It was cherry-picking time Saturday, but the fruits of this endeavor involved 100 gallons of paint instead of Bings or Lamberts.
The New Hope Multi-Cultural Center, an 80-year-old former LDS meetinghouse located at 1102 W. 400 North, needed "cherry-picker" bucket trucks from US WEST and Young Electric Co. to enable a crew to reach the peeling chimney to give it a fresh coat of paint. The muddy white building was updated with beige paint with a brown trim.Volunteers from the Salt Lake Corporate Volunteer Council painted the building and trimmed trees and shrubs. "It would have cost up to $5,000 to contract out the job," explained Suzanne Dean, advisory chairwoman for the center. The New Hope Multi-Cultural Center is a community center for Indochinese and Eastern European refugees.
Services available include English classes, citizenship training and a health center. Clothing and bedding have been collected for use by the refugees, and an after-school tutoring program is in progress for refugee children in fifth through eighth grades. "We have set a goal to work with up to 200 Asian and Eastern European refugee youngsters to tutor and culturally integrate them into the community," said Dean. "We hope to be able to also provide a South Valley church or school site to meet the needs of the youth that are in ESL (English as a Second Language) programs in the valley's main schools. We will have one-on-one tutoring with University of Utah students and interns from the Lowell Bennion Center," Dean said.
Volunteers from US WEST, Hercules, Intermountain Health Care, Unisys, Utah Power & Light, Young Electric Sign and Albertson's donated about 300 hours. The aging building was cleaned and painted while the lawns and shrubbery received attention as well.
The Corporate Volunteer Council is the hub around which 25 Salt Lake businesses and corporations coordinate philanthropic work. In past years, the group has organized clothing and food drives. One project the group has traditionally sponsored is the Camp Kostopulos Carnival that raises funds for the canyon camp for handicapped children.
-For information regarding the Corporate Volunteer Council, contact Rita Inoway at the Voluntary Action Center, 486-2136. Suzanne Dean of the New Hope Multi-Cultural Center can be reached at 363-4955.