- Utah’s latest holiday is called Utah Social and Community Health Day.
- The day was created to remind people to take care of relationships, make new friends and perform acts of service.
- The U.S. has what has been called a loneliness epidemic and Utah is not immune.
Utah
Why Utah's newest holiday could kick loneliness to the curb
The last Saturday in April — this Saturday — is a new state holiday.
The Utah Legislature created Utah Social and Community Health Day to nudge people to mind their relationships. The day is a reminder to nurture friendships and to reach out to others to counter the growing problem of loneliness, a challenge that has seeped through communities across the country.
“Think of it as a day to level up your friendships,” said Brent Reed, one of the architects of the holiday and a strong advocate for the value of forging connections. “Every major problem — and every joy — is easier to face when we’re not alone.”
The holiday’s goal, he told Deseret News, is to get everyone to do something, however small, to connect with someone else. He’ll be having lunch with an old friend he almost lost track of as both of their lives got busy.
Making a day to encourage action
Reed, 59, is a Highland dad with seven kids, who range from teens up to their 30s. He owns a window cleaning business. Reed said he got interested in the issue of social connections in 2023, when news stories were chronicling a loneliness epidemic. He took stock of his own life and realized he’d let many of his social connections drift away.
About the same time, Reed said he saw some of the work done by BYU professor of psychology Julianne Holt-Lunstad, who had been studying and publishing research on the impact of loneliness and isolation — which may not be the same thing. You can have people around you and still feel lonely. You can be by yourself and not feel lonely. But many people do suffer from feelings of one or the other — or both.
Reed got involved with “friendship labs,” coming up with tools to help people increase the quantity of their friendships and improve the quality. He kept trying different things, plagued by the notion that disconnection was a solvable societal problem.
But loneliness is tricky, he said, because no one wants to own that they feel that way. “Being lonely seems to be generally frowned upon,” he said.
He took his concerns to a legislator, who agreed that a day of recognition might be “leverage to tell people to take it more seriously.” State Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Pleasant Grove, sponsored SCR4, while state Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, carried it in the House. The resolution says the day, which became official in 2025, “recognizes loneliness and social isolation as critical public health priorities” and “urges individuals to prioritize building positive relationships and fostering social connections.”
Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University and director of the university’s social connections lab, believes having a designated day could be “an opportunity both for increasing awareness as well as for taking action.” She helped polish the resolution’s language.
She’s long been heavily involved in sounding the alarm about the very real dangers of loneliness and isolation, noting health risks more dangerous than obesity, air pollution, physical inactivity, excessive alcohol consumption or smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
“No factor is more consistently associated with long life and happiness than strong social connections,” she said, pointing to findings from Harvard’s Study of Adult Development, which is the world’s longest study of happiness.
When U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued his advisory on loneliness, which he characterized as an epidemic, she was the scientific editor. She’s also a technical adviser to the World Health Organization’s commission on social connection. The commission will issue a new report in July.
Despite recent attention from officials, Holt-Lunstad said she thinks there’s a “significant lack of awareness around this issue” among the public. So besides the push to get people involved with each other on a personal level, she believes an awareness day provides an opportunity to “create messaging and campaigns and dialogue that can help us start to increase awareness around just how critically important our social connections are, not only for individuals, but the thriving of our communities and society.
“We know it impacts health, education, safety, prosperity, several different kinds of outcomes — and for far too long, our social connections have been taken for granted and so this is an opportunity for us to create awareness but also for communities to plan events, for individuals to take action in their own relationships and communities,” she said.
The day should remind people how important connections are, said Holt-Lunstad.
Reed said his own focus is on fortifying spiritual, relational health. “Lots of groups are building parks and paths, and there are lots of things that build community. But until you start talking to someone, making friends, going to lunch, it’s for naught.”
What he wants to do, he said, is “level up as a friend. If people did that, it would be fantastic.” It’s easy to let a relationship slide if it’s not minded, according to Reed, who is pretty sure that on Saturday he’ll be having lunch with someone who’s been his friend for 30 years, but with whom he almost lost touch, then working in the man’s backyard for a bit.
One small step
Helping others, doing things together — even chores — forms or strengthens bonds.
Holt-Lunstad talks about a randomized controlled trial she was part of that asked people to do just small acts of kindness for their neighbors over the course of a month. “What we found was that when people did that, that reduced loneliness, it reduced stress and it also reduced conflict in neighborhoods.”
Action on behalf of others is free, simple and anyone can do something, she said.
A single commemorative day is not going to change much, she adds, or be as helpful as something done consistently over time. But it could get people started thinking about others and launch some new connections.
Doing things with and for others makes people feel good. So it can lead somewhere important on a personal level.
“Relationships take time to develop and time to maintain,” she told Deseret News, noting the day “really should be a reminder, more than a one-off.”
There’s a website under development at Utahsocialhealthday.com. It will be built out with ideas for connecting and with different resources, Reed said.
Holt-Lunstad added that she’s glad the holiday focuses on social connection, rather than targeting loneliness explicitly.
“I think oftentimes we focus so much on the problem that we lose sight of what we’re aiming for. Social connection is something everyone needs and everyone can take part in. I’m happy that Utah is focusing on the bright spots.”
SANDY — Vibes were as high as the temperature in some cases as thousands gathered at Real Salt Lake’s home stadium to cheer on the United States’ 2-0 win over Australia in the second match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Fernando Sanchez took it all in, between belts of his drum standing in front of more than 4,000 people at the Sandy stadium.
“I was born and raised in Mexico City,” said Sanchez, who hosts a podcast called the “Fercho Show” from his current home in Utah. “But I’m from the U.S. now.”
Four years after scoring just two goals in three group games before a 3-1 exit to the Netherlands in the Round of 16, the United States is flying under Mauricio Pochettino, exciting fans across the country — from the sellout crowd at 69,000-seat Lumen Field in Seattle to watch parties around the world, including Friday in Sandy.
“The vibe is amazing,” Sanchez told KSL.com. “You can see all of the people who came out, everybody is happy because this World Cup means so much for Utah, for everybody. It’s the best of the best from each country fighting on the field. That’s what it feels like, and it’s so good to be part of this game.”
Less than 24 hours after some 9,200 fans showed up at America First Field for Mexico’s 1-0 win over South Korea, Real Salt Lake employees braced to host as many as 6,000 American fans who submitted an RSVP to spend a portion of the Juneteenth holiday in 94-degree weather.
In-game hydration breaks became as much of a necessity for fans as the players in Seattle, with hundreds flooding the open hydration stations, concessions area, and a few food trucks at each “quarter break” installed by FIFA for the first time at a men’s World Cup.
While final attendance dropped to around 4,500 fans in Sandy, the spirits remained high as Folarin Balogun, who scored two goals in a 4-1 win over Paraguay in the World Cup opener, forced the opening goal off Australia’s Cameron Burgess.
Alex Freeman, the son of former Super Bowl champion Antonio Freeman who at 21 is the youngest player on the roster, doubled the advantage in the 43rd minute off a set piece that was initially ruled offside.
But after a lengthy video review where fans refused to sit down, pandemonium ensued as the U.S. fans in Sandy recognized their national team was moments away from clinching passage out of the group in the first men’s World Cup on home soil since 1994.
It’s the first time the United States men’s national team has won consecutive games at a World Cup tournament since 1930.
Yet it’s not just the wins, but how the Yanks are winning that has Americans excited about a sport that has made significant strides domestically in three decades since the founding of Major League Soccer.
The U.S. is winning with an exciting brand of attacking soccer led by Balogun, who grew up in England but chose to represent the country of his birth over his parents’ native Nigeria in 2023, and Christian Pulisic, the AC Milan winger with 33 goals in 87 international appearances from Pennsylvania who did not play Friday due to a calf injury.
“There’s a lot of American pride,” said St. George youth soccer player Tate Hurst, who showed up to the watch party with a half-dozen club teammates at Fire SC during Western Presidents Cup regional this weekend. “The American dream.”
Sunburn, heat and hydration aside, the moment created a memory for thousands of soccer fans and casuals alike. That included RSL season ticket holders, waiting until the end of the month-long international break for the club’s MLS season to resume in July.
But for one afternoon — and perhaps another, as the club plans to host a similar watch party next Thursday when the United States hosts Türkiye in Los Angeles (8 p.m. MT, FS1) — each soccer fan was pulling for the same team.
Except, perhaps, for the dozen or so Australia fans in the corner of the east lawn who represented their own Socceroos for the entire 90 minutes.
“Soccer brings everybody together,” one RSL staff member said over the public-address system as fans headed for the parking lot while James Brown’s “Living in America” blasted over the sound system after the full-time whistle. “That’s what today was all about.”
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah athletics is making a notable change to the Huntsman Center gameday setup, but the move is about more than where the team sits.
The Runnin’ Utes are moving the team bench from the east side of the Jon M. Huntsman Center to the west side, returning the bench to the side it occupied during the Rick Majerus era. The change will also move the MUSS and band from the west side to the east side.
The shift is part of a larger effort by Utah Athletics to improve the student-section experience, create a more consistent setup inside the Huntsman Center and better connect the arena to the university’s growing College Town Magic initiative.
Enhancing The MUSS And Fan Experience
Nowlin said the primary motivation behind the change is improving the MUSS and the overall fan experience.
“The reason we’re doing this is we want to enhance the MUSS,” Utah’s Deputy Athletics Director & Chief Revenue Officer, Patrick Nowlin said. “As an ongoing effort, we’ve been working on for the past two years, how do we enhance the fan experience?”
One issue Utah identified was that the MUSS had been located in different areas for different events. Moving the student section and band to the east side gives the department a more consistent location to build around.
“We wanted to create a better fan experience,” Nowlin said. “We wanted to be able to have one spot that we can build on, which means we can brand. We can enhance everything about it.”
The move also ties directly into College Town Magic. Nowlin said the area around the Huntsman Center will include more than 2,900 total beds, including more than 1,400 new beds, giving students a direct path from nearby housing to the student-section entrance.
“There’s over 2,900 new beds that are right there, which will be right at the branded entrance, right where the student section is,” Nowlin said. “They don’t have to go far at all. So it’s just a walk straight down from the dorm, right in the door.”
And according to Utah’s Patrick Nowlin, the move is not limited to men’s basketball.
“It’s not just men’s basketball. It’s all Huntsman Center events,” Nowlin said.
A Nod To Utah Basketball History
While the move is primarily about fan experience, there is also a clear basketball-history component.
The west-side bench location is where Utah sat during the Majerus era, when the Runnin’ Utes were one of the top programs in the country and the Huntsman Center had a different level of edge. Alex Jensen was part of that era as a player, and now, as Utah’s head coach, the move reconnects the current program with one of its most successful periods.
Nowlin said the historical connection was part of the conversation, even if it was not solely Jensen’s decision.
“Yeah, it’s a nod to history,” Nowlin said. “I think Alex, him being here, he’s a steward of the program. There’s a lot of history to having it on that side.”
Still, Nowlin made clear the change was not simply pushed through by Jensen.
“It wasn’t a push from him,” Nowlin said. “It was a concerted effort from everybody to where, how do we create an area that the MUSS can have, but also how do we lean into our history, but still move forward in a way that we can honor that, but create an unbelievable environment.”
That is the heart of the move. Utah is trying to bring back a piece of its basketball identity while also reworking the building for the future.
How Fans Will Be Impacted
The change will affect some season-ticket holders, donors and fans seated near the current bench, MUSS and band areas, but Utah tried to limit the disruption.
Nowlin said the department spent months working through the seating impact and expects fewer than 200 accounts to be directly affected. Those accounts are in sections T, U and V.
“This wasn’t something that just came about,” Nowlin said. “We’ve been working on this for a few months now, and we wanted to find a way that we could minimize the accounts that were directly impacted, but still create the fan experience change we were after.”
Utah’s plan is to work individually with affected fans and mirror their seat location as closely as possible on the other end of the court.
“If you’re on one end and now you’re going on the other end, we will work with you to get you in the seat that is similar to where you were and allow you to have the same experience you’ve had, just on the other end of the court,” Nowlin said.
Utah will also hold a virtual seat-selection process from July 7-17, allowing fans who want to move to choose from available options.
“We’re going to take care of everybody, but we’re also going to allow people the choice and the freedom to be able to make the changes they want to make,” Nowlin said. “We want to create every opportunity we can to give our fans opportunities to choose their own experience.”
Not Part Of The Huntsman Renovation
The bench and MUSS move is not directly tied to the larger Huntsman Center renovation discussions. Nowlin said the change is instead connected to College Town Magic and Utah’s effort to improve the student and fan experience inside the building.
“It does not have to do with the renovation, but it does have to do with College Town Magic,” Nowlin said.
The move could create some new seating and premium opportunities, particularly around courtside and floor seating. Nowlin said Utah is still evaluating those possibilities.
“By doing this, this will create additional opportunities for us on courtside and floor,” Nowlin said. “We’re also looking to how do we enhance our premium experience across the board. So this is a step in a process that will continue.”
The Bottom Line
Utah’s bench move is not just a nostalgic callback to the Rick Majerus era, and it is not just a seating chart adjustment. It is part of a broader effort to reshape the Huntsman Center experience.
The team bench is moving back to the west side, where Utah sat during some of the program’s most successful years. The MUSS and band are moving to the east side, where Utah believes it can build a stronger, more consistent student-section identity tied to College Town Magic.
For Utah Athletics, it is another step toward rethinking how the Huntsman Center looks, sounds and feels on game day. For Jensen, the move reconnects the program to its winning past.
The symbolism will matter to longtime Utah basketball fans. The logistics will matter to students, band members and season-ticket holders. But the larger goal is simple: make the building feel more intentional, more connected and more like home again.
Steve Bartle is the Utah insider for KSL Sports. He hosts The Utah Blockcast (SUBSCRIBE) and appears on KSL Sports Zone to break down the Utes. You can follow him on X for the latest Utah updates and game analysis.
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SALT LAKE CITY – The San Juan County assessor has resigned partway through his second term, following a recommendation that he be removed from office.
Rick Meyer’s resignation became effective on Monday, according to San Juan County Commissioner Lori Maughan. A copy of Meyer’s resignation letter was not immediately available.
This comes after the Utah State Tax Commission determined that Meyer had failed to follow the law and was “unfit to perform his duties.” In a letter last week to San Juan County commissioners, the tax commission recommended “the immediate removal of the San Juan County assessor from office to protect the public interest and restore the integrity of the property tax system in San Juan County.”
Among other things, Meyer was accused of failing to tax agricultural buildings, misclassifying property, and giving property tax exemptions to certain parcels, including vacant land, when he shouldn’t have.
The recommendation to remove Meyer from office was the first under a recent state law giving the Utah State Tax Commission more power to take corrective action against county assessors who aren’t doing their jobs properly. Assessors play a major role in the property tax process by determining the value of property throughout their counties.
Yet, it was unclear whether the San Juan County Commission could have actually removed Meyer from office had he not stepped down.
With Meyer’s resignation, the San Juan County Assessor’s Office has just one employee left. Deputy assessor Nathan Pitts will run the office until the San Juan County Republican Party recommends a replacement and the County Commission appoints one.
“It’s me holding down the fort here,” Pitts told KSL on Thursday, noting that he has spoken with the Utah Association of Counties and the state tax commission about plans for this interim period. “Everybody’s on board to assist and try to make it the best as we can, (but) I’ve definitely got my work cut out for me.”
Pitts said he does not plan to run for county assessor to replace his old boss.
“That is not my intention at all,” he said. “I’m quite content as a deputy assessor.”
Meyer was first elected as San Juan County assessor in 2020 and won reelection in 2024. His current term was set to conclude in 2029.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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