Running with Ed spreads celebration throughout the town

Editor:

On May 20th, over 200 teams, totaling over 1,300 runners, enjoyed an absolutely beautiful Park City day for the 8th annual Running with Ed (RWE) 38-mile relay race. This event is a true celebration of our schools, enjoyed by teachers, students, parents and community members. Teams included over 160 PCSD teachers and staff and over 260 student runners – many of whom braved the UOP Nordic jump stairs! Many more PCSD staff and students, as well as the fantastic PTO’s, were enthusiastically volunteering at their school exchanges, providing treats and entertainment to all. Thanks to wonderful community partnerships, sponsors, volunteers, runners and fundraisers, RWE 2017 was an amazing success!

This year, RWE will raise over $275,000 for the Park City Education Foundation (PCEF). These funds will be distributed into our local Park City School District through PCEF’s granting process. Working together with donors, PCEF’s grants go beyond what public education funding provides to meet the needs of our students, teachers and community.

As RWE Fundraising Chair, I want to give a very special thanks to each RWE participant who joined their team fundraising efforts. In addition to running the race, these individuals spent weeks reaching out to friends and family members asking for donations to PCEF. Teams created and personalized their team fundraising pages, sent out emails, posted to Facebook and thanked their donors. Their extraordinary efforts paid off and teams exceeded our goal, raising almost $125,000 for PCEF.

Each year, we award free teams to the captains of our top fundraising teams. This year, 21 of our 60 teams raised over $2,000 to earn a free 2018 RWE Team. Incredibly, 8 teams raised over $5,000 and enjoyed our VIP Lounge at the Finish Line Party. Many of you reading this letter contributed to this success by donating to RWE teams, so thank you, too!

Thanks to our incredible community and your overwhelming support, RWE 2017 was another successful “Celebration of Education.”

Elissa Aten, RWE Fundraising Chair
PCEF Board Member

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Ruts for nuts

Editor:

Your article reminding the reader of trail etiquette entitled “Happy trails” was an interesting opinion piece. Your insinuation that the hostile, annoyed and speeding bike riders are caused by President Trump is ludicrous. For almost six months I have read non-profit articles in this newspaper and sat in non-profit audiences and read or listened to President Trump being castigated when he has nothing to do with the what is being presented.

I, as a donor to the organization and President Trump supporter, sit and have no recourse but to leave without benefiting from the program and no longer donating to the non-profit. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but do you really have to announce your political opinion in an article about bicycle etiquette?

Gail Tomlinson
Park City

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Withdrawal from climate accord was a sad day for Utah

Editor:

When President Donald Trump announced on June 1 that the U.S. is walking away from the Paris climate deal, it was a sad day for Utahns.

Our children and grandchildren will look at this decision by Trump (which, sadly, was applauded by his allies in Utah’s Congressional delegation) and wonder why he turned his back on an opportunity to protect our beautiful home for future generations. Why did he put the profits of the fossil fuel industry over us?

We have very little time to act to reduce greenhouse gases to ward off the reduced snowpack, limited water supplies, sustained drought, increased forest fires and worsening air quality which is threatening our families, our communities and our economy.

The President’s action is built upon a tragic lie: that improving our environment comes at the expense of our economy. Moving aggressively towards cleaner energy will boost our economy, not harm it. We certainly see that in Utah, where jobs in our growing rooftop solar industry already outnumber those in coal.

Even as we bemoan Trump’s sad and potentially devastating announcement, we strongly believe that change has always come from the ground up. We find hope in the thousands of Utah families investing in clean energy and in the leadership of communities like Salt Lake City, Park City and Summit County, setting and reaching ambitious climate change targets.

Matt Pacenza
HEAL Utah Executive Director

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Tell Senator Hatch not to cut children’s health insurance

Editor:

Most Utahns do not realize that hundreds of thousands of children have health insurance thanks to Sen. Hatch. But the Children’s Health Insurance Program (“CHIP”), which stands on the shoulders of Medicaid, is under threat from the efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. CHIP funding expires on Sept. 30, 2017. Under the House bill, at least 141,000 Utah children would be uninsured by 2019 and 171,000 parents would become uninsured too. Approximately 71 percent of Utahns on Medicare (and CHIP) are children. Join me in calling on Sen. Hatch to urge him to keep CHIP and Medicaid coverage for children when drafting the Senate version of the health-care bill.

David Billings
Salt Lake City

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How individuals can honor Paris Climate Accord

Editor:

Are you, too, fighting mad about Trump pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord? Then let’s fight back three times a day by adopting an eco-friendly, plant-based diet.

Yes, our diet is pivotal. A 2010 United Nations report blames animal agriculture for 19 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, 38 percent of land use, and 70 percent of global freshwater consumption.

Carbon dioxide is emitted by burning forests to create animal pastures and by fossil fuels combustion to operate farm machinery, trucks, factory farms, and slaughterhouses. The more damaging methane and nitrous oxide are released from digestive tracts of cattle and from animal waste cesspools, respectively.

In an environmentally sustainable world, meat and dairy products in our diet must be replaced by vegetables, fruits, and grains, just as fossil fuels are replaced by wind, solar, and other pollution-free energy sources.

Each of us has the power to protest Trump’s failure to maintain America’s leadership in moderating climate change, simply and effectively, by what we choose at the grocery store.

Pruitt Richardson
Park City

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Ski lockers would increase bus use

Editor:

Many residents are concerned about traffic to the resorts and the difficulty of parking during ski season. I am sure that Vail must be as well. Their out-of-town guests don’t want to spend hours stuck in traffic any more than the locals do.

There is one thing that can be done to alleviate the need to drive and to get more residents to take the bus: more lockers at the resort. Right now, there are some lockers available for day rental at both Canyons and the main PCMR base area, but there is no ability to rent a ski locker for the season. Carting one person’s worth of gear on the bus is inconvenient for an adult, but the logistics become impossible to manage for families with small children. I am sure the day will come when day skiers will be forced to pay to park in some of the lots which are currently free of charge, and the availability of the bus will be small solace to families or to older folks who struggle to tromp around in ski boots with their gear.

As Vail renovates or adds on to the base area lodges and hotels, it would behoove them to add many seasonal and short-term ski lockers. As a local parent, I know that I and my family will be much more likely to take the bus if we are able to do in street shoes with our boots, skis, and poles securely stored at the hill. This amenity is offered at Alta for approximately $300 for the season and it is common at other resorts as well. Surely, Vail can find space in some of the facilities near the lifts at Park City Resort to offer this service as well, especially given their professed commitment to public transit and environmental well-being. I am sure that dedicating valuable slope-side square footage to locker rooms will not bring in the revenue that an extra wine bar or spa would, but being a good corporate citizen requires building in ways that work well with the town’s transportation system.

Joe Newcomb
Park City

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Interfaith Council lifts spirits at the high school

Editor:

I want to publicly thank Park City’s Interfaith Council for helping produce this year’s Park City High School Baccalaureate with Student Body President, Albany Miller.

The evening in the Eccles Center was inspiring. We left thinking about what we “should” do rather than what we “can” do. We were reminded to strive to serve. We imagined a beautiful world and considered how to “Let It Be.” This was the first time I attended a Baccalaureate in Park City. It set a warm tone for the upcoming week.

Julie Hooker
Teacher, Park City High School