”l

Photo:

Kristine Fogarty (left) donated a portion of her liver to her friend and coworker Carrie Riggs as part of Intermountain Health’s living organ donation program. (Photo courtesy of Kristine Fogarty)

Cottonwood Connect Ski Shuttle opens for local residents

The days of being stuck in traffic going to a canyon could be ending sooner than we think for residents and visitors.

An updated, reservation-based public transportation service to the various ski resorts is now possible through the Cottonwood Connect Ski Shuttle.

Reservations for ski shuttle roundtrip rides to Alta, Brighton, Snowbird and Solitude are accepted on a first come, first served basis. These services are scheduled to run Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays through April 16.

The goal of the new ski shuttle is to reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality and enhance the visitors’ experience, as well as residents’ experience as they journey to and from the canyons’ ski resorts.

As stated on the Visit Salt Lake website: "This public, private partnership was funded in part by Salt Lake County, Visit Salt Lake, Utah Transit Authority (UTA), Alta Ski Area, Snowbird, Solitude Mountain Resort and Brighton Resort. Cottonwood Connect will help supplement the recent reduction in ski bus services provided by UTA. Passengers will pay $10 for a round-trip service and reservations will be required through the online booking por-

By Annabelle Larsen | a.larsen@mycityjournals.com

tal. A fleet of mini-coaches and large passenger vans will ramp up their frequency throughout the program. Beginning with a weekly capacity of 736 passengers and ending with a 1,120 weekly passenger capacity. Snow Country Limousine was selected as the service provider after a request for proposal process by Visit Salt Lake."

Areas served by Cottonwood Connect include Midvale, Cottonwood Heights and Sandy with stops at area hotels and public park and ride lots in partnership with UTA and UDOT. A full list of stops and routes can be found at visitsaltlake.com/cottonwoodconnect.

“I’m proud of everyone who came together to make this a reality. Cottonwood Connect will benefit so many across the valley who want to use our canyons this winter and environmentally it’s another win for our community,” said Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson.

“We felt strongly about helping to create a way for our visitors and locals to enjoy more options to reach our mountain playground,” said Kaitlin Eskelson, president and CEO of Visit Salt Lake. “Salt Lake is the perfect urban basecamp for winter adventures and our goal is to create

a seamless experience.”

“We appreciate Salt Lake County leaders for providing the Cottonwood Connect service,” said Sandy City Mayor Monica Zoltanski. “Sandy City is pleased to support the program by including the shuttles with UTA buses who are guided

by the Sandy Police Ski Bus Bypass Service as a direct way to promote transit use and ease traffic congestion in our neighborhoods closest to the canyon.” l

UTA buses drop off and pick up skiers and snowboarders at many of Utah’s resorts such as Snowbird. (Image courtesy of Ski Utah)

Local poet and activist sits vigil with the Great Salt Lake

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

Local activist, poet and storyteller Nan Seymour, is bearing witness to the Great Salt Lake. From Jan. 18 through March 4, corresponding with the Utah State Legislative session, Seymour and her writing community held a vigil for the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere.

In a small camper on Antelope Island, Seymour and other nature lovers lived by the lake, recording breathtaking sunsets, the heartbreaking loss of more than 400 aquatic diving birds, the majesty of bison roaming the island and the beauty of a lake fighting to survive.

“I’m not a scientist, not an expert, but someone who’s loved birds for a long time,” Seymour said. “I wasn’t aware of the genuine state of peril and now it’s accurate to call this an active collapse of the ecosystem…I was late to pay attention but when it caught my attention, it caught my full attention. The lake is the heart of this bioregion and hemispherically essential.”

This is the second year Seymour has held vigil at the Great Salt Lake. In 2022, she felt it was necessary to be physically present with the lake and respect it as a sentient ancestor, neighbor and even a mother. She said it helps to hold the lake in a relational way, not just thinking of it as a water resource.

Scientists think there still might be time to save the lake and its ecosystem but it will take a concerted effort from legislators, farmers, homeowners and stakeholders to ensure the lake’s survival.

At 4,189 feet, the Great Salt Lake is at its lowest point in recorded history. Lawmakers had the opportunity to adopt a resolution, setting a goal of raising the lake to 4,198 feet, but

it seems the resolution will fail.

“We have to change our ways and it’s not comfortable,” Seymour said. “We will have to think in ways we haven’t thought before and take levels of responsibility we haven’t been willing to take. We have to live within our means with water. Just like if someone you love is dying, you move in a different way.”

The Great Salt Lake is a migratory stop for 10 million birds and is a center of life in the region. As the lake’s level continues to drop, due to drought and human interference like water diversion and outdated water policies, essential aspects of the ecosystem will continue to die off.

Microbialites, essentially living rocks, live in the shallow water of the lake and metabolize life, creating a home for brine flies and brine shrimp that feeds the birds. As microbialites are exposed due to receding water, they die.

Increased salinity in the lake is killing keystone species. Toxic dust in the dried lakebed is dangerous to humans, birds and animals living near the area. Seymour will continue calling attention to the perilous situation and asked that others raise their voices by talking to their representatives, writing op-eds and walking along the lake shore to keep the conversation going.

“Speak up, even when it feels hopeless and helpless,” she said. “It’s always against the odds, always against the powers that be. The people who make it happen are instigators, just ordinary, broken-hearted people who persist. They are outside the realm of power and influence. They are just people with hearts that keep showing up. That’s how change happens.”

WHY A LOCALLY OWNED, FAMILY OPERATED MORTUARY REALLY MATTERS

Larkin Mortuary is the most respected funeral home in the Salt Lake Valley. Its pioneer founder, George William Larkin, arrived in Utah in 1863, having emigrated from Cambridge, England. He started the Larkin tradition of arranging funerals in 1885 and today, with six generations of history serving Utah families, Larkin Mortuary remains locally owned and family managed. Our quality reputation is everything to our business and we have established ourselves in the local community as a qualified and trusted resource. We are not a national franchise and are not controlled by any outside influences. Larkin can meet any need by providing traditional funeral and graveside services, cremation facilities, cemeteries, indoor and outdoor mausoleums, cremation niche and scattering gardens, personalized life memorials and legacy keepsakes.

One of the most important aspects of being locally owned and operated is our firsthand knowledge of the communities we serve. With 138 years of excellence and innovation in providing quality memorial products and compassionate service, Larkin Mortuary provides a full spectrum of end of life services.

Being a qualified resource to you is our core mission. Larkin’s vertically integrated services provide a premier floral shop, monument, urn and vault manufacturing facilities, and beautiful memorial meeting and luncheon facilities. These full range of services offer individuals and families the flexibility to design a custom memorial tribute for their loved one. Multilingual staff honor and facilitate important traditions of many cultures. Larkin can also assist with legal transactions and documentation for timely and efficient transfers to other countries.

We are community minded and active in our places of worship and donate either monetarily or with our time to many worthwhile causes in the local area. Being community-minded is who we are. It defines our character and provides a solid foundation with the people we serve.

Memorial preplanning services are offered by qualified and compassionate Larkin counselors who will help determine final wishes. Advanced funeral arrangements can provide peace of mind knowing that end of life plans are complete and will be carried out exactly as specified. Preplanning reduces the details and decisions loved ones must confront during a time of grief.

The family and staff at Larkin Mortuary understand that arranging a funeral or memorial service is a deeply personal experience. Realizing the sacred nature of the profession, Larkin is honored to serve the community by providing genuine care at this sensitive time of life.

Our memorial services are available in any of our beautiful buildings amongst our four locations along the Wasatch Front or in a building of your choice.

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Bison, on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, are just one species that depends on the lake’s ecosystem. Local poet Nan Seymour held vigil for the lake for 47 days by living on the island to draw awareness to the lake’s perilous situation. (Photo courtesy of Nan Seymour)

Know Your Lemons highlights 12 symptoms of breast cancer to educate women and their doctors

Women have been taught to check for lumps when screening for breast cancer, but what most people don’t know is there are 12 symptoms that could be an indicator of breast cancer.

Utah resident Corrine Ellsworth-Beaumont, MFA, Ph.D., has made it her mission to educate women and girls to help them be informed when it comes to breast health. She created the nonprofit Know Your Lemons to help save lives and educate women around the world.

“People don’t know how to have the conversation,” she said. “We don’t talk about breasts and no one’s really challenged that. As we’re implementing the program in schools, we talk about every part of the body except breasts and there’s this implicit message that there’s nothing to know.”

Ellsworth-Beaumont said everyone should graduate from high school knowing the 12 signs of breast cancer that include skin sores, orange-peel skin, a sunken nipple or a dimple in the breast.

When a close friend died from breast cancer, Ellsworth-Beaumont was working as a professor in a business school in London. After her friend’s death, she left her job and put all her efforts into the Know Your Lem-

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@davisjournal.com

ons nonprofit. She was stunned at the lack of information about breast health, even in the medical community.

Her goal is to educate women in a way to help them get familiar with their own breasts. That includes understanding breast anatomy like milk ducts and lymph nodes and what a cancerous lump feels like. It’s often hard, like a lemon seed, and doesn’t move.

“We don’t talk about breast anatomy or how breasts change during menstrual cycles,” Ellsworth-Beaumont said. “When we’re told to self-exam and feel for a lump, we’re given no information about anatomy, we don’t understand about breast cycles, you don’t know what that lump feels like.”

She worries misinformation about breast screening will discourage women from scheduling mammograms and doing self-exams. Social media propagates the myth that mammograms are dangerous when the screening actually saves lives. Unfortunately, Utah has one of the lowest screen rates in the country, ranked 50 out of 52 (including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico).

The Know Your Lemons main image details the 12 signs of breast cancer, displayed on lemons. She wants to get the poster and postcards in as many doctors’ offices, schools

and women’s health centers as possible.

Because the image is universally understood across languages and cultures, Ellsworth-Beaumont has partnered with health

care systems around the world to bring the information to nearly 60 countries. She often has to explain that talking about breast health is not the same as sex education, or that high school girls are not too young for the information.

“Breasts are not sexual organs. Breasts reproduce nothing but we have linked those two things so concretely that people don’t think breast health is different from sexual health,” she said.

She’s heard numerous stories from women who saw the lemon images and recognized their own breast cancer symptoms. Young women, especially, have a hard time convincing their doctors to screen for cancer, thinking they’re not old enough for breast cancer. The image empowers women to be their own advocates and not back down.

The Know Your Lemons app is a breast health and period tracker but unlike other period tracking apps, this one doesn’t collect data. The app was funded by donations and grants and was named the best women’s health app in the world from The Webby Awards. For more information, visit KnowYourLemons. org.

The foundation is also raising money to fund a $300,000 mammogram machine in the Bahamas by raffling a trip to the Bahamas. Visit the website for more information.

“It’s humbling to know I can help someone change their story,” said Ellsworth-Beaumont. “I don’t think it sinks most of the time, but once in a while I get a moment where I pause and reflect on what’s happening and that keeps me going. So many women have reached out saying the poster or the app helped them recognize the symptoms.”l

This life-saving image, created by Utah resident and Know Your Lemons founder/CEO Corrine Ellsworth-Beaumont, has educated women around the world and saved countless lives from breast cancer. (Photo courtesy of Know Your Lemons)

WHOLives brings water to villages and safety to young girls

Even now, more than 2 billion people around the world do not have access to clean water for drinking, cooking or bathing. But since 2011, a nonprofit in South Jordan has provided nearly 140 water drills to 37 countries, drilling 12,000 wells and bringing clean water to 12 million people.

WHOLives has a business model that is effective and sustainable. Although many donated drills end up broken and unusable, the WHOLives Village Drill concept finds viable drilling sites and families who commit to raising a portion of the cost to purchase the drill.

“We are against the idea of just giving things to people to get them out of poverty,” John Renouard said, WHOLives founder and executive director. “It just builds pride in what they have. It builds responsibility and self-reliance that we know are important when we’re trying to lift people up.”

Teams are trained in the operations, upkeep, repair and maintenance of the drills so the wells can provide clean water for generations. Before having access to water, women and girls spent hours each day walking to water holes where the water is contaminated and unsafe to drink.

Now, with easy access to clean water, girls have the opportunity to pursue education with improved health and families can hold down jobs or create their own business to further economic growth.

“We wanted to do more than just give them water. We want them to try to solve the problem,” Renouard said. “I have immense appreciation for what we’ve done, but I also know it’s only the tip of the iceberg.”

In November 2022, Renouard and his team were installing a well at a rescue center in Kenya when they stumbled upon a terrible situation. He learned December was “cutting season” in

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

the area, when young girls are taken from their homes to undergo female genital mutilation.

Although the practice is illegal, the mutilation happens outside the control of local authorities. Renouard was heartsick and knew he had to do something to help these young girls and bring the perpetrators to justice.

“A few areas in Kenya still practice this horrible tradition of FGM, female genital mutilation,” he said. “They literally sell these children to older men as a fifth wife or 10th wife or 15th wife, although they’re certainly not wives, they’re indentured servants.

“We did something that no one’s ever done before. We went to the police, we went to what we would call child protective services, we went to the magistrates and had conversations with them all. We asked them what they need to fight this. The answers were mind boggling. The number one thing they needed was funds for fuel for their cars so they could go out and investigate and arrest.”

As government officials, they were only allotted a small amount of fuel, not nearly enough to travel to the remote places these mutilations were taking place. WHOLives made a deal to provide money for fuel as long as the police shared their reports with local officials to make sure they were doing the job.

Since the practice was made illegal 10 years ago, only a handful of people have been arrested for FGM. Over the last few months, officials have made more than 40 arrests with 10 people already convicted and sentenced to time in prison.

“This becomes a big deterrent for following through with this awful tradition when there’s a high chance of getting arrested,” he said. “We anticipated we’d rescue about 400 girls. At last count, it was just over 1,700 girls we were able to rescue

When communities invest in the Village Drill, it brings clean water to the area along with opportunities for education and economic growth. The South Jordan nonprofit WHOLives provides equipment, training and support to help foster a sustainable future for generations of families. (Photo courtesy of WHOLives)

through our state houses. So, the number of girls that got cut just plummeted.”

WHOLives coordinated safe houses for the girls at police stations and other locations and will be ready for the next cutting season in August. For more information about WHOLives, visit WHOLives.org.

“I’ve been told I should change the WHO from Water, Health and Opportunity to Women, Health and Opportunity.”

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

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Salt Lake County invests $5 million in open space

When the Salt Lake County Council certified its 2023 budget, it included an unprecedented $5 million investment in open space funding. The funds will be set aside to create additional trail systems, park space and improvements in the canyons.

It’s a larger amount than is historically allocated for open space because there were lots of one-time dollars available from the American Rescue Plan Act that must be used before 2024. While no specific open space projects are targeted with this funding, the council will have the funds they need to purchase properties, green-light proposals or approve expenses as projects come forward.

“As property continues to appreciate and our county eventually expands out with people coming and moving here and bringing development, we want to make sure we are ahead of the game in keeping open space for our residents,” said Salt Lake County Councilmember Aimee Newton. “We know it’s a priority for our residents to have plenty of open space to recreate outside and spend time with their families.”

An additional $85 million in ARPA funds will be used for deferred maintenance, the largest investment in deferred capital maintenance in the history of the county. Some of these projects have been put off for more than a decade and the upgrades will improve the efficiency and sustainability of county facilities.

“This year was an interesting budget because while our ongoing funds were tight with inflation and salary increases,

By Peri Kinder | peri.k@thecityjournals.com

we had a ton of one-time dollars,” Newton said. “We had a bunch of ARPA funds we had to use, and we put a lot of funds toward deferred maintenance which we know will save taxpayer dollars down the road.”

By approving the budget, the council agreed to a tax increase for the Salt Lake County Library service area. The increase will be approximately $30 per household annually, for the average home valued at $560,000. The funding will help modernize the county’s library system and address inflationary pressures. County residents have not seen an increase to the County Library tax in 10 years.

Other initiatives in the budget include funding for active transportation projects including safer sidewalks and bike lanes, waterwise upgrades to the irrigation infrastructure in county parks and facilities, and a matched grant to Centro Cívico Mexicano to support planning for a new center that will replace the aging facility.

An additional $2 million investment in the Other Side Academy Tiny Home Village will help provide solutions for the unsheltered in the county and a $2 million grant given to the Utah AIDS Foundation will support the capital costs of the foundation’s new community health center.

For more information about the Salt Lake County budget, visit SLCO.org.

“The 2023 comprehensive budget provides historic support to health, quality of life initiatives, homeless system assistance and environmental sustainability investments,” said Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson. “Additionally, all

of

the county’s priority deferred maintenance was funded including much needed improvements at parks, recreation centers

and buildings throughout the county system.” l

The Salt Lake County Council’s 2023 budget invests a record $5 million to create and improve open space projects in the county. (File photo City Journals)

One of my core principles as an elected official is to provide transparency to the public so that you can help hold government accountable. I am a big fan of auditing our departments and programs as a vital part of that process. The Salt Lake County Council has been working closely with County Auditor Chris Harding to ensure accountability and appropriate use of your tax dollars.

The Salt Lake County Auditor plays a crucial role in ensuring transparency, accountability, and integrity in the county government. As an independent office, the auditor is responsible for conducting impartial and objective audits that provide the public with a clear understanding of the county's operations.

The auditor's primary objective is to protect taxpayer dollars from fraud, waste, and abuse by reviewing the county's internal controls, records, systems and procedures. The auditor's office evaluates the county's compliance with laws and regulations, assesses the accuracy and completeness of financial information, and identifies areas for improvement in the county's financial management practices. The auditor's office also provides recommendations to the county council and county administration to help improve the county's operations.

Audits hold government accountable

Aimee Winder Newton Salt Lake County Councilwoman| District 3

One of the ways the auditor's office provides transparency to the public is by publishing regular audit reports that summarize its findings and recommendations. These reports are accessible to the public and provide an in-depth analysis of the county's operations. You can find these reports at www.slco.org/auditor. The auditor's office also works closely with the county council to provide regular briefings on its audit findings and recommendations. You can find recent reports on the justice court, solid waste management, and animal services among many more.

The county council has supported the auditor's office by voting to support HB358, county auditor amendments (strengthening our independence), providing funding for additional auditor positions, and working closely with the auditor's office to ensure that its recommendations are implemented.

Recently, the auditor presented findings that some of our county policies are outdated and should be modified to meet the current practices of county operations. This collaborative approach is beneficial to make sure we have an efficient delivery of services.

I believe one of the most important roles for an elected official is acting as a

steward of your tax dollars. Residents entrust us to judiciously use funds to perform essential functions for the community, and as such residents expect that every dollar spent by the government will be carefully scrutinized. Auditing helps us ensure that the county's operations are managed effectively and efficiently. l

When I was a kid, I worried about four things: my Halloween candy being stolen by siblings, missing a spelling word on a test, accidentally eating mayonnaise and nuclear war. In that order.

While those four things were the main cause of concern, I also worried about rainy days because stupid boys would throw earthworms down my shirt. I worried about wearing dresses to school because stupid boys would look up my skirt.

I worried about running out of books to read because I couldn’t imagine that apocalyptic scenario. I worried about earthquakes because we were constantly told The Big One would happen when we least suspected.

I guess I worried a lot, but I’m pretty sure our state legislators at the time didn’t give a rat’s behind about my mental health. In fact, children in the 1970s weren’t really considered people until they had a job and started paying taxes.

But now, our illustrious leaders say they are really concerned about the mental health of Utah’s youth, but only in select situations. There is talk to ban social media for kids under 16 because of the harmful impact it has on their mental wellness.

However, representatives don’t seem

A Mental Health Day

Peri Kinder Life and Laughter

society. Even though teens with access to these treatments have demonstrated better mental health.

This is a “problem” our leaders don’t have to “solve” because, hear me out, it isn’t a “problem.”

On a related note, I found it interesting Utah will still permit cisgender female teens to get breast implants. Because Utah.

Do you know what else affects a child’s mental health? The fear they’ll be shot at school. The fear that climate change will eliminate elephants and polar bears. The fear their overworked teachers will quit because public money has been siphoned off to private and home schools.

I won’t clump all our elected officials into this bunch of wackadoodles because there are many people working to help trans youth, create sensible gun laws and reduce the load of our poor public school teachers who get beat up each year during the legislative session.

milla introduced a bill that would legalize psilocybin in Utah under strict controls. Because this is Utah, this mushroom therapy bill will probably go down in hallucinogenic flames, but hopefully it gets the conversation started.

Another way to help our youth develop better mental health? Stop passing harmful bills. Start passing bills that help our children and grandchildren deal with the everyday pressures of living in this world that feels like it’s gone bananas.

I agree social media causes great harm to our teens through cyberbullying, shaming and creating a comparison mindset. But there are additional issues we could tackle to help our children sleep better at night.

concerned about the mental health of transgender youth since our state leaders banned gender-affirming care for minors. Even though suicide rates skyrocket for trans youth who often feel stigmatized in

I vote that each educator be given a 10-day trip to Hawaii, paid for by the record-breaking state liquor sales. Of which they’ve heartily contributed, I’m sure.

Speaking of addressing mental health, Senate Minority Leader Luz Esca -

I never had to worry about cyberbullying as a kid, although actual physical bullying was definitely a thing. I worried about being pushed off the monkey bars onto the hard concrete. I worried about kids laughing at my homemade polyester pantsuits.

What I worry about now is how to create an inclusive and safe environment for our youth. I also still worry about accidentally eating mayonnaise, and nuclear war. In that order. l

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

—Steve M., Army Special Forces

D.C. CSCS Chiropractic Physician