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GUNNISON — Many inmates at the Central Utah Correctional Facility recently spent hours painting and detailing tiny toy cars for children in the Philippines.
This isn’t the first time the inmates have spent their time serving underprivileged children.
For the last four years, about 70 inmates per week participate in the shop class, which also qualifies for some of their community service hours, according to Brooke Adams, a spokeswoman for the Central Utah Correctional Facility.
“It gives them something to focus on outside of themselves, to do something good for somebody else,” Adams told KSL.com. “Some of them are learning new skills, how to work together and how to sand and paint and do detail work, so all of those things are good in our view.”
The inmates make their cars using materials donated by Tiny Tim’s Foundation for Kids, a nonprofit organization that “builds and delivers 36,000 toys every year to needy children around the globe,” according to its website.
Typically, the inmates don’t get to see the kids’ reactions to their cars since Tiny Tim’s delivers them. But most recently, Terron Barney, a programming captain at the Central Utah Correctional Facility, personally delivered them to the Philippines and sent photos of the kids back.
Barney delivered them to kids in a town called Solano, where his daughter recently served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"It was great to see the smiles on the kids' faces firsthand," Barney said in a statement.
The inmates spend up to three hours a week painting and building the cars. The shop is set up in an assembly line, allowing them to paint an average of 450 cars a month, Adams said.
“For the inmates, participating in the class is a way to give back — particularly for inmates who are of limited means,” Adams said. “They learn to work together and get time out of their cells, engaged in a productive activity.”
