WEST JORDAN, Utah (ABC 4 News) – In honor of six year-old Sierra Newbold, family and friends, even strangers released hundreds of balloons Thursday on what would have been her birthday.
Newbold was found murdered in a canal about 200 feet from her home in West Jordan.
“Sierra was pure and good and she loved everybody,” said Irene Kennedy of Utah Dance Artists where Sierra danced.
Each day since her death, Sierra’s mom has struggled. “We have our good days, we have our bad days,” said Kathy Newbold. “The good days are starting to outweigh the bad days, but we still have quite a few.”
Sierra’s dance teachers still have the difficult task of trying to get other dance students to understand what happened. “The students here at UDA should not have known of such an evil thing in this world right now, but that’s why we’re focused on the positive.”
Along with the balloon release, all during her birthday week volunteers have been selling ribbons and charm bracelets to raise money to design a tree in Sierra’s name at this year’s Festival of Trees. The tree will feature 13 pairs of autographed slippers from the New York City Ballet.
All proceeds will be donated to Primary Children’s Hospital.
