Chaste Inegbedion, left, Ariel Reyes, right front, and Jadayah Spencer fill in the hole around a tree being planting at the International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019, during a community engagement activity held in conjunction with the U.N. Civility Society Conference being held in Salt Lake City this coming week. The group planted three trees and organized cleanup efforts in the park to commemorate the conference. | Colter Peterson
Next week’s event prompts several local youths to enter global conversation around sustainability and interact with those of different cultures.
SALT LAKE CITY — This week’s United Nations Conference in Salt Lake City has kindled several local youths’ excitement to enter the global conversation around sustainability and interact with those of different cultures.
“I’m just very excited that Salt Lake is going to host this huge international community. I just love being around international people and learning about their cultures and languages, and everything,” said Vlada Yaremenko, a recent graduate of the University of Utah who helped organize Saturday’s event as part of the U.N. Youth Committee.
“And especially, I’m very excited that we’ll be here for a good reason, trying to solve all these issues that are going on around all the world.”
She and about 12 other volunteers met Saturday ready to work at the International Peace Gardens in Jordan Park. They planted two tulip trees and a horse chestnut in areas of the park where a few trees recently needed to be cut down.
The theme of the conference will be “Building Inclusive and Sustainable Cities and Communities.” Those at Saturday’s activities said they wanted to highlight that theme.
“And especially since the Amazon is burning right now, the least we can do is just plant three trees,” Yaremenko said. “We just wanted to give back and give something sustainable to the city.”
Throughout the morning, others embarked in canoes to pick up trash on the Jordan River. A small group practiced yoga under a veranda.
Many at the volunteers are also members of the U.N. Youth Committee.
“I just think it’s really great for the community to get together. Because I think Salt Lake has a really diverse, very inclusive community. And I think these community activities are just a way to show how willing people are to come together and work together for sustainability,” said Vishal Jammulapati, 16, an incoming junior at West High School.
“And I’m excited for the conference because I think this part of the U.S. doesn’t get a lot of recognition. I think it’s really great that Salt Lake gets to host it, and it’s a global event coming to Salt Lake, which I think will help open people’s minds here as well,” he added.
Others at the event said they were there to simply enhance the environment.
“Trees add to the quality of life. We need to preserve the open space. ... I think it’s just absolutely great, a lot of young people involved with this project which is under the radar screen for most people,” said John Price, who served as a U.S. ambassador from 2002-05 to Seychelles, Mauritius and Comoros, and says he spent most of his adult years “in and out of Africa.”
Those experiences taught him how important it is to care about poverty and environmental issues in one’s own community and globally, Price said. “We need to think ... as a global concern for everyone, because we live in the same planet.”
“I’m proud of all these young people. They could be doing other things. Yet here they are with gloves and getting themselves muddy, and it’s a good feeling when you see young people doing this,” he said.
Others said they wanted to “give back” to the city that’s hosting thousands for the global event.
Jadayah Spencer, a New Yorker visiting Utah for the conference, said though she had never planted a tree before Saturday, “It’s just great, and to give back to Utah, because Utah’s literally hosting the world this weekend. So I want to do something to give and not just take.”
Spencer said she hadn’t been to the Beehive State before.
“On the flight, I saw mountains with snow on them and mountains without snow. So that was really cool. And you can just casually be walking down the street and see mountains,” she said. “And the people have seemed really nice.”
“I just keep looking around because it’s just so pretty. My eyes are just so excited to see this green and this nice blue sky. I mean, we have that in the city, but it’s just different,” Spencer. explained.
She said she was traveled all this way to go to the conference “because I’m excited about the plans of action that will come from the conversations,” she said. Leaders and those from the private sector coming together could lead to ideas for bettering communities, she said, especially to help the climate.
“If we can create the problems, we can also create the solutions, so that’s why I came,” said Spencer, also a member of the U.N. Youth Committee.
Rebecca Hardenbrook, another committee member, said, “This event has been really inspiring to me, just seeing all the youth come and unite together. ... It serves as a way for us to remember this event. And since this a free park, people around the world can come and see.”
She and others have been preparing events since February as part of the committee, which includes people ages 18 to 32. They’ve also been collaborating with other people worldwide to write a youth declaration to “represent the voice of the world’s youth” on building inclusive and sustainable communities and address the climate crisis.
Matt Mainella, a musician and orchestra conductor, became interested in the project and the U.N. conference to connect with people from other cultures, something that’s valuable as an artist.
“It’s going to be a very nice mix of different people from all over and I’m just curious to see the different exhibits and the different presentations. ... It’s part of my job, I think, to get to know the community and just to see what’s happening,” he said.
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