| Salt Lake City |
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| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
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| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
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| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
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| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
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| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
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| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
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| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
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| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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No beer at Ethnic Village
Organizers vote against selling alcohol in the area
By Laura Hancock
Deseret News staff writer
It looks like it will be root beer — not beer — for Ethnic Villagers and their visitors during the Olympics.
On Monday, days before the Ethnic Village opens, the executive board of the village's organizers, NAPAH — Native Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, African Americans and Hispanics — decided against selling beer in a tent at the village.
NAPAH had received a license to sell beer from the Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Beer taps were to flow freely. Organizers expected to make $400,000 in revenue from beer sales.
"The reasons we decided not was primarily spearheaded by the Native Americans. They've lost a lot of people in their history to alcohol. It's not something this particular group of Native Americans wanted around them. Most of the people on the board were kind of on the offense, but they chose to support our Native American brothers," said Mark George of Globogear, a clothing and accessory company that was recruited to help with marketing the Ethnic Village.
"We all agreed," says Martha Chavez, the Hispanic representative on the NAPAH board. "We have a lot of young people and young groups coming in, and when the sponsors found out there were going to be children there, they were with us."
Members of the local American Indian community also voiced concerns about stereotypes of American Indians and alcoholism. "The last thing I want people to see is a Native American guy walking around with a beer in his hand," board member Mario Platero said last week at a meeting at the Indian Walk-In Center.
However, Platero wants to downplay American Indian sensitivities. The Ethnic Village will be a cultural celebration. It takes up 36,000 square feet at The Gateway and showcases the ethnicities' food, arts, crafts, music and dance.
"We want to have a family atmosphere," he said. "If someone wants a drink, they can go to a club."
Platero said the event was originally intended to be alcohol-free, and the beer tent was planned without approval from the board.
The tent was originally planned to be inside the Ethnic Village. Then it was moved outside so it would be more removed from the village. "And now, instead of just moving forward and having animosity, they were brave enough to sacrifice the money," George said.
The $400,000 NAPAH projected to make from the sales was substantial, George said. The project has received little money from the state or the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, making it almost solely reliant on sponsors and donors.
"We were trying to generate revenue," board member Dottie Henderson said. "We'll just have to pursue sponsorships."
Fanny Romero Clark, a former board member, said there have been discussions of whether the beer tent should have its stakes pulled since the idea began, but the consensus was the beer tent should stay. "Most of the members of NAPAH were LDS, but we said, 'Why do we have to think about ourselves? We need to think of others who want to have beer.' "
Contributing: Jerry Johnston
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com
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February 9, 2002
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