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Show A-28 Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, July 9-12, 2005 The Park Record Experience the thrill of a lifetime this 4th of July. OLYMPIC PARK THE comeT SUMMER BOBSLED RIDES • UTAH OLYMPIC PARK This Sunday the 3rd and Monday the 4th only - rides are $15 OFF the regular price of $65 per person. Rides available each day from 1 pm - 5pm Park is open seven days a week from 9am - 6pm. Bobsled rides, zipline rides and tour available daily. This offer only applies to rides purchased on July 3rd & 4th. This offer cannot be combined with any other offers or discounts. Please call 435-658-4200 for more information Special rangers ready for tragedy BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) Karen Frauson was one of the first park rangers to respond to word of a plane crash on a lonely sagebrush flat in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park last month. A shorl time later, she also had the grim task of informing the pilot's family that he had died. But breaking the news of accidents, like this one that killed Wal-Mart heir John Walton, and helping families cope with the sudden reality of the loss is part of what Frauson does as one of the National Park Service's specially trained family liaison officers. Their skills have been in high demand in recent weeks as a scries of fatal accidents and extended searches in national parks have attracted distraught families, some from hundreds of miles away, seeking information - or the chance for a final goodbye. Because many visitors to national parks are from other states or countries, family members often find themselves without their usual support systems, such as close friends or their minister. Family liaisons help provide some of that support. The liaisons help families book flights and hotel rooms, deal with coroners and serve as a go-between with investigators. In some cases, they just sit and listen. "Every incident is so different," said Frauson, who juggles her full-time duties as a district ranger with being a family liaison. "There's definitely no cook- ie-cutter approach lo these things." When tragedy strikes in a national park - a death, disappearance or serious injury - one person is generally chosen to help the family. Only about 30 rangers and others throughout the Park Service are, like Frauson, formally trained in family outreach, said Pam McMillan, coordinator of (he agency program that includes liaison officers. Lack of money has stalled efforts to train more. "If you have had no training at all, it can he a pretty precarious position." McMillan said from her office in California. "It's a very difficult role lo play when you're learning it on the job." The job of notifying families and helpirm them throuch grief is still difficult for Daryl Miller, who has worked at Alaska's Dcnali National Park and Preserve for 14 years. During the Vietnam war, he cscorlcd the remains of dead soldiers home to their families. "It doesn't get any easier because you've done two or three or 20," the ranger said. "It's always hard, always unbelievable, always difficult. And what gets you through is knowing it's difficult for them and trying to do the best you can to gel them through thai." One case that stands out for Miller was in 1994, when a man in North Carolina who was told by police to call Dcnali. It was ihc first time Miller had to break news of a death to someone. "What do you tell a father? Your son was killed? He was buried in an avalanche?" Miller said. "That was a shock, and he got through it better than I." Ralph Bell, a sign-maker at Washington's Mount Rainier National Park, is careful not to bring his work home with him. remaining as detached as possible at the end of the day. He chalks this up, in part, to his days as a police officer. Bell said he's seen so many traumatic accidents, including bodies badly mangled after falling on the mountain, that he's not really affected by them anymore. "I guess the surprise is, sometimes, dealing wilh the family's reaction." Its never Ihc same, he said. Some want to be near where lheir loved ones died; others don't. Some refuse his warning about the condition of a body and want to see it; others heed his advice. "People want information. No beating around the bush. Just the truth." he said. "And how you present it is key." JcNae Lay. whose nephew disappeared after falling into a river in Yellowstone National Park on June 24, called park officials who've kept the family informed on the search "amazing, kind and caring and professional." Luke Sanburg. a 13-year-old Boy Scout from Helena, Mont., is presumed drowned. The search for his body was one of three going on in the park. Park representatives have visited the church where members of Luke's extended family and volunteers have gathered, she said, and have been open about how the other searches are affecting the one for Luke. For Frauson. the hardest cases to handle involve children. For Glen Anderson, the cases that especially stand out involve fellow Park Service workers killed in the line of duty. Helping families understand the sacrifices made by their loved ones is extremely rewarding, but can be emotionally taxing, he said. Anderson, a law enforcement specialist and court officer at Nevada's Lake Mead National Recreation Area, stays in louch with some of the families long after the funeral. That includes the mother of a Lake Mead firefighter killed nearly five years ago in a hclicopier crash, and the family of a slain ranger. "How are you not going to be connected lo those people?" he asked. "You're dealing wilh the highest emotions in life." Family liaisons are not professional counselors, and they say they try to draw boundaries with those they serve - careful not to get too emotionally involved or become a substitute for ihc lost loved one. If it gels to be too much, liaisons can pull h;ick and Icl someone else take ihc ease. In small communities, like .hickson, Wyo., and nearby (inuul Teton National Park, it's nol unusual for some employees to know a climber who is killed. National peer counseling teams often are used after large scale or traumatic events lo help Park Service employees talk through their experience. McMillan said the program has operated without funding, with the costs of her teams paid by the parks that request their help. She'd like that to change, and figures $200,000 would help train new liaisons and peer counselors. But she said funding is unlikely and worries about the program's future. Retirement looms within the next decade for many of her trained liaisons. "All of this will go out in that group," she said. Bui for now. their work continues, wilh liaisons, like Anderson, committed lo filling roles many of their colleagues can't handle. "Its about a helping a human being through a difficult lime, and there's no greater reward than helping another person," he said. Iwasaki nominated as new judge SALT LAKE CITY (AP) A judge on the Salt Lake City Justice Court has been nominated to fill a new seat on the Second District Juvenile Court, Gov. Jon Huntsman announced Wednesday. Paul Iwasaki will need Senate confirmation before becoming a judge for the Juvenile Court, which has jurisdiction in Weber, Davis and Morgan counties. The legislature approved the additional judge "Judge Iwasaki brings a variety of skills to this position which will serve him well on the bench." Before taking his current position. Iwasaki also served as administrative law judge for the Utah State 'lax Commission and the Utah Department of Employment Security.. ^ He also was an assistant" Utah attorney general, deputy Salt Lake County attorney, and a position during the last session to accommodate an increasing caseload. "I am deeply honored to be asked to serve." Iwasaki said. "If confirmed, I will devote my time and energy to providing the best service possible to the community." "This ts a critical appointment because the decisions made in juvenile court can have lifelong implications," Huntsman said. WHEN W^S-THE LAST TIME You WEREJSUR'PRISED? Congratulations FRESH, HEALTHY, DELICIOUS, GOURMET FOOD IN A FRIENDLY, RELAXED ATMOSPHERE AT HALF THE PRICE OF OTHER MAIN STREET RESTAURANTS American Family Insurance would like to congratulate agencies who have been named by J.D. Power and Associates for providing OUR ECLECTIC MENU FEATURES MOM'S POT ROAST, A VARIETY "An Outstanding Customer Experience." 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