This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
If you are looking for a pile of cow manure, where better to find it than the Utah Legislature?
Kimberly Sheldon, a zoology Ph.D. from the University of Washington who is at the University of Utah conducting post-doc research on dung beetles, needed fresh dung for them.
Attorney Pat Shea, who also is an associate research professor of biology at the U., knew exactly where to go.
He contacted Rep. Mel Brown, R-Coalville, who is a dairy farmer.
When Shea, former chairman of the State Democratic Party, explained the need, Brown, in the spirit of bipartisanship, was more than happy to donate his manure for a good cause.
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Here's more news of good deeds and generosity across the state:
• Former Salt Lake City Schools Superintendent M. Donald Thomas, a prolific collector who has donated most of his amassed autographs and historic documents to the University of Utah, recently noticed a 1962 school autograph book whose owner was listed as F. Craig Sudbury. Thomas, who had purchased the book at a garage sale decades ago, tracked down Sudbury, who was delighted to retrieve the autographs from his teachers and classmates at Roosevelt Junior High School 51 years ago.
• Thanks to employees of the Tooele Walmart, the Tooele Police Department and KUTV News, a 5-year-old Salt Lake County girl received the birthday presents that her family feared were lost forever. After the recent birthday party for Olivia Johnson at Jungle Jim's Playland in Midvale, a well-intentioned mother put all of Olivia's presents in her mother's white SUV. Or she thought she did — it was the wrong SUV. When Olivia's mother, Stacie, went to her car, there were no presents. More than a week later, several bags of wrapped birthday presents were discovered in the Walmart parking lot. Employees called police, who contacted KUTV, whose reporting of the mysterious birthday packages alerted the family.
• Miriam B. Sayer, who has a disability, was in her home, part of a four-plex, when a fire erupted in another unit. Sayer's friend, Cynthia Fuit got her out of the house and returned to find burning rags next to a stove and put them out before the whole building ignited.
• Earlier this year, East Carbon Police Chief Sam Leonard received a 50-cent hourly pay raise from the City Council for earning a Crisis Intervention Team certification. But he told the council to give the raise to city receptionist Bessie Powell instead.
• Lucy Jordan figured her wallet was gone forever after she discovered she had left it in a shopping cart in the Home Depot parking lot at 3300 South and Highland Drive. But a shopper found the wallet in the cart and turned it in to customer service. Everything, including the cash, was intact.
• Eric Sachs and his son noticed a man near the Fort Union Family Center holding a sign that said "Hungry." Sachs, according to a letter he wrote to the Cottonwood Heights City Council, then watched as a Cottonwood Heights police officer pulled up next to the man and gave him an energy bar. "The man truly was hungry," Sachs wrote. "He tore open the bar and ate it faster than I have seen anyone eat anything." Sachs followed the cop so he could thank him for the example he set for Sachs' son. The good Samaritan cop's name is Casey Davies.
• Animal rights activists planned a protest of the QSaltLake Lagoon Day (also known as gay day) Aug. 4 because they didn't think the gay community should have their celebration at a park that keeps animals penned up along its Wild Kingdom train ride. QSaltLake publisher Michael Aaron learned of the protest at a park across the street from Lagoon, so he dropped by to say hello and drop off a case of bottled water.