Backpacks For Students
You live in Utah where funding for education is abysmal. Here's a chance to help students get ready for the year ahead. United Way is holding a Stuff the Bus event to assemble school supplies into backpacks for 12,000 children in 30 schools that need help. Organizers expect 500 volunteers, but there are only 30 or so spots left for the general public. Adults should register at the website listed below. You also can donate a backpack or host a school supplies drive. The event includes a free breakfast and a chance to win prizes. Rio Tinto Stadium, 9256 S. State, 801-736-7706, Saturday, Aug. 4, 9:30 a.m.-noon, free, bit.ly/2LvHVur.
Grand Staircase Action
It's discouraging to think about the nation's monuments and parks being imperiled by energy development. Still, the more you know, the more likely you are to make a difference in the ongoing battle to save our national treasures. Here's a chance to learn about the largest riparian restoration program in BLM history, and the status of litigation seeking to overturn President Donald Trump's proclamation gutting Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Grand Staircase Escalante Partners is leading the charge to "Save Grand Staircase" and will host Saving Grand Staircase: Paleontology, Restoration and the Legal Landscape to discuss the unique dinosaurs being unearthed in the wild and the threatened Kaiparowits Plateau. Dr. Joe Sertich, curator of dinosaurs at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science is guest speaker. Salt Lake Public Library, 210 E. 400 South, Thursday, Aug. 9, 7-8:30 p.m., free, bit.ly/2NMCiEU.
Political Conversations
If you're finding the present political environment just too confusing or overwhelming, you might want to join a small group in Living Room Conversations, a safe place to vent and learn what's really going on in your community and the nation. Action Utah holds casual conversations in homes and backyards across the state for groups of 15 or more to demystify our political system, give you community advocacy tools, and discuss specific issues that matter to you. Wondering if you'd fit in? "We meet with neighborhood groups, book clubs, action groups, Bible studies, senior groups, community groups and groups of friends and family," the group's website says. Your home or a community venue, ongoing, free, bit.ly/2mQtNNj.
