Snow College students engineer service project to help neighbors


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EPHRAIM — Just a handful of residents live in the mobile home park at 200 N. 200 West, but health and safety concerns developing in recent years have prompted city discussions about closing it.

The people who live in the neighborhood didn't know where they would go if it were to be shut down.

"Many of them are working here and don't have very high-income jobs. And so if the park was shut down, there wasn't another place here and they would have to look outside of Ephraim for residency,” said Seth Robertson, a student in Malynda Bjerregaard's communications class at Snow College.

Each semester, Bjerregaard assignments a class service project. This semester was no different.

"They came up with a couple of options, and the one that really resonated with them the most was this trailer park project — because it had been in the local newspaper and they knew it was a disadvantaged population that could really use a show of support," Bjerregaard said.

Students held a few fundraisers on campus, started an online crowdsourcing campaign, and found local residents who would donate supplies. On Saturday, they got to work.

"The gravel all around; we helped to spread it all out and cleaned up some trash," said Seth Cranford, another student in the class.

Cranford recruited several of his teammates from the football team to increase manpower. Some residents of the park joined the effort, and together they made lot of progress in just one day.

"The residents were very grateful, and they thanked me for coming and doing what we did," said Elysa Garcia, also a student in Bjerregaard's class.

There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, and students hope to continue the effort when they return to school in the fall.

"Serving others in a community is what can bring one fulfillment, and really to see people as people and to be part of something that is bigger than oneself," said student Andrew Sanchez.

A GoFundMe page* was set up to help raise funds for the improvements.

Contributing: Xoel Cardenas


*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.

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