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Letters to the Editor, Nov. 12-15, 2016

PR

Winter Welcome success secures YSA’s future

Editor:

Thank you Park City for stepping up again to support the JANS Winter Welcome (JWW) auction and dinner, benefitting nine winter sports teams and more than 2,200 aspiring young athletes under the Youth Sports Alliance (YSA)’s umbrella. This year’s event provided more than an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of our junior athletes while raising critical funds to support their dreams; we remembered the namesake of the event, Jan Peterson.

Jan was the visionary founder of JWW. Known as “coach”, Jan launched the event 36 years ago to raise money for training, travel and equipment for members of the Park City Ski Team. The event has grown to support all winter sports disciplines including alpine skiing, figure skating, bobsled, freestyle skiing, freeride, hockey, luge, nordic skiing and skeleton.

Park City can be proud how it has lifted up its young athletes and encouraged them to reach for their dreams. This year alone, the YSA:

  • Launched ACTiV8, an after school introductory sports program for middle schoolers modeling the successful elementary school Get Out & Play (GO&P) program;
  • Reached the initial fundraising goal of $2 million to establish the Stein Eriksen YSA Opportunity Endowment providing more than 250 need-based scholarships annually to junior athletes and after school participants; and
  • Created a partnership with the National Ability Center to ensure that all local youth — regardless of physical or cognitive abilities — can participate in GO&P and ACTiV8 programming.
  • As a result, we are forging a world-class sports culture that is innovative and enduring.

    A heartfelt thanks goes out to the Peterson family, our sponsors, parents, coaches, volunteers, donors, and the greater Park City community. The collective efforts allow our youth to live big and dream big! It’s up to all of us to carry on Jan’s legacy of “Grooming Dreams.” Thanks, Coach! Thanks, Park City!

    Caron Keim
    YSA Board President
    Aimee Preston
    YSA Executive Director

    Reader won’t even call him by name

    Editor:

    Misogynist, narcissist, xenophobe, fear monger. Without even saying his name, you know who this is. The president-elect of the United States of America. How did we elect him? German friends of mine just left Park City. They are afraid and aghast at “him.” So as I look into the days and years ahead, pondering my role as a citizen, I will lean on the Constitution and on the right to protest and engage peacefully through the democratic process for the common good. The highest office in the land deserves a person of highest caliber who will call us to be better, who will call us to the future and not to some supposed better past.

    Jeffrey Louden
    Park City

    * * *

    It is time to protect our winters

    Editor:

    Over the past decade, our Earth as rapidly gotten warmer, resulting in worse winters. There is a large science behind this, as we create more carbon dioxide the heat gets trapped and our Earth starts to warm.

    Our planet has been warming a ton over the last century or two. Since 1880 our Earth’s temperature has increased approximately 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit which is so much, if the temperature keeps rising at that rate, our society will be way different than we know it today. Not only when the snow melts so will our fun, the resorts will lose all of their money.

    The reason our Earth is getting so warm is because of the greenhouse effect. Which is the production of more carbon dioxide that holds excess heat that should bounce back into space.

    We can do many things to help our environment. Probably the most important though is cutting down on our use of fossil fuels, for example, automobiles or anything that takes petroleum. What we can also do is stop cutting down trees and plant more, because trees reduce the greenhouse effect. As well, we can reduce our waste and water consumption. Recycling is beneficial to protecting our winters, it keeps us from producing more items and reusing the old ones.

    If we want to protect our winters we have to do all of these things, soon. The Earth’s atmosphere could rise as much as 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st Century, which will be way too warm for snow. All we need to do is keep these things in mind and it will slowly get better.

    Sam Rafferty
    Park City

    * * *

    Student complains of homework overload

    Editor:

    Tests have become the definition of who we are — smart, dumb, educated or unwilling to learn. Tests do not, in fact, measure intelligence, but the amount of time a student will spend studying. Countless nights with no sleep, stressing about a test that doesn’t even matter. My mom has told me many times while I am on the brink of tears because of the amount of homework I have, how much education and schools have changed from when she was a kid.

    She believes not only that there is more stress on students to perform better, but on teachers as well. She can speak from personal experience as a kindergarten teacher. Parents would email her with concerns about their children not performing well on tests. They are in kindergarten and already have to stress about tests, let all alone all of the pressure that was put on my mom to increase her kid’s test scores without any help from the school.

    Standardized tests should be created by actual educators instead of corporations. A lot of the time corporations create tests and homework so quickly that they don’t even review them. While I’ve been working on notes, almost every single day we have noticed a mistake. This needs to change and I strongly believe that there should be less standardized tests.

    Lara Davies
    Park City

    * * *

    Solar customers should be praised not penalized

    Editor:

    Rocky Mountain Power quietly submitted a request to penalize Utah residents using or who wish to use solar power for their homes. Without public input or hearing they are trying to make the cost of solar unattractive for those who care about the environment.

    Solar power account for about 1 percent of the total power generated in Utah and currently employs over 3,300 folks. Those who wish to improve the environment and help clean our air should not be penalized.

    I urge our elected officials to make their voices heard to protect our air quality for the sake of our children. Make sure that due process endures and have a public hearing for Rocky Mountain Power’s request.

    Andrea Barros
    Park City

    * * *

    Resident still shaken by neighborhood vandalism

    Editor,

    It is now two weeks since two 14-year-old boys broke into the empty home of my neighbor in Thaynes Canyon. The violence of this crime of vandalism was reported the following week in The Park Record. It has taken me these two weeks to compose myself enough to write of the effect this crime has had on me. I am still incensed, aroused to extreme anger and indignation, by the nature of this crime. Such indecent behavior is of a very grave nature, having great importance; as the heavy nature of barbells thrown from a second floor to land on the quartz countertop has gravity! Indecent behavior! What if a person had walked into that house during the rage? What is the likelihood that a person would have been hurt or worse by this insane behavior?

    Yes, I am incensed and it was not my home. It was that of a neighbor and I would fear their future peace of mind regarding the sanctity of home is shattered. Can they ever walk into their home again, any home, anywhere, without some lingering trepidation? They were violated. Two adults and one 10-year-old child have had a previous perception of personal safety taken away.

    I do not buy into the notion that these criminal teenagers are indulging in dangerous and destructive acting out because they are distressed. These boys are clearly undisciplined and disrespectful of others; missing the two elements of self discipline and respect for others required to be a part of a civilized society. The 21st Century and its marvels are not to blame for what is ‘lacking’ in their lives. Let’s not lie to ourselves and each other by proclaiming spurious politically correct reasons for unacceptable behavior.

    Teenagers should know that their parents and grandparents faced adolescent trials of their own with concerns of acceptance, sufficient self esteem, insecurity and a host of other personal concerns looming large. Their stresses were real and humbling and enriching all at the same time. They got through it.

    I have no answers; but more lives have been impacted by this crime of Oct. 29, adding to the misery of teenage losses of the recent past.

    Paula Hurd, Thaynes resident
    Park City

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