By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News | Photos courtesy of Amanda Paiz
To help connect incoming first-year students at Utah State University Eastern to the Castle Country Community and its many resources, the University hosted its annual Town Ties event on Friday, Aug. 28, allowing students and their families to see what their new home has to offer.
Representing USUE, Brooklyn Crippen joined the KOAL newsroom to discuss how the event aims to impact students and businesses alike.
“The purpose of it is to have Students from USU Eastern meet businesses here in the community,” explained Crippen. “What we do is we set up in our student center, and each business we invite has a booth, and they come and do carnival games and bring information. The students go around, visit each booth, meet the businesses, get prizes, and we feed them a free meal. It’s a lot of fun to have that connection with the businesses and a fun and awesome environment.”
Crippen further elaborated on the purpose: “With so many athletes being from out of the area and just so many students in general, it’s a great way for them, before the school year even starts, to learn about the services and the products that we have available right here in Carbon County.”
Pulling back the curtain, Crippen gave a look behind the scenes at what planning Town Ties entailed. “We start months in advance. We’ve been planning this one for about four or five months now, and we have a great committee from staff at USU Eastern as well as business leaders and owners here in the community, and we get together and we talk about who’s beneficial to bring. What are we gonna do to keep this engaging? How are we gonna feed them? It’s a great way to come together with people from the community who share our interest. Just start small to begin and plan; and then each week you’re doing something, and then five months later it turns out to be that great event.”
USU Deputy Vice President of Residential Campuses poses for a picture with Price City Mayor Terry Willis.
Examining the event from a personal perspective, Crippen shared what she enjoys most about putting on Town Ties: “For me, the best part is just being at the event and seeing that everything’s come together to help not only the students – but also these businesses here. It’s great to sit back and watch those five months of planning really come together and be what they are, and it’s great to see these students enjoying their time. Also to see that these businesses are having an opportunity to put themselves in front of these students.”
Closing our conversation, Crippen shared a message of gratitude for the community. “We’re so grateful for the amazing community that we have here in Carbon and Emery counties, and so we’re grateful for this opportunity to have had Town Ties to partner with some of these amazing businesses.”