Sydney Reed said she was shocked when she received the Park City Community’s Foundation’s community service award during itsannual grants celebration Sept. 12.
Part of the reason? She was actually on the committee that established the award in 2015. She never imagined she would someday be the recipient of this honor created in recognition of the foundation’s founding Executive Director Trisha J. Worthington.
Reed’s roots run deep in Park City. In 1974, she was teaching school in New York City when her boyfriend Harry proposed. But there was a caveat: move from The Big Apple to what was then a small mining town in Utah.
“What was paved was Park Avenue, Main Street, and Kearns Boulevard was pretty much paved," she said. "And then it was also paved to Park City Mountain Resort but the rest were pretty much dirt roads.”
She quickly became involved and as the town grew, so did her love of this community. “As the years went on, I realized I was involved in 10 times more things. In New York City, you pick and choose things. In Park City, if you want to do something, you have to make it happen. And somebody wanted to do an art center and so that happened. And we wanted to have a theater and a radio station so everybody pitched in and made it happen so it was really fun.”
When Reed’s three kids were young, she started a cooperative preschool and helped many nonprofits. She has served on various boards and committees over the years including the Kimball Art Center, Egyptian Theatre, the Park City Community Foundation and Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History.
Reed has also played an important role in many of Park City’s historical preservation efforts. “I worked part-time for the Park City Museum and created a curriculum and trained docents to take people around and learn about the history and get the curriculum in the schools. In second grade, they have to learn about the community and in fourth grade, they need to learn about their state so they have to know the history of Park City.”
She even has ties to KPCW’s earliest days. From 1980 to 1982, Reed had her own cooking show…though longtime Parkites may know her by a different name.
“And instead of being who I was, because it's too embarrassing to be myself on the radio, I had this handle, ‘Two Ton Tillie’s Gourmet Tips,’" she said. "And I would talk about what I was cooking that night. I was on at noon and 6 p.m. I did that for about two and a half years and then I made a cookbook about it.”
Reed’s latest passion project is the Park City Senior Center. When she heard about the center’s proposed relocation, she and some friends joined the board and the rest is history. “So we got involved, and we want to make it pretty clear that the senior population is rising. Now it’s 20% of the population in Summit County. And I would not say 20% of the funds take care of the elderly in this county, so we want to change that. And the city has really stepped up and has offered to build a new senior center along with the housing project they want to put on that property.”
Karen Scheible nominated Reed for the community service award. She said she appreciates Reed’s positivity, humility and hard work.
“If there was a need, she would jump in, and that's what impressed me about her, is her willingness to work for the betterment of this community," said Scheible. "And I just feel like she represents the best of the past and the present and the future with her ongoing commitment now to work with the senior center.”
And after almost 50 years of serving this community, Reed’s best just keeps getting better.
