By: Cristi Wetterberg
Resource Development Executive
This summer my 15 year old son wanted to participate in United Way of Salt Lake’s Summer of Service. Summer of Service (SOS) helps students ages 5-18 living in Davis, Salt Lake, Summit, and Tooele counties connect to their communities through volunteerism during summer vacation.
My son was given an opportunity to work with the Utah Gardens in their Youth Garden Program. The program is youth run and they manage the gardens, which includes planning out the gardens, planting, maintaining the crops, harvesting and donating the food to refugees living in the area. Although this is a youth run program, all volunteers are invited to volunteer their time to help with these gardens. The Summer of Service program is a terrific way for students and their families, to start getting involved and getting them connected to helping individuals and families living in our communities. We both will be spending a lot of time trying to get a new garden on 3300 South and 1100 West in South Salt Lake ready for planting and then making sure it is producing vegetables.
I am excited that my son has decided to be a part of this program and to start giving his time to make the lives of local families and individuals better and learn that the best part of volunteering is the feeling you get, knowing that your volunteer efforts benefit so many and makes a huge impact on people’s lives!
