DRAPER, Utah — Doctors and nurses from MountainStar Healthcare’s Lone Peak Hospital spent time volunteering this weekend for a good cause. It definitely wasn’t their typical workday.
“Lone Peak’s here. We’re here to help,” explained Scott Weidauer, the Respiratory Therapy Manager at the Draper hospital.
Here to help – whether in the event of a health emergency, or otherwise.
Weidauer says whether it’s with ventilators or in this case, with wheelbarrows, he enjoys serving others. That’s part of what he loves about his profession.
“We just want to give back to our community and doing this, you know, would be… it’s, it’s an honor to do,” Weidauer said.
This past Friday, the MountainStar Healthcare team worked alongside The Fuller Center for Housing of Salt Lake – a non-profit organization that makes repairs on properties for low-income homeowners. Further, the Fuller Center for Housing works to “eradicate poverty housing by promoting partnerships with individuals and community groups to build and rehabilitate homes for people in need.”
Tara Ross, the President of the Salt Lake organization said, “It's critical that we all work together and know each other so that we can all accomplish the same goal, which is to help people.”
In this case, the people the organization helped are those people who have left a polygamist culture through Holding Out HELP, with HELP standing for “Helping, Encouraging and Loving Polygamists.”
“Our mission is to provide those from a polygamous culture the care, support and resources to become independent and self-sufficient,” Tonia Tewell, Holding Out HELP’s Executive Director, said.
Lone Peak Hospital and The Fuller Center for Housing helped to repair a ten-bedroom home that will soon house as many as 12 women who’ve left polygamy… and they’ll help them for as long as they need.
Tewell says the additional housing is desperately needed.
“In 2021, we grew by 25%. In 2022, we've grown an additional 16%. So, we have lots of people flooding out,” she added.
According to Holding Out HELP, in 2021, 95% of its clients suffered from physical abuse, 61% from sexual exploitation and 47% were labor trafficked.
Tewell adds that almost every single client will receive intense counseling, oftentimes for years.
“By living here, then we can start focusing on what their future looks like. So, they can decide what they want to become, do they want to go get educated? Do they want to get job skills?”
Survivors are expected to move into the home at the beginning of December.
