PROVO — Don't be surprised if Utah Valley business start looking more pink. No, the splashes of color aren't long-awaited spring flowers but plastic pink flamingos dressed in wacky costumes.
Wasatch Mental Health has organized a "Pink Flamingo Project" a small part of the group's fund-raising efforts to raise $1.7 million for a new facility for one of its programs.
For each flamingo placed at a business, the group charges a $50 "decorating fee." And if the business wants it removed, Wasatch sends a $50 "removal fee."
Of course, the "fees" are requests for donations.
So far the project has brought the group $800 closer to its goal of building a new space for the Clubhouse program, which aims to restore social and vocational skills to those disabled by mental illness.
"We're just going to be as creative as we can and get (donations) different ways," said Maddy Talbert, director of Wasatch House, a division of Wasatch Mental Health, which is tasked with making mental-health programs available to all people in Utah County.
The Clubhouse program, started in 1991, has outgrown its 5,000-square-foot space.
Brigham Young University is "donating" the work of students.
The BYU Design-Build Institute of America, a group of about 30 students, designed a new facility twice the size of the current building. In the marketplace, the time spent on the project would have cost about $250,000.
The student plan calls for a 11,000-square-foot building to serve 120 clients — more than twice the current capacity.
If built to plans, the building will have classrooms, a thrift store, a conference room, an exercise room and career-counseling offices. There also are plans for an underground parking lot and 1,849 square feet of underground storage.
When Wasatch House officials started looking to expand, they went looking for land. Affordable property in a good location was hard to find, so they opted to build on the same plot on which the current facility sits, 605 E. 600 South in Provo.
"We were hoping for 2007," Talbert said, "but we just have to raise the money so it might takes us longer than that."
E-mail: jelder@desnews.com