Civic Shout-outs - Wasatch Front

Civic Shout-outs - Wasatch Front Recognizing the people, places, and organizations that improve everyday life in our community. Founder & Writer/Editor: Alison Cañar

Civic Shout-out Sunday - Summer Reading Program at the Salt Lake County LibraryAt the end of May, my family and I attend...
06/07/2026

Civic Shout-out Sunday - Summer Reading Program at the Salt Lake County Library

At the end of May, my family and I attended a Salt Lake County “Summer Reading Challenge” kickoff party at the Bingham Creek branch. We have participated in the summer reading challenge for several years now, and we’ve always had a great experience.

The theme this year is “Unearth a Story,” so when you visit your local branch, you may see some archaeology-themed displays. At the event we attended, we completed a “Choose Your Own Adventure” quest that took us through the Age of Dinosaurs, the Stone Age, the Viking Age, and the Egyptian Empire.

To get started on your own summer reading adventure, you can visit any county library branch and pick up one or more of their tracking sheets. We have three different versions at our house: “Pre-Reader,” “Kids,” and “Adults.” Each sheet has activity suggestions and illustrations customized for the corresponding age group.

Along with reading, the library encourages additional enriching activities for all ages. For the littlest ones, the categories are talk, sing, read, write, and play. The categories for older patrons are read, create, learn, play, and connect. Examples of “create” activities include baking or sculpting; “learn” includes learning a new game or skill; “play” could be going on a nature walk; and “connect” is attending an event. Each day when you complete an activity, you can color in one of the graphics. Once your sheet is full, you can return it to the library for a prize and bonus activities.

My family has always had a fantastic time choosing and using our prizes in previous years. At our local branch, Daybreak, we have each been able to choose a free book. In addition, we can enter drawings for more prizes and we’ve also gotten passes to venues such as the Natural History Museum. The library also gives a $5 fee waiver for anyone who signs up.

Thank you to the county library for providing such fun incentives to remind and motivate us to continue learning and to dig into some books this summer!

- Alison Cañar, South Jordan

What summer activities do you have planned so far this year? Please reach out if you would like to share your own shout-out or nominate a person, place, or organization that deserves recognition.

Civic Shout-out Sunday - Junior Achievement ProgramMany of your children may have brought home a Junior Achievement book...
06/01/2026

Civic Shout-out Sunday - Junior Achievement Program

Many of your children may have brought home a Junior Achievement booklet this spring like my daughter did. I was not familiar with the Junior Achievement program until my daughter’s teacher sent out a message requesting parent volunteers to come and teach the lessons to her kindergarten students. I ended up partnering with another parent in the class, and we taught five lessons between the two of us.

Each grade level has a different Junior Achievement curriculum, but all focus on helping students develop financial literacy and career readiness. I taught the first three kindergarten lessons titled “This or That? Make a Choice,” “Do I Need What I Want?,” and “A Penny Earned.” My partner taught the last two lessons, “A Penny Saved” and “A Penny Shared.”

The Junior Achievement organization provides volunteers with a kit including all lesson materials and an instruction guide with lesson plans and presentation tips. The guide encourages volunteers to share their own stories and experiences, and I was able to tell my daughter’s class about both my early and late career experiences. I shared some of my first jobs—“soft-line zoner” at Target and bank teller at Utah Community Credit Union—as well as work I did that required a college degree—middle-school English teacher and executive assistant at Midvale City Hall.

In my experience, the Junior Achievement lessons were fun and worthwhile for everyone involved. The students enjoyed the hands-on workbook activities, storybooks, and opportunities to hear new perspectives on careers and financial decision-making from myself and other volunteers. Teachers—while still engaged during the lesson—got a little support from having an extra adult in the classroom. Finally, as a volunteer, I found it rewarding to be involved in my daughter’s class in a different way than I otherwise would have.

Thank you to all of the donors, volunteers, teachers, and staff who help make the Junior Achievement vision of empowering students to succeed in the career marketplace a reality. To learn more about the Junior Achievement program, you can visit https://ja-utah.org/

- Alison Cañar, South Jordan

Do you know of any organizations providing curricular support or coordinating volunteers at your neighborhood school? Please reach out if you would like to share your own shout-out or nominate a person, place, or organization that deserves recognition.

Looking forward to SoJo Summerfest this year!
05/27/2026

Looking forward to SoJo Summerfest this year!

Civic Shout-out Sunday - The Crossing Guard Team at Eastlake ElementaryMy family and I are fans of active transportation...
05/24/2026

Civic Shout-out Sunday - The Crossing Guard Team at Eastlake Elementary

My family and I are fans of active transportation, so throughout this school year we’ve made an effort to bike my kindergartner to school as often as possible, only taking our car as a last resort. One unexpected bonus that’s come along with this lifestyle has been the opportunity to have frequent face-to-face interactions with the Eastlake crossing guards. From the first day of school, I immediately noted how friendly and engaging the crossing guards were. They would always welcome my daughters and me with broad smiles and enthusiastic greetings. In preparation for this post, I got to put some names to the friendly faces we’ve encountered so often this year.

The first crossing guard I knew I needed to speak with for this project is Olga (photo 1 - top left). Olga radiates happiness and care for the students each day. She also frequently gives me kudos for the tasks she sees me doing as a mom, complimenting me and calling me “such a super mom!” for everyday things like towing my bike trailer and having an afterschool snack ready for my kindergartener. Many of you would probably agree that parenting is hard work, so any notice and moral support we can get is so appreciated! Olga also adds little touches like dressing up seasonally (dressing up herself and decorating her stop sign) and even bringing Valentines to pass out to the students.

Another crossing guard who regularly brightens our days is Belle (photo 2 - bottom left). My daughters always wear their unicorn helmets in our bike trailer, and Belle affectionately greets them as “my little unicorns!” as she guides us across Topview Road. Like Olga, Belle decorates her stop sign, and she even had a unicorn on her stop sign the day I photographed her!

When my family and I cross Isla Daybreak Road, we are usually assisted by Nadine (photo 5 - bottom right). Like several of her colleagues, Nadine is beloved by many of the students who cross her street. On the day I stopped to photograph her, she chatted with some students about how she would be taking a big wedding anniversary vacation at the end of the school year, and the students wished her well but said they would miss her so much. She responded that the only downside to her vacation would be how much she would miss the students as well.

Our school crossing guards are hired through the South Jordan City Police Department, and whoever handles recruiting and training there has done a fantastic job to develop such an exceptional roster of employees. Thank you SoJo Police Department, Olga, Belle, Nadine, and all of the other wonderful crossing guards at Eastlake!

- Alison Cañar, South Jordan

How do your children get to and from school each day? What city or school district services help keep them safe and cared for on their way? Please reach out if you would like to share your own shout-out or nominate a person, place, or organization that deserves recognition.

Civic Shout-out Sunday - Amigos y Libros Storytime at the West Jordan LibraryMy husband was born and raised in Ecuador, ...
05/18/2026

Civic Shout-out Sunday - Amigos y Libros Storytime at the West Jordan Library

My husband was born and raised in Ecuador, and we have been working to raise our two daughters to be bilingual. When our oldest daughter started attending preschool, we saw a noticeable drop in the amount of Spanish she would speak. My husband tries to speak to her in Spanish as much as possible, and she used to reply back to him in fluent Spanish as well. However, after starting school, she started responding back more and more in English. I have a background in teaching multilingual students, and from that training, I thought that I need to introduce our daughters to Spanish in a wider variety of contexts to give them more motivation to use it. So, I began looking for resources in my community to support my daughters’ bilingualism, and that’s when I found Amigos y Libros Storytime!

Amigos y Libros Storytime is led by two wonderful librarians, Megan and Bret. Megan and Bret take turns reading stories, with Megan reading a story in English and Bret reading the same story in Spanish (¡Español!). This innovative format helps families like mine who want their children to be exposed to more Spanish as well as families who speak primarily Spanish at home and want to expose their children to more English in order to provide a smoother transition to school where English language proficiency will be important.

In addition to reading books, Megan and Bret thoughtfully prepare and present many other early-literacy activities. They have songs for the children to dance to and/or play instruments with, finger plays and rhymes for them to learn, and games for them to play. At the end of each group storytime session, they have a craft related to the day’s theme as well as many developmentally-enriching toys available for the children to play with. They also provide a wide variety of books centered around the week’s theme that families can check out and bring home with them. I’ve found so many new favorites from the books they’ve highlighted. They also share news about other upcoming library events that families might enjoy.

My daughters absolutely love attending Amigos y Libros. Each morning that I tell my three-year-old that we are going to Amigos y Libros, she says, “Hooray!” One week on our car ride to the library, she said from the backseat, “‘Mom, I love you because you always take me to the best activities.” My five-year-old usually can’t attend the program anymore since she started kindergarten, but she always asks me to bring back a copy of the craft for her to complete at home because she loves them so much. She will also be excited to temporarily join us again over the summer.

My family and I are so grateful to Megan and Bret for all of the passion and warmth they bring to their storytime. They remember my daughter and greet her by name each week, and we both appreciate them so much. Thank you, Megan and Bret! The Salt Lake County Library System also offers more bilingual storytimes at other locations, some of which I might also be shouting-out in coming weeks!

- Alison Cañar, South Jordan

Do you have any favorite city or county sponsored activities? Please reach out if you would like to share your own shout-out or nominate a person, place, or organization that deserves recognition.

Gardner Village hosts so many fun events for families. Many of the activities are free and open to the public with optio...
05/15/2026

Gardner Village hosts so many fun events for families. Many of the activities are free and open to the public with options for paid add-ons.

Who knew there is a Twilight Zone day?!? This sounds so cool. This is just one of so many fun things happening every day...
05/12/2026

Who knew there is a Twilight Zone day?!? This sounds so cool. This is just one of so many fun things happening every day at our libraries!

Civic Shout-out Sunday - Mrs. Oberg, Kindergarten Teacher at Eastlake ElementaryMy daughter’s kindergarten teacher, Mrs....
05/10/2026

Civic Shout-out Sunday - Mrs. Oberg, Kindergarten Teacher at Eastlake Elementary

My daughter’s kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Oberg, is early in her career but already has the classroom presence and charisma of a seasoned veteran. She’s mastered the mixture of warmth and high expectations needed to ensure students are safe and successful in her classroom. Knowing some of her young students might be nervous for their big transition into elementary school, she gifted each of them a small jar of "Jitter Glitter" at back to school night to place under their pillow. My daughter slept soundly before her first day, proclaiming, "it's working!"

Kindergarten teachers carry the heavy weight of building students’ foundational literacy and numeracy skills, and I’m confident Mrs. Oberg has provided my daughter with a rock-solid start. Under Mrs. Oberg’s tutelage, my daughter learned to subitize, “instantly recognize the number of objects in a set without counting them,” a term she proudly came home and taught to my husband and me. As a classroom volunteer, I observed how Mrs. Oberg supplied brightly colored “treasure boxes” students could choose from and open to reveal their CVC word sets, adding a sense of fun and discovery to repeated practice.

Mrs. Oberg has put in a lot of logistical work to make her curriculum come to life for her students. She guided her class to work together to write and illustrate each season of the year for display on her walls, and invited parents to her classroom to hear their students sing and show off their creations. While reading "The Little Red Hen," Mrs. Oberg wanted to ensure her students understood the process of baking bread, so she brought ingredients and materials into her classroom for each child to have the experience of kneading dough. She even took the time to procure a real sheaf of grain for her students to see up close!

As a mom, I’m so grateful for teachers like Mrs. Oberg who take such care to make their classrooms a home away from home for their students. Happy Mother’s Day to all of our followers!

- Alison Cañar, South Jordan

Did your child’s school celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week? Please reach out if you would like to share your own shout-out or nominate a person, place, or organization that deserves recognition.

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