October 2024 | Vol. 24 Iss. 10
FREE
factory seconds blowout!
only $
WILLOW CANYON’S DEDICATED TEACHERS FEEL THE LOVE THROUGH ITS 50 YEARS By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com
50 count box! DRIVE BY PICK UP AVAILABLE
727 E 9400 S, SANDY UT, 84094
Scan here to shop weekly deals 1860 E 9400 S
Families look through Willow Canyon’s class photos through the years at the
Continued page 14 50-year celebration of the school. (Julie Slama/City Journals)
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
or 3 for
50
$
Saturday, Oct. 19th • 9am -2pm
1
974 — 50 years ago. It was a time when the nation was in turmoil as President Richard Nixon resigned following the Watergate scandal, gas prices were still high after the 1973 oil crisis and troops were still fighting in Vietnam. In Sandy, Willow Canyon Elementary opened in a quiet neighborhood off 1700 East. It started with its own turmoil, said Kirk Denison, the sixth former principal of the school. “The first principal, Vern Clegg, was my cousin,” he said. “He told me that it was a challenge opening the school when everything wasn’t finished. It was mostly done, but the playground wasn’t ready. They had black-topped it, but there wasn’t any equipment, no lines for four-square and other games and the grass fields weren’t ready.” Denison said that his cousin said despite that, he was excited. “Vern said, ‘I’ve got a dedicated staff to start this school in this new community. It’s going to be a great school,’” he recalled. Denison didn’t realize he’d be principal 20 years later at that same “great school.” “There were some changes from when he opened the doors to when I stepped in them. They built walls so they were no longer open classrooms. We were a year-round school then and needed 10 portables to have enough classrooms for our 1,200 students. I used to call it the ‘little city,’ but it took up a lot of the playground so there wasn’t as much room for the kids at recess. The biggest problems were fitting students in the cafeteria and gym, which weren’t built for that many students so we had strict timelines, and especially the bathrooms. They didn’t anticipate that many students when those were built,” he said. Despite that, Denison said the “kids were great and very coop-
20
PAGES 17-22