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SunUte Community Center’s Property and Facilities Manager, Kelsey Frost poses with a sweatshirt bearing SunUte’s new slogan “Kindness is Contagious” on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The slogan is also part of a campaign that was created to thank those individuals working for Tribal entities and in the surrounding community for doing positive outreach and acts of kindness during the coronavirus pandemic.
SunUte Group Exercise Instructor Deja Hererra is leading the noon session of the Body Pump class, held, Wednesday, Feb. 23 at SunUte Community Center in the group exercise room. All group exercise classes are back in session after the program experienced a brief hiatus due to a rise in Omicron variant COVID-19 cases in the community.
Photo Credit: Fabian Martinez | SU Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | SU Drum
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New SunUte campaign spreads kindness in the community

Thursday - February 24, 2022 by Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum

Regular activities resume after brief hiatus 

The SunUte Community Center is offering full services for the membership and community as of Feb. 14, after a brief cancellation of certain areas and regular activities due to the rise in Omicron variant cases in January. Group exercise classes, the swimming pool and other programs are open to patrons — and SunUte is excited to welcome everyone back. They are also eager to support the community through their new ‘Kindness is Contagious,’ initiative. 

SunUte recently rolled out an ambitious campaign aimed at fostering kindness in the community, while encouraging positivity and support for one another. The campaign, titled ‘Kindness is Contagious,’ is a way to give recognition to individuals in the community for their thoughtful actions – uplifting one another in the process. Gestures of kindness that are especially important considering the challenges that many have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“COVID-19 is negative and is contagious, so we came up with ‘Kindness is Contagious’ to overpower COVID-19, to say we can do something to show the good side,” SunUte Community Center Director Robin Duffy-Wirth explained. “I think it’s important that we are kind, but it’s also important for people to recognize kind [acts].”  

Individuals in the community can be nominated by their peers directly to Duffy-Wirth, they will receive a small gift and earn recognition for their acts of kindness. Duffy-Wirth compiles the stories of kind community members and designs flyers highlighting their acts of kindness, including photos of the nominee and nominator. These vignettes are then shared with the community. 

Clean Team employee Jared Meier was recently nominated by Department of Gaming Administrative Assistant, Darlene Frost for his dedication to duties and friendly attitude. In the Kindness is Contagious flyer shared by SunUte, Friday, Feb. 18, Frost gave kudos to Meier for his outstanding performance and positive demeanor.  

“He goes above and beyond, making sure everything is sanitized for the benefit of the employees and departments. He is very kind, respectful, and helpful,” Frost said. “He has a very positive demeanor and is always in a happy mood every day. Not once have I seen him unhappy. Kudos to Jared and what he does for the benefit of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the office departments.”  

Sky Ute Casino Resort Food and Beverage Buyer Rhonda Uptain nominated Casino Purchasing Manager Melissa Kerrigan. In her statement, Uptain relates her personal story, “Last winter my son contracted COVID while working; he was an ambulance driver. I took two months off work without pay to care for him. My supervisor, Melissa Kerrigan, showed so much love and kindness I don’t know how I could ever thank her enough. Melissa made sure my job was done, along with her own job, so that I would have a job to come back to. She paid my health insurance out of her own pocket so that I wouldn’t lose it, went to my house every single day for two months and put pellets in my stove so the pipes wouldn’t freeze and watered my many plants. My son, Richard Blythe, passed away from COVID and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of him, and Melissa’s kindness. Thank you, my friend.”  

Other nominations include MariJo Owens, Preston Rei, Linda Moore, Savannah Timms, and Harley Ferguson for their acts of kindness in the community.  

‘Kindness is Contagious’ will also serve as SunUte’s new slogan, an idea that was recently adopted by the staff. “There was a big push during the pandemic to be kind, let’s come up with a slogan that is fun and more powerful than COVID-19,” Duffy-Wirth said. The slogan can now be found throughout the building, featured on new merchandise and advertisements made available at SunUte.  

SunUte offers a variety of services to both members and guests, among those, group exercise classes are a fan favorite. Water Aerobics, being the most popular class since the re-opening, has had a surge in attendees, averaging between five to seven participants in each class. Instructors are also thrilled to be teaching once again as the in-person interaction has been minimal over the past five weeks.  

“We thrive on the energy of the members in class, it gives us the motivation to teach, and it feels good to see people,” Group Exercise Manager Sage Frane emphasized. “Instructors are excited to be here – we are creating that sense of community once again.” Group exercise has been missed by instructors and patrons alike.  

After the brief cancellation, Active Kid Care programming is once again available to parents and their children throughout the week, operating Monday through Friday 8:25 a.m.-11:30 a.m., while offering evening sessions Monday through Wednesday 5 p.m.-7 p.m.  

SunUte’s pool, hot tub, and sauna hours remain Monday through Friday, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Full facility operational hours are Monday through Friday 7 a.m.-7 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information on the SunUte Community Center, visit their website at www.sunute.com or call at (970) 563-0214.  

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