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OGDEN — Residents at an Ogden homeless shelter now have some relief from the unbearable heat, thanks to the generosity of the community.
On Saturday, KSL reported that only one of six air conditioning units at St. Anne’s Center at 137 W. Binford St. was working.
Since then, “the response from the community has been overwhelming,” said Jared Legge, with St. Anne’s Center security.
The shelter received 50 new and used oscillating fans. Donations poured in online, too.
“Pretty overwhelming, actually,” said Executive Director Jennifer Canter.
Canter said donations have totaled about $2,000 in the past couple of days.
One woman gave what she could. “I don’t have enough but I know what it feels like to be so hot and not have the means to survive the extreme weather conditions,” she wrote with her $2 online donation.
We just wanted to help. We heard there was a need and we know how important air conditioning is.
–Utah County air conditioning company
The AC units were also working again Monday.
A crew with a Utah County air conditioning company spent Monday morning at St. Anne’s fixing the AC for free.
“We all have our problems. Nobody’s better than anybody else,” one of the repairmen said.
Since temperatures have hit triple digits, the company has been busy but made time to stop at the shelter.
“I’m sure it would cost at least $1,000 for somebody to come out and look at it and fix everything. I have no doubt of that,” Legge said.
Workers asked not to print the company’s name. They said it wasn’t about the publicity. They said they were in a position to help, so they did.
“We just wanted to help. We heard there was a need and we know how important air conditioning is,” they said.
St. Anne’s will become Lantern House when it moves to its new facility in July. The shelter says it will hire a maintenance person, which St. Anne’s currently doesn’t have.