Opening day at Woodward Park City brought more than the return of lift access this winter. As the Hot Laps lift began spinning, the day also marked the first Play Forever Friday of the season, drawing excited opening day guests into nonprofit-led activities focused on safety education and youth programming, both indoors and outdoors.

Through its Play Forever Friday series, Woodward Park City pairs discounted access with community education and nonprofit support, connecting guests with local organizations while promoting safety, awareness and long-term access to outdoor recreation.

Each Play Forever Friday offers $35 access to Woodward’s indoor facility or $35 mountain lift tickets, compared to $169 for a regular weekend all-access ticket, with 15 percent of all ticket revenue split between two featured nonprofit partners.

While the foundation provides grant opportunities year round, the Friday series is built around conversation and participation rather than formal fundraising alone.

For Woodward Park City, the Friday format is about meeting people where they already are. While Play Forever is a nationwide program, Jay Burke, director of marketing, said the Woodward Park City team shapes each Play Forever Friday around the local community, selecting nonprofits that reflect how guests use the facility and the surrounding mountains.

“Our team dove in with a big list that we narrowed down to some of the bigger local nonprofits and some of the smaller ones, and we tried to align those with nonprofits that we feel really benefit the local community here that visits Woodward on a frequent basis,” said Burke.

This season, Woodward selected eight nonprofits and paired them across four monthly events, with a fifth bonus day at the end of the season, expanding on previous years when the program featured just four nonprofits across the entire winter. Each pairing matches a larger, established organization with a smaller or growing one — a structure designed to broaden participation while allowing nonprofits to leverage one another’s audiences and experience.

“This year, we wanted to pair them together where these smaller nonprofits can work with a bigger, more well-oiled machine and hopefully learn from them, too,” said Burke.

The December Play Forever Friday featured the Utah Avalanche Center and the Carry On Foundation. For the avalanche center, their first time participating in Play Forever was an opportunity to reach new audiences through a setting that felt accessible and familiar.

Burke said the Utah Avalanche Center was a natural fit for December, particularly given how many young athletes are watching backcountry content and starting to think beyond resort boundaries.

“We have tons of kids coming through that door every day that are starting to think about, ‘Oh wow, I see all these really great segments, and they’re all in the back country.’ We’re catching them at the ground level,” said Burke. “We’re just able to intercept and start feeding them some good messaging on safety in the backcountry and getting educated.”

The Utah Avalanche Center hosted a Community Avalanche Rescue Practice, or CARP for short, a beacon clinic designed to reinforce real-world skills and reduce panic in emergency situations.

Woodward’s audience overlaps directly with the sidecountry and backcountry users they’re trying to reach. Development director Kate Waller said the partnership helps reinforce the reality that even short trips beyond resort boundaries require preparation. She emphasized that avalanche safety isn’t just about owning gear, but knowing how to use it — something that can only come from practice.

“It’s important to practice your skills because if something does happen, panic sets in, and you need to know how to use your gear — and that extends to every piece of it. You don’t just need a beacon, but also a shovel and a probe,” said Waller.

Inside Woodward’s skatepark, the Carry On Foundation hosted a skate session to help reach more kids with their mental health programming. Carry On uses action sports, skateboarding in particular, as a vehicle for teaching mental health skills. 

Programs are designed to put mental health first, with skateboarding serving as a structured environment where those skills can be practiced in real time. The nonprofit combines classroom-style instruction with skate practice, a “lecture and lab” approach. 

Participants learn specific mental skills like confidence building, breathing techniques and how to recognize internal thought patterns before applying those lessons directly in the skatepark.

“We’re actively training them on confidence and thought patterns and what happens when you’re in the red mindset, or the ‘I can’t’ mindset? What about when you’re in the green mindset, ‘I can do it,’, and you’re willing to move forward despite risk or fear or failure,” said Executive Director Cole Parkinson. 

Parkinson explained that the goal is to help kids recognize what they are feeling in moments of hesitation or fear and to develop strategies for moving forward at their own pace. Instructors act as mentors rather than traditional coaches, emphasizing progress over performance.

“You can imagine this 9-year-old girl wanting to drop in, but she’s hesitant and scared. As mentors, we ask what she’s feeling and talk through the yellow mindset and the tools that help her move forward, creating a dialogue that’s much deeper than the ‘send it, don’t be weak’ mentality that often shows up in action sports,” he said.

Parkinson said the collaboration with Woodward allows both organizations to support the same audiences while reinforcing shared values around belonging and resilience.

“We’re in kind of the same space, and it’s important for us to be able to join forces and support the world of action sports and the world of community,” said Parkinson.

During Play Forever Friday at Woodward Park City, Carry On brought that same philosophy into the skatepark, hosting a session designed to introduce kids to skating while making them aware of Carry On’s programs and facilities in Provo and South Jordan. Mentors were available to help first-time skaters get started and to support more experienced riders looking to progress.

Waller agreed that the structure of Play Forever Fridays, pairing two nonprofits together, creates a multiplier effect for outreach and education between both the Utah Avalanche Center and Carry On.

“Combining the two of us with Woodward’s network, it’s three pretty different groups of people,” said Waller. “We work together to promote our causes and also help Woodward tap into user groups that might not otherwise be part of their core audience.” 

Nonprofits featured during a given month benefit from ticket revenue throughout that month, not just on Friday night. Looking ahead, Play Forever Fridays continue monthly through the winter. January will feature Youth Sports Alliance and the WILS Foundation. February pairs Wasatch Adaptive Sports with Save A Brain, followed by March’s partnership between Live Like Sam and S.T.A.Y. 

The nonprofit pair that generates the highest total ticket revenue will be invited back for a final Play Forever Friday in April and a second month of fundraising through Woodward’s lift ticket sales. 

Burke said the discounted tickets are intended to reduce both cost and hesitation for people who may need an extra push to try Woodward. By connecting those nights with nonprofit organizations guests may already know and support, the familiarity can help draw people in and create opportunities for first-time visitors to engage with Woodward and its programming in a low-pressure setting.

“Play Forever is about community and keeping these opportunities for having these adventurous lifestyles alive, not only today, but into the future as well,” said Burke.

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ONEIDA (WLUK) — Hundreds of students at Oneida Nation Elementary School have new books to read over the holiday break.

Book fair day is always a big day, but it was even more special this year after the Green Bay Packers donated over 2,400 books to the school and its students.

Packers players encourage literacy with reading events at Green Bay, Oneida schools (WLUK)

“Reading, to me, means that it’s very imaginary for me, and I like reading because it puts pictures in my mind and it makes a book come to life for me,” said sixth grader Eliia White.

On Monday, students in pre-K through eighth grade got to shop for books that peaked their interests.

According to Principal Tracy Christensen, “They got to choose what they wanted to read. So now, they have three books for the winter break that they can read and have that opportunity to continue their education, even over break.”

The Packers not only bought each student their three books, but the team also provided an additional 250 books to the school.

“The Big Cheese” was a popular choice, as it was one of two books read to students by Green Bay Packers players Lecitus Smith and Dalton Cooper.

Smith read “The Big Cheese” and Cooper tackled “Hope is a Rainbow.”

“Just to be able to come in and read to the young kids, I know they’ll never forget it. They’re going to cherish this moment forever. And I hope it inspires them to come in the library and school library and pick up books, if they don’t already,” said Smith.

Oneida Nation Elementary School held its annual book fair. The Green Bay Packers buying three books for every student in pre-K through 8th grade, as well as, donating another 250 books to the school. (WLUK)

Reading is fundamental. It doesn’t matter if you’re into something cheesy or hopeful — there’s always something to gain with a book in your hand.

Smith said, “To the kids, I mean, they have a future. I mean, what’s a world? What’s this country alone without books? So, just putting a book in the kids’ hands and into the future’s hands — I mean, come on.”

In addition to reading to kids at Oneida Nation Elementary School, Smith and Cooper also took their reading talents to Doty Elementary School in Green Bay.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – Youth violence appears to be down in Fort Wayne, Mayor Sharon Tucker said during her year-in-review interview with 21Alive News.

This past summer, both Tucker and Police Chief Scott Caudill recognized an uptick in violent crimes involving young people. So far this year, eight people 21-years-old or younger have been killed in the city.