Applying for college can be a stressful experience for students of all abilities, but it can be especially difficult for students who are neurodivergent or have a physical disability. 

So, PC READS, a student advocate nonprofit, will host its free annual presentation, “College Planning for Students with IEPs and 504 Plans,” at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the Park City High School’s lecture hall.

College admissions consultant Michelle McAnaney, chief executive officer of The College Spy, a firm that works with students on through the college admissions process, will give the presentation that explains IEP, individualized education programs and 504s, programs that accommodate and level the playing field for students with disabilities.

“IEP and 504 plans vary in different states, and I’ll talk about how colleges support neurodivergent students,” she said. “At The College Spy, we offer group workshops and parent courses, a lot of free webinars, and we give out a lot of information through our newsletter and Facebook page and Instagram. And I would say about half of the students we work with are neurodivergent, and that’s an area of specialty for us.”

During the presentation, McAnaney, who gave a different presentation last year for PC READS, will discuss diversity on college campuses.

“Colleges want diversity, including neurodiversity,” she said. “(Administrations) recognize that students with disabilities often bring amazing skillsets and attributes they want at their colleges. They want these students to become alums because they know these students will be very successful.”

College administrators have also learned they need to offer the right support if they want students who are neurodivergent to attend their schools, McAnaney said.

“They have offered a number of support, often beyond the need that is required legally, and I’m going to go over what those supports are,” she said. “I feel many families don’t realize how supportive colleges can be.”

McAnaney, who holds a master’s degree in school counseling as well as a bachelor’s degree in human development and a certificate in independent educational consulting, will also give tips on how students with disabilities can research colleges that will fit their needs.

“I’m also going to discuss whether or not students should disclose their disability on their college applications,” she said. “Many students really should because, if they do it the right way, it will help them get accepted. It is a personal decision, but it makes sense for a lot of students.”

Elissa Aten, PC READS executive director, hopes families and students will attend the presentation.

“It’s important for students receiving accommodations in high school through an IEP or 504 plan to understand that these documents do not directly transition with them to the college setting,” she said. “Navigating this transition can be challenging. Colleges have different requirements and processes for obtaining support, and Michelle explains this clearly, emphasizing the need for students to be strong self-advocates.”

In addition to the free presentation, McAnaney will lead two paid-admission workshops on Monday and Wednesday.

Monday’s session is an application essay workshop for five seniors that starts at 6 p.m. at PC READS, and the Wednesday event, which also starts at 6 p.m. is an extracurricular workshop that will be held at the Park City Library.

Neurodivergent and neurotypical students are welcome to these workshops.

During the essay workshop McAnaney will offer advice about how students can tell their stories that will show the strengths of their unique attributes.

“For example, somebody who has ADHD or is on the spectrum may be able to hyperfocus on things,” she said. “That may be a problem in high school if they hyperfocus on the wrong thing, but when you get into college there is so much choice in what they can take. So oftentimes these students who can hyperfocus in their interests and fields are very much desired by colleges.”

Another unique attribute of students who are neurodivergent is creativity, McAnaney said.

“Many of these students have great ways to problem solve because they think outside the box,” she said. “So, we’ll discuss how students can talk about these strengths in their applications in a way that helps admissions counselors understand what they will contribute to the campus community.”

During Wednesday’s workshop McAnaney will give an overview of what types of extracurricular activities colleges expect to see on applications.

“Sometimes neurodivergent students don’t have as many activities as neurotypical students because they are tutoring and doing other things like that,” she said. “We’ll also talk about how colleges take wide views of extracurricular activities because they want to know how students spend their time.”

McAnaney will also teach workshop attendees how they can effectively describe their activities in their applications. 

“If I write, ‘I play field hockey,’ you would know I went to practices and games, but you wouldn’t know that I carry water for the coach or I use leadership skills when I welcome worried new team members and show them around and point out where the equipment is,” she said. “So, I’m going to teach how students can talk about these kinds of impacts.”

McAnaney enjoys giving these presentations because she loves working with students and families.

“My dad was a teacher, and that could have been a piece of it, and I started my career as a student guidance counselor when I was 22,” she said. “But as I worked more in high schools, only part of the job was about college admissions, and I really liked that part of the job. So when I saw an opportunity to blow that piece up, I did.”

As McAnaney began that career chapter, she found she couldn’t support students without mentoring.

“You can’t get a student to participate in extracurricular activities unless you talk with them about their resistance to getting involved with those extracurricular activities,” she said with a laugh. “You can’t just say, ‘This is going to help you get into college.’ You need to be able to offer other reasons that might be important to them so they’ll want to get involved.”

McAnaney established The College Spy as a completely virtual business in 2016. 

“We did it before COVID, and it was a big deal,” she said. “Then when COVID hit, we were already virtual, so it was easy to keep on meeting through Zoom.”

McAnaney looks forward to her Park City return.

“Elissa is wonderful, and it’s nice of her to give me the opportunity to come back and speak again,” she said.

PC READS Presents College Application Consultant Michelle McAnaney

• When: 6 p.m. on Sept. 29
• Where: Park City High School lecture hall, 1750 Kearns Blvd.
• Cost: Free
• Web: pcreads.org and thecollegespy.com

College Application Essay Workshop with Michelle McAnaney

• When: 6 p.m. on Sept. 28
• Where: PC READS, 1700 Park Ave., Suite 2004
• Cost: $329
• Registration: thecollegespy.com
• Web: pcreads.org

Extracurricular Activity Workshop with Michelle McAnaney

• When: 6 p.m. on Sept. 30
• Where: Park City Library, 1255 Park Ave.
• Cost: $25
• Registration: parkcityreads.org/events
• Web: pcreads.org

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Park City Performing Arts is coming down from its successful Concerts On the Slopes summer series at Canyons Village to kick start its indoor Concerts Off the Slopes series at the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts.

Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Richard Marx was originally set to start the fall and winter series on Sept. 26, but that concert has been postponed until Saturday, Sept. 4, 2027, Miners Day weekend, said Ember Conley, the nonprofit’s executive director.

But that little bump in the road isn’t going to stop the series that so far includes “Sex in the City” creator Candace Bushnell, mentalist and forensic mind reader Colin Cloud and “The Cat in the Hat” Live, Conley said. (See accompanying schedule).

“Our board has taken some time, especially after our heavy summer Concerts On the Slopes season, and looked at what works well with the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts,” she said. “We also made sure, of course, to not compete with our other amazing performing arts nonprofit organizations like the Egyptian Theatre and Park City Film.”

Bushnell, an international best-selling author, is a perfect fit for the Eccles Center, Conley said.

“We love bringing in speakers and authors, because the Eccles is a great venue to do book signings, VIP meet and greets,” she said.

During December, Park City Performing Arts typically books some type of holiday show, but this year it was a little difficult due to tour routings, so the nonprofit decided to bring back a favorite from last year — the “White Christmas” Sing-A-Long, Conley said.

“We did this last year, and I had at least 20 people tell me that was the best time they had watching the film,” she said. “They said it totally got them into the Christmas spirit and season, and since it was interactive, it was super fun, so we decided to make it a tradition.”

Although Park City Performing Arts is working on booking more acts in January, February will set the stage for “The Cat in the Hat” Live, Conley said. 

“Last year we did ‘Sesame Street’ Live, and we saw that bringing in something ‘younger’ for families that doesn’t run too long really filled up the theater,” she said. “We also saw multigenerations of families coming in — grandma and grandpa, mom and dad and the little kids — which was really fun.”

Park City Performing Arts felt audiences would respond similarly to “The Cat in the Hat” Live, Conley said.

“We’re excited to do this kind of thing again,” she said. 

One performer who will return this season is mentalist Colin Cloud, and his “Mastermind” show on Feb. 26, Conley said.

“He came to Park City last year to rave reviews,” she said. “So, if anyone wants to relive that or be astonished by this illusionist, he’s coming back.”
Park City Performing Arts has also set aside March 12 for another guest, but Conley can’t announce who it is yet.

Park City Performing Arts will also host its annual Saints and Sinners Masquerade Ball fundraiser the next night, on March 13.

“We’re actually moving away from the Saints and Sinners name, so we’re going to start just calling it The Masquerade Ball,” she said. “It will also be reimagined this year, and we’re bringing in a performing artist. We’re going to make it so attendees will get to experience an intimate evening with this artist and have dinner. And I think it’s going to be a super amazing time.”

Tickets for all events, except the March 12 and The Masquerade Ball, are on sale now, at parkcitypa.org, Conley said.

“There is more to come,” she said. “We are continuing to build the season and will announce additional performances as they are confirmed.”

As with all of Park City Performing Arts Programming, Conley and the board tries to live up to the nonprofit’s mission.

“We want to bring in world-class performers and give back to our community, and it’s not one or the other,” she said. “It’s about doing these things together.”

Conley also wants to thank the community for its support of last season’s Concerts On the Slopes series that included Maoli, Rick Springfield, Lonestar, Boney James and Taylor Dane at Canyons Village. 

The series also included I Love the ’90s, featuring Vanilla Ice, C & C Music Factory and Color Me Badd, which was held indoors at the Eccles Center.

“We want to shout out a big thank you for everyone who supported us this past summer,” Conley said. “It was a huge success this year. We deeply believe the performing arts helps create that cultural fabric in our community.” 

For information and tickets about Park City Performing Arts Concerts Off the Slopes season, visit parkcitypa.org.

Park City Performing Arts’ Concerts Off the Slopes: 2026–27
Schedule and summaries courtesy of Park City Performing Arts

• Saturday, Oct. 24 — Candace Bushnell.
  The internationally bestselling author and creator of “Sex and the City” brings her one-woman show to Park City for a smart, funny and wonderfully entertaining evening.  Fans are encouraged to buy their favorite Candace Bushnell book, gather their book club friends and join the Park City Institute.

• Monday, Dec. 21 — “White Christmas” Sing-A-Long.
  A Park City holiday tradition returns. The community is invited to the Eccles Center for Park City Performing Arts’ annual “White Christmas” Sing-ALong and celebrate the season together with family, friends and holiday spirit.

• Friday, Feb. 5 — “The Cat in the Hat” Live.
  Dr. Seuss’ beloved story comes to life on the Eccles Center stage for a special family performance.

• Friday, Feb. 26 — “Colin Cloud: Mastermind.”
  Mentalist Colin Cloud returns to Park City with his unique combination of mind reading, psychology, illusion and showmanship.

• Friday, March 12 – TBA.
  Park City Performing Arts is working to book another great concert for the Eccles Center. The nonprofit can’t announce it, yet, but encourages patrons to mark March 12 on their calendars.

• Saturday, March 13 — The Masquerade Ball fundraiser. Information will be announced soon.

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Park City Film: ‘The Marching Band’

Park City Film continues its weekend film screenings of Emmanuel Courcol’s comedy “The Marching Band,” not rated, through Sunday at the Park City Library’s Jim Santy Auditorium. Saturday’s screening will start at 7 p.m. and Sunday’s screening is at 6 p.m. The film, which follows a world-famous orchestra conductor who discovers the brother he never knew he had is a school cafeteria worker who plays trombone in a local marching band, will be screened in French with English subtitles. For information, visit parkcityfilm.org.

Rooted in Fun: Family Plant Day

Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter will present Rooted in Fun: Family Plant Day at 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Sunday. Families will get their hands dirty, explore  native plants on the preserve, learn about the science of plants and discover how plants grow and affect life around humans. Registration is not required and families can drop in anytime during the event. For information, visit swanerecocenter.org/calendar.

Old Town Wanders

Silver Skis, a custom guide service, will offer an Old Town Wanders at 9:15 a.m. on Monday. Groups wander past murals and historic buildings with a local guide who is ready to share some of Park City’s history and lore. The tours, which are less than a mile and take between one to one-and-a-half hours, are family-friendly and meet upstairs inside Old Town Transit Center. For information and to book a tour, visit silverskis.com/ot-wander.

Park City Farmers Market

The Park City Farmers Market runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Wednesday through Sept. 30 at Park City Mountain’s First Time chair lift lot. The weekly market features fresh, GMO-free produce, local meats, breads and other local offerings. Admission is free. For information, visit parkcityfarmersmarket.com.

Haunted Mines & Wines Tour Registration

The Fox School of Wine will host its fourth annual Halloween-filled Haunted Mines & Wines tour on Friday, Oct. 30. The tour will start at 5:30 p.m. at Bob Wells Plaza and guests will board luxury transportation and be driven to four historic landmarks around town. They’ll taste five wines and four foods during the tour. Costumes are encouraged. Local residents can buy tickets for 15% off until the end of September. For information and registration, visit foxschoolofwine.com.

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First-time filmmaker Yourgo Artsitas, a 2007 graduate of Park City High School, wants to introduce his short documentary, “TR(ol)L: New Kids on the Block, Total Request Live and the Chain Letter that Changed the Internet.”

After premiering in 2024 at film festivals including Sidewalk Film Festival, DOC-NYC, Salute Your Shorts Film Festival and the Hot Docs Festival, to name a few, Yahoo and the nonfiction hotlist. picked up the 17-minute short that captures a special time in MTV’s life when people could use phone calls or the dial-up internet to request their favorite videos to be played and included on the Top 10 Videos of the Day list, Artsitas said.

“I was 9 at that time, and I was at the age where, when I went to school, no one wanted to admit they watched TRL, because they were trying to be cool,” he said. “But in reality, everyone would watch it.”

TRL, short for Total Request Live, premiered Sept. 14, 1998, and was hosted by Carson Daly. Some of the first Top 10 lists included rock artists such as the Goo Goo Dolls, Monster Magnet and Marilyn Manson, but they also included pop artists like Will Smith, Monica, Usher, Backstreet Boys and NSync.

Then an anonymous chain letter sent via the internet changed the program’s format.

The letter, which is read in the film’s first few minutes by Dave Holmes, an MTV VJ who guest hosted TRL, called on New Kids on the Block fans to flood the request lines for the boyband’s hit, “Hangin’ Tough,” on March 10, 1999. 

For those keeping track, New Kids on the Block hit their peak of popularity a decade prior.

“It will be the ultimate insult to popular culture,” the letter said. “We can make this happen.”

The voting actually exposed how MTV executives rigged the Top 10 list — they placed the song, which wasn’t even on the request options, at No. 2 in order to save face, something “TR(ol)L” examines, said Artsitas.

“I started poking around and found some of these inconsistencies,” he said. “I also found the actual chain letter, and I found the MTV News segment of the incident. It didn’t quote the letter, so I thought there was something more, and I needed to figure out what was going on.”

During COVID, Artsitas reached out to a bunch of people who had ties with TRL or knew about the chain-letter prank.

“There were a lot of people who were in the background of the TRL world,” he said. “I talked with a whole bunch of folks, and they were receptive.”

Artsitas found many of these people held an “extreme reverence” for TRL.

“So, it was nice to highlight (the program) for a bunch of people who were at the center of culture for a while and push past the ephemera of the live television show in order to highlight such a huge deal in pop culture,” he said.

Artsitas’ journey into filmmaking began, in part, during his freshman year in the late Chris Maddux’s film and media classes at Park City High School.

“I always knew I liked movies, so it made sense I’d take his classes,” Artsitas remembered. “He was such a cool guy,” “He was very casual and informal but very passionate at the same time. He was also very understanding, funny and quippy in a way.”

The Sundance Film Festival also added to Artsitas’ love of the film industry.

“I found if you walked in a place with an air of confidence, you could get into anything,” said Artsitas, who was at one point an extra in an episode of “Entourage” that was shot during one Sundance. “So, my friends and I would go up to Main Street and get into these (brand-sponsored) parties.”

After graduating high school in 2007, Artsitas put aside his filmmaking desires and landed a job writing sport stories as a correspondent for the Salt Lake Tribune.

“I leaned into the journalism aspect, but as time went on, it made more sense to me to pursue journalism in a documentary-film way,” he said. “I had a general sense of what is interesting, and documentaries didn’t cost as much.”

Artsitas moved to Los Angeles and found out about the TRL debacle.

“I mentioned the idea for the film to somebody and started doing some research,” he said. “I found a lot of stuff and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to make a short doc.”

The idea to make a short documentary stems from an earlier experience Artsitas had at the New Orleans Film Festival.

“I saw a block of doc shorts, and one made me cry, like bawling my eyes out,” he said. “So I met the filmmaker. He had braces on, and I thought if this guy can do something like this, I can figure out a way to do it, too.”

Artsitas eventually pitched his TRL documentary idea on “Grantland,” a sports and pop-culture blog on ESPN that was started by veteran sport journalist Bill Simmons.

“‘Grantland’ was a very important deal to me when I was a young journalist,” Artsitas said. “But the week I pitched it, Grantland closed down or something happened.”
But that didn’t quelch Artsitas’ desire to make the “TR(ol)L.”

“I knew it was an interesting story,” he said. “The thing was, TRL was a behemoth of pop-culture, but it was soon forgotten. It’s like if the Hawk Tuah Girl (Haliey Welch) was able to control culture by her recommendations but then was immediately forgotten after she deleted her account.”

So, Artsitas started working on the project himself, without backers, and he taught himself editing, sound mixing, color grading and music composition throughout the process.

“That was all very hard, but these things were needed in order for the film to be done,” he said. Some of these situations included needing an editor, but not being able to pay one, Artsitas said

“I did talk with a couple of editors, and I knew they were quoting me the lowest fees and the bare-bones fees, but they were still really high,” he said. “And if I hired them, I would feel bad micromanaging them because I had very specific ideas that I knew were necessary for the doc.”

So Artsitas watched hours of YouTube tutorials.

“It’s cool how you can watch a 15-minute YouTube video about what you want to figure out and then watch it nine more times to learn it,” he said.

The more Artsitas watched the tutorials, the more dedicated he became to finish his film.

“I don’t know if you have read (filmmaker) Robert Rodriguez’s ‘Rebel Without a Clue,’ but there are a lot of people who get into this (idea) that once you start down this road, you keep going just to see if you can do it,” he said. “It becomes kind of like a challenge to yourself. And then you think, ‘I have to finish this because I’ve already slipped down the slope a bit. So Let’s just see what I’m capable of doing.’”

Artsitas remembers showing his family a rough cut of the film one Labor Day a few years ago.

“When it finished, there were stares everywhere, and I was like, ‘Oh, no. I just wasted all this time,’” he said with a laugh. “So I got back into the lab and really worked at it and made it happen. And I found it was extremely doable if you have the gumption for it and don’t get intimidated about learning a new skill.”

During COVID, Artsitas participated in an interview and a former MTV president told him the doc sounded like it could become a TV show.

“I wrote my first pitch deck, even though I didn’t know what a pitch deck was,” Artsitas said. “He sent me a couple of samples, which were boring. So, I made an interactive powerpoint thing with Google Slides and sent it to him.”

The former MTV president, whose name Artsitas didn’t reveal, replied, “WOW!”

“It was one of my favorite emails,” Artsitas said. “So I got into business with that guy for a couple of years. We worked with a showrunner to develop it, and I pitched it to big networks and then learned about trials and tribulations of the industry.”

The project stalled, so Artsitas decided to submit the doc to film festivals.

“Since I grew up in Park City, I knew about film festivals, like Sundance, and before I moved to Park City, I lived in the Bay Area where they have Cinequest Film Festival, a lovely Silicon Valley festival,” he said. “That was the first festival I submitted to.”
Cinequest accepted the documentary.

“I remember opening the email while I was in my car in a Walgreens parking lot,” he said. “Up until then, no stranger had seen the film or given me feedback, but they said it was awesome. And I broke down.”

Yahoo came into the picture after Artsitas submitted “TR(ol)L” to them.

“Yahoo is wonderful, and I’m tremendously thrilled,” he said. “They are great stewards, now that I’m part of their family.”

In the meanwhile, Artsitas is working as a travel journalist for Tablet Hotels, making mini travel documentaries.

“I try to figure out a way to do travel journalism that sticks out in a very saturated genre,” he said. “But I’m still going to lean into the Yahoo thing. They are wonderful and understand the space.” 

For information about Yourgo Artsitas and “TR(ol)L: New Kids on the Block, Total Request Live and the Chain Letter that Changed the Internet,” visit trolldoc.com.

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Park City Day of Service, which is scheduled for Saturday, is needed more than ever, said Vicki Plumb, board member of Serve Park City, the local branch of Just Serve, a global nonprofit that uses volunteering to empower and help individuals, families and groups make a positive impact in their communities.

“Service breeds kindness, and it helps us unite as a people,” she said. You will get much more out of this event than you will ever put in, and I know that from experience.”

This year marks the third anniversary of Day of Service, which commemorates 9/11, and there are 39 nonprofits that seek volunteers, Plumb said. (See accompanying list.)

“We have room for 1,200 volunteers, and there are so many nonprofits in Park City,” she said. “There are some that people really don‘t know about. So this is a big deal. It’s an exciting deal.”

People can sign up to volunteer by visiting serveparkcity.org, and there are many options to choose from, according to Plumb.

“It links to Just Serve, which helps us host these events and helps us keep track of all the number of people who volunteer,” she said.

Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter needs people to help pick up trash and debris along the Preserve’s corridor, and Nuzzles & Co needs volunteers to walk dogs, sanitize spaces and help with property work.

Live Like Sam, a youth empowerment nonprofit that focuses on suicide prevention, needs people to help complete a teen-friendly craft and work on a trail service project.

“There are so many opportunities to serve, and I have had so much fun checking out the different nonprofits here and doing service with them,” she said. “We can learn so much about these nonprofits when we volunteer, and we get to know the people who run these organizations.”

Serve Park City not only helps people want to volunteer. It also gives nonprofit organizations a place to seek volunteers, Plumb said.

“When we started, we funded the organization ourselves,” she said. “After getting some great response with two Days of Service, people started to donate money to help, and we officially became a nonprofit last year.”

Karen Marriott serves as the organization’s president, and the co-president is Danny Glasser, Plumb said.

“We want to serve our community because Park City is a really cool place to live,” she said. “The thing is that it’s not just the skiing. It’s not just the beautiful mountains and the hiking. It’s the people. They are diverse, and the one thing they all have in common is that they serve.”

This year’s Day of Service on Saturday will begin with a volunteer breakfast donated by Hearth and Hill, the Market, Lucky One’s Coffee and Julie Hopkins, at 8 a.m. in City Park, Plumb said.

“Duing that time, we’ll do a short memorial, where a first responder will speak about service,” she said. “We’ll have a bagpipe player perform taps and the Summit County Sheriff’s posse arrive on horseback.”

The Sheriff’s department will also give a last call to honor those who died serving on 9/11, Plumb said, fighting back tears.

“That will be followed by a moment of silence in honor of what they did,” she said.

Volunteers will then head off to their various shifts at 9 a.m. and return at noon to City Park for a pizza and cookie lunch, donated by Dominos and Auntie Em’s Baked Goods, Plumb said.

“Hopefully everyone will all return for pizza, and then we can all sit around and talk about our accomplishments and what we have done for our community,” she said.

While the Day of Service commemorates 9/11, it goes deeper than remembering those who died that day, Plumb said.

“We remember the extraordinary response from everyday people who stepped up and helped,” she said, with her voice full of emotion. “This is the 25th anniversary of 9/11. We can’t change what happened on that day, and there are a lot of kids who don’t remember, or who weren’t born, yet. So, we can serve our community to help them know what happened. We want to make sure they know and remember those who died and remember those who rushed in and helped. We want them to see how much we need one another.”

Plumb has participated in the Park City Day of Service since it began.

“I could not believe how much joy, camaraderie and acceptance and a sense of unity the Day of Service has brought out,” she said. “That’s what makes us Parkites.” 

Service doesn’t have to take a lot of time, nor does it require special skills, Plumb said.

“You don’t have to be talented and you don’t have to bring tools,” she said. “You just have to show up and be yourself. We’re building a network, so if Park City needs something, we can be ready to help.”

2026 Park City Day of Service

• When: 8 a.m.-noon
• Where: Park City and Summit County
• Web: serveparkcity.org

Serve Park City’s 2026 National Day of Service and Remembrance Projects

• Bridge 21 — paver project
• Christian Center of Park City — pantry deep clean
• Christian Center of Park City — Summit Exchange store cleaning and organizing
• Deer Valley — tree planting
• Dream Makers — encouragement letters for foster youths
• Habitat for Humanity — ReStore fence build
• Hope Alliance — eyewear sorting
• Intermountain Health — comfort kids for oncology patients
• Jewish Family Service — pantry kits
• Justice Center — yard cleanup
• KPCW — thank you notes
• Live Like Sam — creative service project
• Lucky ones Coffee — brew buddies
• Mountainlands Community Housing Trust — Parkside Community improvements
• National Ability Center — campus cleanup
• Nuzzles & Co. — animal care
• PC Tots — TLC for PC Tots clean and tidy
• Park City — Silver Creek cleanup
• Park City Mountain cleanup
• Park City Museum — Alliance Mine graffiti removal
• Park City Museum — Glenwood Cemetery cleanup
• Peace House — meal kids
• People’s Health Clinic — children’s care kits
• Recycle Utah — Kearns Boulevard cleanup
• Serve Park City — community breakfast setup
• Serve Park City — community volunteer lunch setup
• St. Luke’s Episcopal Church — yard cleanup
• Stitching Hearts Worldwide — various weaving and quilting
• Summit Community Gardens — weeding and mulching
• Summit County Clubhouse — mural painting and cleanup
• Summit County — 910 Ranch barbed wire removal
• Summit County — Rasmussen Road cleanup
• Summit Land Conservancy — rock restoration
• Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter — preserve cleanup
• Utah Open Lands — North Round Valley fence removal
• Utah Department of Natural Resources — Ross Creek vegetation removal
• Wasatch & Wool — knitting and crocheting hats
• Wasatch Immigration Project — family safety packets
• WasteLess Solutions — community fridge shelter build
• Wild Heart Sanctuary — sanctuary cleanup and hay organizing for winter
• Youth United — information packet assembly and delivery
• Youth Sports Alliance — winter sports clothing drive

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Ziegfeld Theater Company: ‘Avenue Q’

The Ziegfeld Theater Company will bring the Tony Award-winning comedy musical “Avenue Q” to Park City for a six-night run, starting Wednesday, at the Egyptian Theatre. The R-rated parody of “Sesame Street” tells the story of a recent college grad named Princeton who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q. For tickets and information, visit parkcityshows.com.

‘The History of Tea’ by Deborah Jennings

Locally based lecturer Deborah Jennings will brew up her new free presentation titled “The History of Tea” at 5 p.m. on Thursday in the Park City Library’s Community Room, 1255 Park Ave. The hour-long event will feature a slide show that will whisk up traditions and trends that surround tea, as well as how it is grown and processed. For information, visit parkcitylibrary.org.

Classic Cinema Club: ‘Notorious’

The public is invited to the Summit County Library Kamas Valley Branch’s Classic Cinema Club’s free screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 thriller “Notorious,” not rated, at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Kamas Valley Branch. 110 N. Main St. The film is a tale of espionage, romance and betrayal, starring  Cary Grant as a government agent who plots to have Ingrid Bergman marry a Nazi conspirator, played by Claude Rains, who is hiding out in South America. For information, visit thesummitcountylibrary.org.

Artist Needed for Public Art Installations

The Summit County Public Art Advisory Board seeks artists to design eight benches for the exterior of the Silver Summit Services building that commemorate the ideas of unity, community, justice, service and law and order in Park City and Summit County. Application deadline is Sept. 25. Canyons Village Management Association and Historic Park City Alliance seek Utah-based artists or artist teams to decorate the interior of a series of interactive gondolas and lifesize snow globes. Application deadline is Oct. 1. For information, visit pcscarts.org/opportunities.

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Locally based lecturer Deborah Jennings will brew up her new free presentation titled “The History of Tea” on Thursday in the Park City Library’s Community Room.

The hour-long event will feature a slide show that will whisk up traditions and trends that surround tea, as well as how it is grown and processed.

“I have enjoyed tea as a casual drinker, and I have been a drinker of what Americans call ‘herbal tea,’” she said. “People who come to the lecture will learn that herbal tea is not actually tea because it is not made from a tea plant.”

Jennings didn’t know that bit of information until she started her research for next week’s lecture.

“I’ve been offering people in my home herbal tea, which is how it’s labeled when you buy it in the supermarket in Park City,” she said with a laugh. “Technically I should be offering them ‘an infusion’ or a ‘tisan.’”

Jennings didn’t know too much about tea before she started preparing for the lecture back in June.

“I was a casual drinker and knew nothing about the history except the Boston Tea Party, which I will mention in the lecture,” she said with a laugh. “I didn’t know about the processing, the oxidation and the differences among the types of tea plants and tea leaves.”

In order to learn about those tidbits, Jennings gathered all the sources she could about tea.

“This is how I prepare for all of my lectures,” she said. “I do this rather than reading one source and going onto the next.”

Jennings also tries to remember that her lectures aren’t for academic audiences.

“I want to give them some background, but I want to balance history with geography and culture,” she said. “For example, because  we’re in Utah, I will talk about the (Church of Jesus Christ of) Latter-day Saints’ rule of tea drinking. And I will talk about people who are well known in the history of tea.”

Jennings will also discuss rare, expensive and unusual teas.

“Then I will talk a little bit about the health benefits and a couple of tea ceremonies and things that are tangentially related to tea,” she said. “I’m a linguist by training, so I will get some linguistics in there.”

Jennings will also add an interactive element in the presentation.

“I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll stop at that,” she said with a laugh. “And I will end with links so people can do some follow up and learn more about tea.”

Jennings, who moved to Park City with her husband a year ago, enjoys lecturing.

“I started regularly giving lectures during the summer of 2023,” she said. “In the two years after that, I gave more than 200 lectures at libraries, community centers and 55-and-older communities and in people’s private homes for clubs.”

In her career as a high school educator, Jennings’ traveled the country to discuss everything from the college application process to standardized testing and grading to parenting and character education.

These events attracted Jennings, who is a self-proclaimed extrovert, and edified her personal life.

“Lecturing, especially after moving to a new place, is a way to connect with and meet new people,” she said. 

Jennings also enjoys the prospect of learning new things.

“I’m over 65, and I don’t want to feel like I’m stagnating,” she said. “I do believe as we age, we tend to get stuck in our ways.”

To remedy that situation, Jennings always asks her audiences what they would like her to discuss during her next lecture.

“‘The History of Tea’ was selected by the audience of my June library lecture that I gave about Tibet,” she said.

The June audience also suggested the topics for the library lectures Jennings will give in October, January and February.

“The October lecture will be about the Salem witch trials, and January’s lecture will be about Buddhism,” she said. “February’s will be about Genghis Khan.”

Jennings was familiar with the witch trials and Buddhism but knew “absolutely nothing about Genghis Khan,” she said. 

“So, I’m about halfway through my research on him,” she said.

‘The History of Tea’ by Deborah Jennings

• When: 5 p.m. Thursday
• Where: Park City Library’s Community Room, 1255 Park Ave.
• Cost: Free
• Web: parkcitylibrary.org
• Email: djennings57@yahoo.com

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The annual Monster Drawing Rally will roll into town on Sept. 19 to raise funds for the Arts Council of Park City & Summit County and the Kimball Art Center.

The fast-paced event, which runs from 3-6 p.m. in the Art Center’s outdoor back lot, will feature 35 local and regional artists who will create original works in 50-minute intervals, said Jocelyn Scudder, Arts Council of Park City & Summit County executive director.

“We have three live rounds of art making,” she said. “First runs from 3:10-4 p.m. The second runs from 4:10-5 p.m., and the last one runs from 5:10-6 p.m., and it ends.”

Once artists finish their work, they put it up for sale, Scudder said. (See accompanying list of artists.)

“It becomes a race to see who will get the work first, and if two or more people want the same piece, they draw a card, and the high-card wins,” she said. “There’s a wide range of styles, and it’s pretty stunning to behold.”

The money benefits both the Arts Council and the Kimball Art Center, according to Scudder.

“The Monster Drawing Rally is a partnership between us, and we both operate in visual-art spaces in different ways,” she said. “The Kimball Art Center puts up exhibitions and arts-education classes, while the Arts Council focuses on uplifting local artists and making sure arts and culture survives in our community.”

The money raised from ticket sales and artwork sales will be divided between the organizations, but the artists, who donate their time to the event, will also have a chance to make money, Scudder said.

“There is a silent auction that takes place throughout the event where the artists can sell work that they have already finished in their studios,” she said. “The artists receive 60% of the proceeds, and the Arts Council and Kimball Art Center split the other 40%.”

The Monster Drawing Rally is 10 years old, Scudder said.

“We’ve done this event since 2016, and it’s been a community favorite, which is why, I think, it keeps coming back,” she said. “And we also want to make sure the format remains the same. That way it will be familiar to people who have attended before, and it will be a fun way for new attendees to get to know the creative community. The public can come in and kind of spy on the creative process, and the personal connections between the attendees and artists runs throughout the day.”

Scudder enjoys seeing attendees interact with the artists and learn about their creative processes. 

“Some attendees have discovered their favorite artists at this event, and they have become friends,” she said. “The event has also become a springboard for many attendees to start collecting art. It levels the playing field for collecting art, and we’ve had people of all ages from different socio-economic backgrounds begin their art-collecting journey here. When you think about it, $50 for an original work is accessible.”

The Monster Drawing Rally is also a way for artists to network and give back to the community.

“We had a ton of artists who wanted to participate lined up this year, and it’s wonderful to see all of these visual artists come to the table,” she said. “This event has the best creative energy. It’s also a way for them to share their skills and talents with the public.”

The Monster Drawing Rally also showcases the importance and power of human-made art that includes graphite, ink, charcoal, painting, digital art and collage, according to Scudder.

“In this era and age of AI, people crave hands-on experiences,” she said. “This is a way to celebrate that.”

2026 Monster Drawing Rally

• When: 3-6 p.m. Sept. 19
• Where: Kimball Art Center, 1251 Kearns Blvd.
• Cost: $25 for adults, $10 for kids ages 6-17 and free for children ages 5 and under.
  Registration: pcscarts.org/monster-drawing-rally and tinyurl.com/5f4pzcek
• Web: pcscarts.org and kimballartcenter.org

The 2026 Monster Drawing Rally artists

• Blake Bellet
• Angie Bizon
• Luis Canelon
• Ava Christiansen
• Elle Donovan
• Isabel Duncan
• Lizza Fellow
• Ian Greenwood
• Alyssa Hartman
• Sarah Hoare
• Lindalee Holmes
• Lily Howell
• Alexandra Jicol
• Alicia Joos
• Katie Kurchinski
• Caden Mangum
• Mark Maziarz
• Morgan McCue
• Kylie Millward
• Emily Miquelon
• Renee Mox Hall
• Anna Nizhoni
• Tori Olson
• Camille Prestwich
• Jade Rugh
• James Saarela
• Elissa Sabbö
• Chloe Sawyer
• Rickie A. Sny
• Grace Swears-Johnson
• Lavinia Toderici
• Marley Wright
• Jan Vola
• Ida Yoked
• Kent Youngstrom
• Kristine Zanno

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Author Josh Weil is ready to show Utah “What Came West.”

That’s the title of his new historic fiction work that he will sign on Tuesday at Dolly’s Bookstore in Park City and on Wednesday at King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City.

“I’ve been to Utah for skiing with my kid but never got to the bookstores,” he said. “So, I’m looking forward to seeing that side of things.”

“What Came West” sees a different side of the American West pre- and post-Gold Rush. It follows Silas Hall, a complex man who left everything, including his family and 3-year-old son, to live alone in the Sierra Nevada wilderness, according to Weil.

“My characters always come out in some part of me and people I know and love and the struggles I see,” he said. “More than anything, (it was about) finding a character that had somewhat of an understanding about the dramatic change and loss that he felt fully as a human being.”

That’s how Weil wound up writing a character who is neurodivergent.

“I didn’t necessarily think of Silas that way,” he said. “I just thought he would need to be in the wilderness away from people and have comfort in isolation and being around animals, rather than humans.”

Weil grew up reading journals written by trappers and explorers, and knew he wanted to write about these people in one way or another.

“It occurred to me as I was preparing to write this book that there must have been something up with these guys,” he said. “To want to spend a year alone out in the wilderness is not your typical urge. So, it was fascinating to think that I haven’t seen much written about the psychology of the early trappers or explorers who have gone out west. You see a lot written about characters who are lauded, but digging into the interior of what was going on in their minds was really interesting.”

The name Silas Hall stems from a couple of different sources and isn’t based on any particular historic figure, Weil said.

“Silas was a name that was drawn as I was doing my research into the novel,” he said. “I have a notebook, and I’ll write down interesting first names that I wanted to use in the book. When I stumbled onto a character (I was going to write,) that name just felt like him.”

The surname Hall actually comes from a family who lives in Nevada City, Weil said.

“Oakley Hall was a writer of primarily Westerns, and his offspring are here,” he said. “He was kind of well known during the 1970s but a little overlooked now. He wrote one of my favorite Westerns, called ‘Warlock,’ and so it was kind of homage to him to name the character.”

Silas Hall faces his biggest challenges, externally and internally, when his peaceful life in the wilderness is invaded by the Gold Rush between 1848 and 1855, Weil said.

“There’s all this mythology and lore around the Gold Rush, and it’s almost a fableized and dramatic and lauded moment in American history,” he said. “I was interested in not just the dark side of that, but the dramatic element of how fast everything changed. And it felt to me that no one really wrote much about the world before the Gold Rush, which was really my main interest.” 

A majority of the 300,000 fortune seekers arrived in the area in 1849, thus the nickname — “The 49ers” — and they changed more than just the landscape, Weil said.

“The environmental degradation and destruction and cultural change was so rapid, maybe among the most rapid moments in American history,” he said. “You have almost no non-native people in the mountains, and then thousands upon thousands arrive.”

These prospectors physically changed the mountains and the river valleys, Weil said.

“To me that was an inherently dramatic story, and Silas came about as a character who would feel that loss as strongly as anybody I could imagine, except for the Native population, which I didn’t feel was my right or within ability to write from that perspective,” he said. “That’s how the story came about.”

Still, Weil, while doing research for the book, learned he needed perspectives from the area’s Indigenous residents.

“I started with anthropological works written mostly in the 1870s and 1880s, and although those books were sometimes slanted with racism and stuff like that, they were gold mines, no pun intended, of observations,” he said. “It was then I very quickly realized I needed to talk to the Native communities that still exist.”

Weil developed a close relationship with Shelly Covert, executive director and tribal spokesperson of the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan.

“I would meet with her every six months while I was writing the book, which was about six years of work,” he said. “We would talk about questions I had and then questions she had. A lot of times during my digging I would find stuff that she didn’t know and things that would clarify things she had questions about.”

Weil also worked with Dr. Sheri Tatsch, one of the world’s foremost linguists of the Nisenan language. 

“I wanted to get the language as valid as I could,” he said. “There’s a fair amount of Nisenan, Konkow and Mountain Maidu and other different tribe languages in the book, and that was the result of working with people who were experts of those dialects.”

“What Came West” is an epistolary novel, Weil said.

“I knew it would be a letter Silas wrote to his son,” he said. “Once I knew the book would be a letter, it became clear to me that drawings would be an important part of how Silas coped with the world around him.”

Weil did his own drawings for the book.

“I spent six months doing illustrations with a dip pen in the style of the time period, and the illustrations are meant to be drawn by Silas,” he said. “The book or letters are meant to be kind of written on the backs of these drawings like a field guide.”

One of the challenges Weil faced while writing the book was to separate myth from reality.

“I grew up reading Westerns and developed a romantic view of the mythology of the West,” he said. “That’s not to say that the mythology isn’t built upon wonderful and lauded things in American history. Those things don’t go away just because they are complicated by a lot of terrible things. I think to love the American West in a real and honest way is to love the complexity of it.”

Weil’s father first sparked his interest in the West.

“I grew up in the East in Appalachia and Maryland and Massachusetts, but I would go on car trips with my dad,” he said. “He was a professor, and we’d always head west and get to the western mountains during the summer. It was always a goal to get out there and go backpacking.”

Weil moved to the Sierras 2011 to be with his wife, and that’s when he fell in love with the landscape.

“There’s the Heber River Valley in particular, and River Canyon and the mountains around it — the high Sierras,” he said.

Ever since he was a pre-teen, Weil wanted to write Westerns.

“The first series of short stories I ever wrote was a Western,” he said. “It was about a cowboy named Buck who got caught cheating at cards and got hanged from a cottonwood tree. So I was writing dark and dramatic stuff even as a kid.”

Weil still enjoys the process of creating worlds, even though his adult brain takes time to tap into his imagination.

“There still isn’t a time when I’m fully in awe of the world and embraced by the world and deeply in the world than when I’m in that active creation,” he said. “When it’s really working well, it doesn’t feel like (the stories are) wholly coming from me, and there’s an unparalleled magic in that.”

Josh Weil Book Signings

• When: 5 p.m. Tuesday
• Where: Dolly’s Bookstore, 510 Main St.
• Cost: Free
• Web: dollysbookstore.com and joshweil.com

Also

• When: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday
• Where: King’s English Bookshop, 1511 S. 1500 East, Salt Lake City
• Cost: Free
• Web: kingsenglish.com and joshweil.com

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The historic Echo Church, which is closed for the season, will reopen Saturday for a special image-fueled lecture by Lyuba Basin, rare books librarian of the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah.

Basin will present “From Field Sketch to Photograph: An Illustrative Journey of Echo Canyon”

4 p.m., and she will use historic illustrations and other visuals to examine the changes in Echo Canyon over the course of the 19th century.

The storyline took shape as Basin pulled up the library’s images and documents.

“I’m lucky because a lot of these things are accessible to me,” she said. “I have been familiar with some of the expeditions that have passed through the Salt Lake Valley, like the Donner Party and the Mormon pioneers. So I knew we had materials that were available, but I didn’t know if those materials would be able to tell the story I wanted to tell.”

The more Basin looked into it, the more she realized the story of traveling through Echo Canyon changes from the mid-19th century toward the later part of the century.

“Initially the canyon was something to be surveyed, kind of explored and measured,” she said. “We start off with the Stansbury Expedition, helmed by Maj. Howard Stansbury of the United States Army’s corps of topographical engineers, and the book that was published in 1852.”

From there the canyon’s history starts being told through the lens of pioneer trials, according to Basin.

“So we shift our focus from measurements and surveys to narratives that tell readers what to expect along the way — whether there would be water available or if there would be steep cliffs that they will have to navigate around.”

As more people head out west, the narrative shifts again, Basin said.

“Echo Canyon, like other places in Utah, becomes more of a tourist destination, especially once the Transcontinental Railroad is completed,” she said. “More people who travel by train or stagecoach can stop at Echo Canyon, not only to pick up supplies, but to explore the landscape and places like the Witches Bluffs, Sentinel Rock and Hanging Rock.”

During that time, the public saw an increase of published tourist guide books, Basin said.

“Later, actual photographs of the landscape, taken by people like A.J. Russell and C.R. Savage, accompanied these books,” she said. “So we see the area is coming to life, not just through written description, but visuals as well.”

Basin’s audience will see some changes in technology throughout the lecture.

“We go through woodcut engravings to lithography and chromolithography to photographs,” she said. “All the materials I use are all available at the Marriott Library. So people can come see these things as well.”

The audience will also see landscape changes, according to Basin.

“This comes in as more people settle into the area,” she said. “The photographs show buildings, settlements, railroad and power lines. So you start seeing this relationship between humans and the land develop quite quickly.”

Basin caps off the presentation at the beginning of the 20th century, due to logistics.

“It’s because rare books age out,” she said with a laugh.

Saturday isn’t the first time Basin has presented a lecture at the Echo Church.

She’s friends with Echo Community Historical Organization treasurer Sandra Morrison, whom she met through Utah Westerners, another historical organization and social club that focuses on fact-based and well-researched history of the American West.

“I did a presentation two years ago at the Echo Church about the Donner Party, and it was such a great success,” Basin said. “So Sandra and I wanted to do something again that was a little different. For my last lecture, I presented images that went along with my talk about some of the ways Echo Canyon had been presented visually with expedition routes and pioneer trails. So, we wanted to focus on the illustrated history of Echo Canyon and what that looked like over the course of the 19th century.”

Basin enjoys giving lectures because she feels being a librarian is all about telling stories.

“I love books, and I love telling their history,” she said. “I’m so in love with the geology of Utah and spending time in the mountains, and I’m also fascinated by our own relationship with that history. So the best way I can best tell these stories is by thinking about a book or a photograph as physical objects and how we encounter them.”

‘From Field Sketch to Photograph: An Illustrative Journey of Echo Canyon’ by Lyuba Basin

• When: 4 p.m. Saturday
• Where: Historic Echo Church, 60 Temple Ln. in Echo
• Cost: Free
• Web: tinyurl.com/2zb3t5ta

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