SALT LAKE CITY - More than 100 volunteers, refugee families and children gathered at the Utah Dream Center on Thursday as part of the Heart2Home day of service.
Salt Lake City is one only a handful of major cities across the nation that regularly takes in refugees.
The Utah Dream Center, located at 1624 South and 1000 West in Salt Lake City, is a nonprofit organization that helps refugees who live in the Glendale and Poplar Grove neighborhoods.
"We serve all the kids within the community. There are about 117 lanugages that come out of the neighborhood. We have some unique challenges so we started an after-school program. We also do food, clothing and medical, so we're just trying to help out any way we can," said Alfred Murillo, Director of the Dream Center. "It is a great feeling. For the last 10 years, we've been running out of this facility."
Thursday's day of service is just the beginning of the partnership between Heart2Home and the Salt Lake Dream Center. A major renovation is expected to start in September.
"What we're doing is helping out with these after school programs, whether it's karate, English as a second language classes. We run so many different programs out of this building. Our goal is to come in and improve this building and make it more functional," said Greg Andamson, President of Heart2Home.
Heart2Home did the project in conjunction with Foster the People, an award-winning band who performed on Thursday night in Salt Lake City. The band does charitable service in each city they perform with their Foster the Future community service program.
"we have our 'Do Good Project' this summer which is going to all the cities the band has concerts and we're doing a volunteer activity before the show with fans and supporters," said Rebecca Pontius, founder of Foster the Future.
Heart 2 Home has been giving home makeovers to families in Utah since 2004.
For more information on the Utah Dream Center, visit www.utahdreamcenter.org. For more information on Heart 2 Home, visit heart2homefoundation.org.
