A PCHS student-led organization aims to be a voice for the voiceless

(L-R) Ella Carlson, Sammy Vogel, Mia Sawyer, Grace Canada, and Alec Lebwohl at the Park City Library discussing lessons learned at Park City High School including but not limited to debate/current events/history/health/theater/nonprofits/media. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah — Five Park City High School juniors and seniors are putting the skills they’ve honed on the debate team to work on a real-world problem for people they’ve never met.

Through the Carnegie Young Leaders Civic Preparedness Program, Alec Lebwohl, Ella Carlson, Mia Sawyer, Sammy Vogel and Grace Canada are partnering with Utah Radiation Survivors Advocacy, or URSA, to raise awareness about U.S. nuclear weapons testing and uranium mining in the 1950s and ’60s — activity that caused documented health problems in communities downwind, especially in southern Utah.

The students are producing a student-led play about downwinders, the people affected by the fallout, and directing ticket revenue toward cleaner drinking water on the Navajo Nation, where wells have long tested high for uranium.

“It’s inspiring to see these students taking the skills debate team focuses on — research, public speaking and community engagement — and using them for this project,” PCHS adviser Noam Levinsky told TownLift. “What makes debate such an important activity is that it encourages them to think critically about problems in their community and arrive at creative solutions. I was totally unsurprised when I saw them writing grant applications, partnering with local nonprofits and putting together a detailed budget for the play’s production.”

Actors will likely come from Park City High School’s theater classes. The group is aiming for a run of winter performances across several Park City venues.

“We’ve been really lucky with how supportive everyone’s been,” Vogel told TownLift.

“Even if obviously I wasn’t there in history when this occurred, we all have someone in our lives who has had cancer, and we all live in Utah, like it feels very relatable,” Lebwohl said.

The play that inspired them is “Exposed,” by acclaimed playwright Mary Dickson. Part of what the students hope to convey to other Utah students is that the government has covered up documents before and that people can help prevent similar harms in the future.

“We are seeing that same sort of trend that the people that the government is willing to risk are minority groups and people that they may deem less important,” Lebwohl said. “Especially in this state where a lot of development continues to happen. With continuing discussions of nuclear testing, nuclear mining, data centers, and this crisis with the Great Salt Lake, it’s really important for our students to be aware of that history and to try and avoid it.”

Carlson said several nonprofits are already on board, with more being contacted: HEAL Utah, the Navajo Water Project, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and the Natural History Museum of Utah.

Ticket revenue will fund the purchase and installation of a clean water pump on the Navajo Nation, ideally by June. Tickets are expected to run about $10, and the students may add a silent auction.

Canada said the group is also interested in starting a lobbying club, having seen how testimony at the state Capitol can move issues forward. Sawyer pointed to the deadline driving the work: the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, is set to expire Dec. 31, 2027.

The five are serious when they talk about all of this — the statistics come to them quickly. But when asked what connects the facts to the theater, they paused for the first time in the interview and laughed.

“I suppose that’s an Alec Lebwohl Special,” Lebwohl said. He balances a range of activities in and out of school across the Park City community.

The multimedia work is beginning, too. The students are building an Instagram page with the potentiality to accept donations and drafting their own press releases.

As the seniors weigh college choices and majors, East Coast campus tours are on their calendars, and subjects like theater, political science, and philosophy are on their minds.