November 2019 | Vol. 19 Iss. 11
FREE MIDVALE CARES CONNECTS RESIDENTS WITH NEIGHBORS IN NEED OF HELP
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By Sarah Morton Taggart | s.taggart@mycityjournals.com
O
n one sunny September morning, three people arrived at a Midvale house at the same time. One had tools and gloves, one brought cold beverages, and one had teenage sons in tow. What these three people had in common was a desire to help a neighbor in need. Spencer Mears created the Midvale Cares Facebook group page in April 2018. Since then, more than a dozen volunteers have helped at least five homeowners and participated in service projects at Copperview Elementary and The Family Support Center. Carrie Wagner noticed the group on Facebook and decided to join. “I just think people need help sometimes, and sometimes I have something to give,” Wagner said. “I have three boys, and I want them to learn to think of people other than themselves.” The teens went right to work that morning hauling tree trimmings to a dumpster and pulling weeds that sprouted near the sidewalk. Mears had written a post a few days earlier explaining that the Midvale compliance detective had been in touch with him. A resident needed help removing weeds and hauling items to a rented dumpster, but was not able to do the work on his own. “I just love doing yard work,” said Nancy McCoy Beggs, another volunteer. She lent gloves to Brent Stanger, who began using clippers to remove overgrown weeds. “As residents of Midvale City, we love our city and want to make it the best place we can,” said Mears in a Facebook post. “One way of doing that is to volunteer in our community
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Nancy McCoy Beggs (left) and Carrie Wagner clean dog waste from a Midvale yard in September. (Sarah Morton Taggart/City Journals)
to help make life better for those around us. There are opportunities for service all around us.” The group started as a general way for people to connect and share opportunities to help with existing service projects and organizations. But the effort gained focus when Mears met Detective Gerry Wayne, the new code enforcement inves-
tigator for Midvale City. “We had received a couple of requests, but once Detective Wayne become the code enforcement officer he started to really get to know the people in Midvale and we've had more opportunities to serve those in our community,” Mears said. Continued page 8
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