Sticky beginnings, smooth transition

   On Saturday morning, an electrical shortage caused an oil pipe running between Utah and Colorado to rupture. The pipe broke in the Red Butte canyon, but the spill was diverted into Liberty Park Lake, to keep the oil away from the Great Salt Lake.

   Because of the spill, the EPA decided that the air quality in the park might have been unfit to breathe for long periods of time, so YouthCity Liberty Park, which was scheduled to begin on Monday, June 14 was temporarily moved to Westminster College. YouthCity Liberty Park would like to thank Westminster for allowing us to use their campus and facilities while the air cleared.

   The park was closed to us for the first two days of program, both of which we spent the day at Westminster, in a new classroom they had recently renovated. While we were there, we were lucky to enjoy the creek area, the bouldering wall, and the volleyball court. On the second day, we met up with the MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) students, who did some activities with us including poetry, making musical instruments, cooking Pico de Gallo, making sock-puppets, and yoga.

   On our third day of program, we were back in the park for a more normal schedule. As a reward for our adaptability at Westminster, everyone went to the Tower Theatre, where we saw The Red Balloon. The YouthCity kids thought that it was a good short movie, we loved how it ended, and that we received popcorn, a drink, and T-shirts provided by The Tower staff. Some of the kids even got real red balloons. We had to leave early to be able to eat lunch, but the lunch staff hadn't planned for enough lunches, so the kids without lunch from home ate various food we had in the building. On Friday, the 18th, we will be having the first YouthCity Olympics with all three other sites, and we are really looking forward to it.

   We learned this week that nothing went as planned (hahaha), but perseverance paid off. We started sticky, but we finished strong.