Uplifting Utah: A 'perfect' drive-in wedding — and other stories to brighten your day

Uplifting Utah: A 'perfect' drive-in wedding — and other stories to brighten your day

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SALT LAKE CITY — The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives and livelihoods across Utah and around the world. While most Utahns have so far avoided the worst of the virus, health-wise, it's hard to find silver linings while collecting unemployment or trying to homeschool your children for months on end.

But the coronavirus fallout has inspired countless acts of service and selflessness, as well — qualities that will hopefully stay with us long after the virus has passed.

KSL.com’s new Uplifting Utah column showcases the good done by those around you. If you have a feel-good local story, we’d love to hear about it! Email us the social media post or a description of the story in 200 words or less to web@ksl.com with the subject line “Uplifting Utah” and we'll pick some to share.

Here are four uplifting stories that will brighten your day:

Drive-in wedding

Chalk the walk

"When the annual neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt was cancelled because of COVID-19, organizer Cassie Steiner decided to put her effort into something else to bring cheer to her neighbors. Cassie organized a neighborhood 'Chalk the Walk' complete with prizes and trivia.

"This event brought neighbors out of their homes and into the sunshine to enjoy viewing and creating chalk art. One family got so involved that they didn’t stop at chalking their driveway, they also chalked their garage door. Many neighbors drew pictures and inspirational messages on the walks of some who could not participate in the activity, just to show love. Neighbors visited (from a safe distance) as they walked around the neighborhood, enjoying the art.

"Helping people feel loved and valued is not new to Cassie Steiner, a teacher at Southland Elementary. Wherever she is, she finds a way to recognize and reward those in her sphere of influence, whether it is fellow teachers, friends or neighbors. She is the ‘behind the scenes’ woman who finds joy in celebrating others."

— Tiffany Barlow, Riverton

Bringing prom home

Kylee couldn’t have her senior prom so we brought it to her❤️🖤 Love this girl of mine!!

Posted by Kaylene Owens on Saturday, April 18, 2020

Here's looking at you, Doc

"Saturday, March 14, was a scary day for our family. There was a huge surge of people trying to see doctors to be tested for the coronavirus. My 12-year-old daughter woke up with a painful dilated eye that we would later find out was uveitis.

"We tried to call her doctors’ office to get an appointment. The whole office was overbooked, they could not see her. We scheduled for the next available appointment, over 24 hours later. Soon after I hung up with the receptionist, I got a call back from Dr. Shauna Gagner of Northern Utah Pediatrics. She asked me to try to get Savannah in anywhere else, but if not, that she would stay late.

"We called Dr. Gagner back, and she and her staff stayed 1½ hours later just to see Savannah. Dr. Gagner said she needed to try to contact an ophthalmologist, but none of the offices were open on Saturday. She was able to get a hold of Dr. Jackson Lever of Country Hills Eye Center. He opened up his normally closed office and spent 1½ hours with Savannah trying to get her dangerously high eye pressure down. He then had us come in on Sunday and many other times the next few weeks.

"These doctors went above and beyond what they had to do, and saved my daughter's eyesight. We are so grateful for their kind service!"

— Casey Anne Parkin

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Graham Dudley reports on politics, breaking news and more for KSL.com. A native Texan, Graham's work has previously appeared in the Brownwood (Texas) Bulletin and The Oklahoma Daily.

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