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Show B-6 The Park Record Timp. Monument Marathon closes for rebuild and series Continued from B-1 Site could be closed for the rest of the season Associated Press AMERICAN FORK, Utah – Timpanogos Cave National Monument will be closing so construction on a new visitor center can get underway. KSL-TV in Salt Lake City reports the caves in north-central Utah will be closed for the rest of the season after Labor Day. The current visitor center, which has been around for 27 years, will be demolished. National Park Service officials say the new center will put visitors out of the path where rocks and boulders have been known to fall. The parking areas will actually be relocated as well. The $3.9 million project is scheduled to be completed in June 2019. The Timpanogos Caves typically offer daily cave tours between mid-May and Labor Day. Get all the latest Park Record updates. winners and what the finishing time is, as long as you get the W,” Wilson said. For his wins over the series, Wilson received a backpack, two pairs of shoes, and a massive pie which was baked into a commemorative pan. Wilson said he would likely eat the whole thing himself, which would be a different type of marathon. “My wife tries to stay away from sweets, so I might have to try and take this on alone,” he said. Next, he plans on running the Huntsville Half Marathon, the Snow Canyon Half Marathon in St. George and the Onward Shay in Boise, Idaho, where he hopes to trim his half marathon time to below 1 hour, 10 minutes. Sharing is caring Wilson’s counterpart, Parkite Natalie Como, did not earn her enormous pastry by taking first in the Mid Mountain Marathon which she finished in 3:46:36. She took second behind Salt Lake City’s Katherine Pagano. Nor did she win the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase. She took second after finishing with a time of 2:33:36 behind Holly Hagerman of Brighton, who had just turned 50 and put up a time of 02:25:03.6. She did, however, win the Round Valley Rambler, which she finished in 01:44:51.3. But her aggregate time was still the fastest out of all female competitors and secured first place for Como for the second consecutive year. “I’m excited about the pie most of all,” Como said. “It’s the biggest pie I’ve ever seen and it was very delicious last year.” After winning the series last season, she shared the pie with her boyfriend, who, along with his family, ran the Mid Mountain Marathon with her this year. “I would love to be able to finish that myself but it’s huge and I don’t think I could,” she said. Como finished all three races in 8:05:03 and plans to run the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 7. For a full list of results go to mountaintrails.org/race-results/. Wed/Thurs/Fri, August 22-24, 2018 BEN RAMSEY/PARK RECORD Mickey Wilson, winner of the Triple Trail Challenge and all its stages, holds up one of his prizes: a massive apple pie. Sponsored content Quality afterschool programs needed in rural communities across America Research shows afterschool and summer programming can benefit children in many ways, but a lack of resources in rural communities often prevents access to such programs By Lauren Glendenning Brought to you by YouthPower365® There’s a problem facing children in rural communities: a lack of adequate afterschool and summer programming. Research shows that quality afterschool programs can improve students’ reading and math grades, classroom behavior, attendance, academic aspirations, dietary habits, physical activity and reduce the risks of dropping out of school or using drugs, according to the federal Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs. Quality summer programs can reduce the risk of summer learning loss — also known as the summer slide — in which children start the academic year at achievement levels lower than where they were at the beginning of summer break, according to the Brookings Institution, which has studied the phenomenon. In Park City, successful afterschool programming exists thanks to strong community partnerships, said Todd Klarich, community education director for the Park City School District. The programs have evolved over the years, but today includes snack time, enrichment and academic support for three hours per day, and six hours on Fridays. “When you have a quality program where the kids and the parents are getting a result, the community will support it,” he said. These are the kinds of partnerships that the Colorado nonprofit Vail Valley Foundation hopes to highlight at an upcoming conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado: The PwrHrs Extended Learning Conference, Nov. 7-9. “In rural communities like ours, programs like PwrHrs offer support services by extending the school day for working families, providing transportation home from programs, and providing daytime food security to all students,” said Melisa Rewold-Thuon, vice president of education at the Vail Valley Foundation. “This has both an economic impact and a social-emotional one. For little or no cost, families know that children are in a supportive, learning, quality environment, stay within their home school and neighborhood, and safely arrive home each day.” PHOTO COURTESY OF YOUTHPOWER365/LOGAN ROBERTSON Academic soccer is a PwrHrs program that takes learning out of the classroom and on to the soccer fields. Students must maintain a successful grade point average and are challenged in their studies in order to join in weekly practices and games. From the school district’s perspective, the programs are an important extension of childhood development and education. Programs don’t have to start out too big, either, Klarich said. His advice for communities looking to implement their own successful afterschool programs is to start out small and build from there. The support — especially the funding — will follow if you have a quality program, he said. RESEARCH Afterschool Alliance, a national organization that advocates for robust afterschool programming, conducted a study about rural access to afterschool programming in 2016. The study found that the top challenge is securing enough funding to run and sustain these programs. “The potential partnerships that can be formed between programs and the business and philanthropic communities are many, just as the range of supports afterschool programs provide and areas of focus are wide-ranging,” according to the study. “As rural communities struggle with food insecurity, poverty, and HUMBLE BEGINNINGS lack of resources, it is evident that families in rural communities YouthPower365 is the educational non-profit of the Vail Valley are in need of additional supports that can help them thrive.” Foundation, and serves nearly 4,400 children annually in all 19 Current YouthPower365 research, in partnership with Colorado public schools in Eagle County, Colorado. The county is wellknown for its local ski areas, but the majority of its population live State University, is looking at the PwrHrs kids’ social-emotional and academic performance during the regular school year. The in rural areas, and more than 40 percent of students qualify for research suggests that policymakers should consider the following free or reduced lunch. when designing this type of programming: YouthPower365 was formed in 2012 as an affiliation of the • Center the program around evidence-based curriculum. Youth Foundation and existing education programming of the • In addition to academic content, include hands-on or recreVail Valley Foundation. The organization has been effectively ational activities. supporting local families and youth through programming that includes early childhood initiatives, afterschool and summer pro- • Ensure that program structure enables sufficient time on task, with policies or incentives that encourage consistent attengrams for K-12, and college-and-career readiness for middle and dance. high school students. • Invest in hiring the most effective teachers. YouthPower365’s leadership recognized that while their programs were successful, there was a need for greater collaboration with other communities. Much of what’s worked in Eagle County FINDING SUCCESS Successful programs offer wide-ranging curriculum topics, can work elsewhere, Rewold-Thuon said, including the PwrHrs from sports to robotics to coding to academics. Afterschool Allimodel for building partnerships between public schools and ance Executive Director Jodi Grant said kids in rural areas may private funding. not have a sense for the opportunities out there, and these types “We have always tried to work with schools to utilize resources of programs can help them find a path that’s right for them. they already have in place for both the academic and enrichment “Every program tends to be unique, based on the community components of our programs,” she said. PHOTO COURTESY OF YOUTHPOWER365/REX KEEP PwrHrs Afterschool participants not only gain educational strengths but social-emotional skills through the development of tight classroom bonds with peers, teachers, and staff. P WRHRS E XTENDED LEARNING CONFERENCE X What: Educators, funders, and policy-makers will come together to inform, inspire and empower collective action towards creating quality out-of-school opportunities for every child, every day, especially in rural communities. X When: Nov. 7-9, 2018 X Where: Beaver Creek, Colorado X Cost: $300 Early Bird (before Sept. 15); $350 General Admission (after Sept. 15) X Details: To register or learn more visit conference. youthpower365.org or contact pwrhrsconference@vvf.org and its resources,” she said. “Kids need a place to feel safe, where they belong, and where they can build positive relationships with kids and positive adults.” Organizations like YouthPower365 can help public schools determine how to best tap into private funding, while at the same time helping earn grants from regional and federal governments. Education experts on staff can help develop engaging curriculums, all of which help young people and families find a brighter future, while at the same time increasing teacher pay. This last aspect – teacher pay – is a very beneficial biproduct of YouthPower365 programming, and can be a boon to rural communities where teacher recruitment and pay lag behind urban areas. All of the above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to improving local education initiatives via models like YouthPower365. The positive impacts of such programs have a cascading effect, raising quality of life for everyone by ensuring that afterschool and summer programming is keeping kids on the right track now and into the future. In November, communities with – and without – such programs will share expertise and knowledge at the PwrHrs Extended Learning Conference, helping foster the development of breakthrough ideas for funding and programming. The end result could have a profound ripple effect: helping ensure that all kids across America have access to education and developmental opportunities that put them on the path toward a bright future. |