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Show Page 2 The Ogden Valley News Volume XXX Issue XI August 15, 2023 The Ogden Valley News Staff: Shanna Francis Tel: 801-745-2688 Fax: 801-745-2688 Cell: 801-791-4387 E-Mail: slfrancis@digis.net Jeannie Wendell Tel: 801-745-2879 Fax: 801-745-2879 E-Mail: crwendell@digis.net crwendell@msn.com Opinions expressed by advertisers, columnists or letters to the editor are not necessarily the opinions of the owners and staff of The Ogden Valley News. Guidelines for Letters to the Editor Letters should be 300 words or less. Letters must be signed and the address of the writer submitted. The Ogden Valley News reserves the right to edit or decline printing of any submissions. Announcements Sought As a community service, The Ogden Valley News will print local birth, wedding, obituary, anniversary and missionary farewell & homecoming and Eagle Scout announcements free of charge. We invite residents to send their announcements to: The Ogden Valley News PO BOX 522 EDEN UT 84310 If you would like your submitted items returned, please send a stamped, selfaddressed envelope. The Ogden Valley News, while respecting all property received, will take no responsibility for lost or misplaced items. Please remember to keep a copy for yourself. Invitation for Articles The staff of The Ogden Valley News welcomes the submission of articles by our readership. We invite you to submit local historical accounts or biographies, articles pertaining to contemporary issues, and/or other material that may be of interest to our readers. We also invite you to submit to the paper, or notify the staff of local events. Awards that have been earned by the reader, family members, neighbors or friends are also sought. While the staff of The Ogden Valley News invites the submittal of information and articles, we reserve the right to select which material will be considered for publication. All material, to be considered, must be submitted with the full name, address and telephone number of the person submitting the material. The OgdenValley News’liability on account of errors in, or omissions of, advertising shall in no event exceed the amount of charges for the advertising omitted or the space occupied by the error. The Ogden Valley News does not endorse, promote or encourage the purchase or sale of any product or service advertised in this newspaper. Advertisements are the sole responsibility of the advertiser. The Ogden Valley News hereby disclaims all liability for any damage suffered as the result of any advertisement in this newspaper. The Ogden Valley News is not responsible for any claims or representations made in advertisements in this newspaper. The Ogden Valley News has the sole authority to edit and locate any classified advertisement as deemed appropriate. It also reserves the right to refuse any advertising. Note: The contents of The Ogden Valley News are copyrighted. To protect this publication and its contributors from unlawful copying, written permission is required before any individual or company engages in the reproduction or distribution of its contents, by any means, without first obtaining written permission from the owners of this publication. The deadline for the OVN September 1 issue is August 15. Letters to the Editor Let’s All Do Our Part to Ensure Government is By and For the People While visiting my relatives for a family reunion in the Midwest last week, and going through some old photographs, we found an old newspaper from 1960, which my aunt had been featured in. On the front page was an article by a fellow employee with some advice that is still relevant and valuable today. In these tumultuous times, I was reminded of simpler times and the need to pay attention to what’s going on. History tends to repeat itself. Family is important, as are connections with friends. And common sense continues to ring true. Here is a small portion of the article from The Honeywell World, dated July 18, 1960: “Just going to the polls is not enough for a responsible citizen. ‘A citizen is obliged to take advantage of every chance he gets to know all about issues, elected officials, and candidates,’ said Honeyweller Gordon Miklethun. “’Any citizen who takes the time and trouble to speak out will be amazed at the amount of influence he can exert.’ Gordon Miklethun said simply, ‘Few people bother to act.’ “’When we let others run the government, we’re likely to get a type of government we don’t want,’ he said.” So true. What we’re really after is gov- ernment by and for all the people instead of government by those who run and are elected so they can use government to serve their own personal purposes, which, often, really don’t serve the common good at all. Let’s all take Mr. Miklethun’s advice by taking advantage of every opportunity to really get to know both sides of different issues, new candidates at election time, and keep tabs on what our current elected officials are doing. Jeannie Wendell, Liberty Thanks to Those Protecting the Specialness of Ogden Valley are playing in protecting what makes this valley special. Thanks to the support of generous donors and landowners, Ogden Valley Land Trust Whether you are new to Ogden Valley, a (OVLT) is able to work with landowners to visitor, a second homeowner, or part of a family create conservation easements on private propthat has lived here for generations, my guess is erty to ensure that these land parcels in the that you appreciate the valley’s open spaces, valley will never be developed. The land trust the farmlands, the views, the wildlife, the clear currently holds easements on 14 parcels for a skies, and the clean water. If you appreciate total of, approximately, 8,000 acres, including these things, then let me tell you about the role 1,050 acres at the site of the former Huntsville that so many local businesses and individuals Monastery where OVLT held its summer fundraising concert on July 29. Monastery landowner Bill White very graciously hosted the event, which featured a virtuosic performance by professional classical pianist Hunter Noack of IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the WildTM. We are extremely grateful to the local businesses, individuals, and artists who donated to the evening’s silent auction, to the audience members who supported the event and the auction, and to the following sponsors who made this event possible and who are helping to protect the specialness and uniqueness of Ogden Valley: Golden Eagle Sponsors ($2,500+): IN A LANDSCAPE returned to the former Snowbasin, Weber County Tourism Works, Huntsville monastery July 29. Kuhl, America First Credit Union, Doug & Jan Cardon of Cardon Farms, and Monastery Landowner Bill White; Sandhill Crane Sponsors ($1,000+): Coldwell Banker Realty, Mountain Luxury, Henderson Family Trust, Kyrgies, Kirk Langford and Beje Bohannan of Langford Farm, Compass Rose Lodge, and Ashlie Roe Team with Crosscountry Mortgage; and Bobolink Sponsors ($500+): Roosters Brewing Co., Zions Bank, Bank of Utah, Jeff and Melisa Harrison of Two Rivers Ranch, Janet Wampler and Manuel Prieto, and one anonymous donor. All of us who love Ogden Valley owe a deep debt of gratitude to these OVLT supporters—especially to the landowners who made the decision to surrender and donate their property’s development rights (a significant economic asset) to the land trust, benefiting the entire community for generations to come by ensuring some of the Valley’s most significant and valuable open space will be protected forever. Thank you…. Johanna Droubay, Ogden Valley Land Trust Board Member The Importance of The Arts and What’s Happening in Our Backyard By Cori Anderson It’s a rough world out there. Discourse has been replaced with discord. Harmony is absent from formerly tightknit communities. We have arguments instead of making arguments. Finally, let’s not ignore the glaring fact: the kids are not alright. Yet hidden, sometimes in plain sight and often free of charge, is a studied, proven antidote: the arts! In this article I’m sharing some research around this idea, but I should note that the arts aren’t a replacement for clinical interventions, like therapy and those your doctor might encourage, but viewing and participating in the Arts is an excellent complement to them and a great way to support baseline wellbeing. A broad swath of studies tells us that adults and children who engage with the arts see academic, mental health and physical benefits. For example, in a longitudinal study of 50,797 adult participants, participation in viewing and participating in arts and cultural activities was significantly associated with good health, a satisfactory life, and low anxiety and depression scores in both genders, with slightly elevated benefits for men viewing art versus making art. Half a dozen studies have proven that just looking at art lowers blood pressure and decreases stress. There is promising research about art viewing stimulating the parts of the brain that Parkinson’s disease impacts with more research to come. All of this is to say that the arts are great for your mind and body. I’m the kind of person who wants proof and today, we have the science to back up the benefits of art experiences. The emerging field of neuroesthetics focuses on how the brain reacts to the arts—and the results are astound- ing! MRI studies have identified activity in the brain regions associated with perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and reward processing when assessing the beauty of images. Researchers cross-referencing available data from a volume of studies concluded that viewing paintings activated the brain’s emotion and reward systems in addition to the expected visual cortex. When you look at visually pleasing art, your brain lights up in the areas that make you feel joy and pleasure, not just the areas that support visual perception. The arts don’t just look good, they make you feel good. The research is in, and we now know that when a person views art they find beautiful, it triggers an immediate release of dopamine (aka the happiness and reward chemical) into the brain in the same way that problematic things like cell phones, social media and pornography do. I’m not a parent of a teen, but if I were, I’d be supplying my teen with ample opportunities for healthy dopamine triggers— especially the kind that support their academic success and emotional wellbeing. But what about art that isn’t beautiful? What about art that depicts troubling social problems or difficult historic moments? Or art that is just plain weird? It offers benefits, too. Aside from serving as a focal point for discussion, it improves people’s ability to think about the world, and its problems, in a holistic way. It offers an opportunity to practice disagreement in a way that has incredibly low stakes. And guess what? Scientists have studied that, too. Practicing discussing and disagreeing about things that you aren’t especially emotionally connected to improves your ability to make strong arguments when the stakes are high. (College admissions essays and difficult coworkers, anyone?) At Crystal Bridges, the standard-changing art institution founded by Wal-Mart heir Alice Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie, where the art ranges from the beautiful to the absurd to the uncomfortable, a research team studied a little over 10,000 school-aged field trip participants. In each of the following areas, students saw between 70- and 88-percent gains in critical thinking skills, tolerance, and empathy after participating in the field trips. What’s more, these were long-term benefits, not just immediate and short term. These are all qualities I want to instill in my seven-yearold, so you can bet I’m prioritizing museum and arts time. Our community has a wealth of free and paid opportunities for families and adults to participate in which The Ogden Valley News has graciously offered to highlight. Here are some of the arts opportunities happening in and around our community this month: • Mountain Arts and Music • Imagine Music, Huntsville • Green Håus Årt Co • The Weber County Ogden Valley branch library • The Eccles Art Center • Ogden Contemporary Arts, a free contemporary Art center located on 25th St. in Ogden. OCA o昀昀ers revolving exhibits from globally recognized and local artists. They also provide children’s programming through their Artist Factory program and hosts an Artist-in-Residence at least once per year. Their latest exhibit, Emergence, by Holly Wong, opens August 4 and runs through October 14. More information is available at ogdencontemporaryart.com. |