LAYTON—As the country prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, students of all ages in the Davis School District took part in “Voices of a Nation” Monday, May 4, where they shared their perspective on how the country was shaped to be what it is today. The event was held at the new Davis District Instructional Services Center in Layton.

“This used to be a call center for years,” said Superintendent Dr. Dan Linford. “We have a real estate agent that said, ‘hey there’s this great property. I know you guys have been looking for training spaces.’”

Linford said the district has been getting pretty crowded as new requirements for training for teachers are growing every year. “We had teachers sort of stacked on top of each other at our PDC where we would do most of our training. We saw this at a great price, probably about a quarter of what we spent on new buildings. We talked about it in the board meeting a few years ago when we bought it.”

It also came with about a million plus dollars in real high end furniture, he said. “They just gifted it to us. We’ve mostly just converted the building and kept the open spaces for training spaces.”

They also created a sort of theater space where the students performed. “This is our inaugural event,” said Linford. “We thought ‘let’s celebrate America and let’s hear from the students.’ We were doing lots of things to celebrate across the district and all kinds of things in our schools.”

The goal was to create a space for people to share ideas, he said. “Then start a conversation with the voices of our students talking about America.”

Students sent in their speech ideas, Linford said. “Then a committee selected the speech. This is a really great place to give a speech.”

“It’s kind of a cool opportunity to align with the year when we’re celebrating the (250th) anniversary,” said Assistant Superintendent Dr. Logan Toone. “The students have done a great job tying their themes into it. Each student has a mentor like a teacher or administrator working with them on their speech.”

Buffalo Point Elementary fifth grader Bret Forbush started off the afternoon student speeches. “I would not be able to have the same freedom in 1776 as I do now,” he said. “Freedom in 1776 was freedom from King George III. Even though the Declaration of Independence states, ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.’ Not all people were equal or free. I’m glad I get to stand here and do this speech. I think my life is better now than it would have been 250 years ago.”

“I love my country and I’m so proud to be an American under this one nation, under our one true and living God,” said Woods Cross 10th grader Zoe Michaelis. “I would like to thank all those who the past two and a half centuries paid a price so that we could have our freedoms, independence and rights today as American citizens. Many of these people paid the ultimate price.”

Be a part of the greatest nation on earth’s 250th year, she said. “Be a part of America’s history. We have much to go. We are still an imperfect union but together as our Founding Fathers intended and designed we can become a more perfect union by incorporating the very values that the United States of America was built on – selflessness, strength and sacrifice.”