By JENNY RICKS
Marilyn and Elton Pierce have received more than 25,000 accidental telephone calls at their home, and could not be more thrilled about it.
The Pierces are a LDS couple who have guided thousands of BYU students, yet most students helped would probably not recognize either of their faces. However, they might recognize Marilyn or Elton by their voice, and many can vividly recall the kind service that seems to dominate every facet in the lives of this couple.
Currently, the phone numbers 378-INFO and 422-INFO connect students to BYU-Info operators. However, many students seeking BYU-Info mistakenly call 298-INFO, which happens to spell out BYU-INFO and also happens to be the phone number of Elton and Marilyn Pierce.
While some people might be irritated and consider switching phone numbers, the Pierces do not mind the extra calls and actually enjoy talking to people who call.
Marilyn and Elton, both retired and in their ’70s, moved to their North Salt Lake home 14 years ago in order to take care of Marilyn’s elderly mother. With the new home came the new phone number.
Marilyn said she once met someone who made up a letter code for a telephone number in order to give it to people more easily.
“So I said, ‘Hey! We need to make something up!,’ and my daughter figured out that it spells BYU-INFO.” she said. “So we knew the first day we had this number, but we didn’t dream the calls we would get.”
Marilyn said about 75 percent of the calls come from BYU students. She also said other callers include missionaries from all over the world about to return home and needing to make arrangements for coming back to school.
When asked if he ever considered changing their phone number, Elton, who currently works as a tour guide for the conference center in Salt Lake, said, “Heavens no! The calls break up the day, and how many people get to say their phone number spells BYU-INFO? I don’t even have to remember the numbers!”
He explained that in the beginning, when the family first got the phone number, there were many more calls each day, but now calls have decreased to about five per day.
A Caller ID is nowhere to be found in the Pierce residence, and would prove unnecessary because when at home the Pierces answer all incoming calls. For those seeking BYU-Info, both Marilyn and Elton happily steer callers in the right direction by providing them with a number they have repeated thousands of times – 378-INFO and 422-INFO.
“We’re finally getting everybody educated!” he said with a laugh.
“We don’t screen calls because we think it’s rude,” Marilyn said. “I have a grandson who does it and it annoys me.”
However, telemarketers should not expect the same hospitality when calling the Pierces.
“I’m annoyed by telemarketers and I turn them off immediately, but not our BYU calls,” Marilyn said. “Those are untouchable.”
About 10 years ago, the Pierces got the idea to keep track of the frequent international calls they receive by posting a world map in the hallway of their home. Family members, including the Pierce’s four children and 20 grandchildren, use push-pins to show where calls come from. Not long after buying the world map, they added a miniature map of the United States to the wall, which soon proved too small for all of the calls.
“That didn’t do it, so then we got another big map of the United States and started keeping track there, and boy is that thing full!” Marilyn said, throwing her hands up in the air.
Spain, Korea, Taiwan, England, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Italy and Germany are just a few of the countries the Pierces have received calls from. So far, they have at least one pin in every U.S. state except for Louisiana and Maine.
As much as they would like to, the Pierces are not always able to help their callers.
“If they don’t speak English they are out of luck here! We do get some heavy accents and we just do the best we can,” Marilyn said.
Alexis Boynton, about to celebrate her 16th birthday, is the youngest of the Pierce’s grandchildren. Alexis, a Bountiful resident, said she and the other grandchildren have many fond memories associated with the maps.
“Whenever [Marilyn] would get a call, like whenever she would ask where they were from, I was ready with a pin to run down to the map to find it,” Alexis said.
Many times, people who call end up chatting with the Pierces and share stories of their own. Marilyn recounted an experience with a woman who called and was so impressed with the way she was treated, she used the Pierces as the topic for a mutual lesson.
“She was from out of state and I told her, ‘Oh we don’t have a call from this place before’ and she said, ‘Oh that is fantastic! You’ve been handed a lemon and made lemonade!,'” Marilyn said.
Kristyn Thacker, a junior at UVSC from Mission Viejo Calif., called the Pierce residence by accident last Winter Semester while looking for phone numbers for a ward activity.
“I had the best conversation with [Marilyn] and she told me about how she gets so many calls and how much fun she has talking to people from all around the world,” Thacker said. “Out of all of the people who could have that phone number, she is the perfect person.”
It is likely many others would agree with this statement. On the surface, Marilyn and Elton appear to be a typical retired parents and grandparents who are proud of their family. A framed linoleum cut of zebras, created by granddaughter Alexis, sits proudly on a table in the Pierce home, and multiple family pictures adorn the walls. However, a deeper look and careful eye quickly proves these folks are busier than ever. Sitting on a table in the basement is a spool of yarn connected to half-knitted mittens that Marilyn plans to donate to Valley View Elementary where her daughter Amy teaches.
Marilyn volunteers to read from her collection of children’s books to first and second grade classes there, where the students know her as “Grandma Pierce”.
Marilyn also helps a young mother with cancer by doing her laundry and changing her baby’s diapers. She also collects food with her daughter Amy for the foundation they started about five years ago called Save Our Surplus. S.O.S. is a foundation where food from local businesses that would otherwise be thrown away is collected and given to needy families. Large cans of rice are currently stored in the Pierce’s garage.
“I’ve got like 20 of them and we’ve been giving them out to college students,” Marilyn said with a smile.
Elton remains busy by giving tours at the Conference Center every week. Before retirement, he worked for Union Pacific Railroad and has also worked for 15 years as a guide at Welfare Square, 3 1/2 years as a temple ordinance worker in the Bountiful temple, and 20 years as either a clerk, executive secretary or member of the bishopric.
With hundreds of push-pins already carefully placed on the maps over the years, the Pierces look forward to the certain future additions.
Marilyn and Elton said they will continue keeping track of the BYU-Info calls and chatting with whomever chooses to do so.
“It’s their nickel!” Marilyn said.
