By Jill Harrison
A couple of BYU freshman started volunteering to serve dinners at the Alpine House as part of a class assignment. They didn”t know what to expect at the home for mentally ill individuals but they gained more than just fulfilling a school task.
Boxes covered a room that looked like a typical apartment with two small beds and closets. But this is not a typical student moving apartments at the close of the semester. This is a 48-year-old woman moving out of the Alpine House, a home for mentally ill individuals, to enter the normal world for the first time in years.
Another room was not quite as cheerful. New boxes, ready to be unpacked, sat on the floor, with stuffed animals on the nicely made bed. This resident is a BYU student whose roommates did not understand how to deal with her problems. She moved to the Alpine House seeking help for her problems.
The Alpine House offers refuge for mentally ill individuals, and student volunteers help the residents” transition back to an independent life.
The house assists residents in learning basic skills, preparing them to function on their own.
One resident came to the house as a dependant adult after his mother died.
“When he came here he didn”t even know how to make his bed,” said Tricia Bennett, an Alpine House parent. “He could do nothing. We had to train him like a child.”
He eventually learned how to do things for himself, she said. He now lives in his own apartment and comes back to volunteer at the house.
“We”re trying to get them to where they can go and live and interact in society,” Bennett said.
The house looks after 18 adults. They sleep, eat and live there.
“We become like family for them,” she said. “We do things together like a family. They do things for each other and look out for each other.”
Some of the residents are permanent and some are there only temporarily until they reach a level of stability and independence.
They range from the temporary resident and BYU student, to older residents who may be there permanently and have nowhere else to go.
The residents stay at the home until they are able to go out on there own like the 48-year-old woman.
“She will be living by herself, and she is nervous but excited,” Bennett said.
Lori Eastman, a freshman from Flagstaff, Ariz., visited the home with her roommates and friends to help cook and serve dinner to the residents. She said she thought it was neat that the woman was moving to her own condominium.
“To think how she”s 48 years old and this will be the first time she”ll be living on her own,” Eastman said.
She said she and her friends have had a fun time making and serving the dinners.
The girls started volunteering to fulfill an assignment for American Heritage, but Stephanie Grimm, a freshman from Scottsdale, Ariz., said they will probably go back.
“It”s so cool, the way they always thank us,” she said. “You can just tell they”re really grateful for people coming in there and helping out. They are just the nicest people you could ever meet.”
Bennett said the help recharges her. She is at the house all day long, everyday, except for nine days out of the year. She cooks and prepares the evening meals for all the house residents unless volunteers come to help.
She said she would love to have groups of two to eight come in and prepare meals.
“It”s always a simple meal, nothing traumatic,” she said. “We don”t do chicken cordon bleu.”
The house provides all the cooking supplies and then the volunteers get to eat with the residents and interact with them.
“It”s a good time to socialize with the residents,” Bennett said. “There”s always a great interchange as residents and volunteers get to know each other.”
Eastman said the house has been an eye-opener for her and her friends.
Even though the house is for individuals with mental illnesses, Eastman said she thinks everyone is normal.
“Some have handicaps, but it”s mostly just individuals in unfortunate situations in their lives,” she said. “The Alpine House is just there to help them on their way, a little half-way house to help them get back on their feet.”
Bennett said the volunteers who come to cook find they have a lot in common with the residents as they talk with them and get to know them.
She also added that since she and her husband started working there four years ago, the status of the residents has progressively grown worse.
“Monies have been cut back so drastically that we are receiving people that normally would have been going to intense mental centers,” she said.
Money has been cut from many centers but the Bennetts have put a lot of effort into making the house more of a home.
“When Ben and I came, it looked very institutional,” she said. “You can”t expect them to go on into the normal world from an institutional setting.”
To fix the problems they have remodeled the bathrooms, complete with new tile, a new tub and coordinating decorations.
The dining room and kitchen recently were remodeled to better meet their needs, said Bennett.
The dining room now has cupboards and a sink so that residents can fill their own glasses and have a place to keep personal snacks and food.
“We always have hot chocolate, peanut butter and jelly,” she said. “So they”re able to fix themselves a snack, like ordinary living.”
The current remodeling project is the basement. They have converted a storage room into a computer-study-craft room. It is currently not sheetrocked.
“If anyone knows how, we need a drywaller,” Bennett said with a laugh.
