SPRINGVILLE – The Grant Building is an old elementary school that shut its doors back in 2006. Last weekend, members of the Springville community came together to give this abandoned building a second chance.
Mountainland Head Start is a preschool center with 11 locations across Utah County. Their dream is to turn the Grant Building into the new Springville location.
“We are currently serving people in Springville, but they are having to drive to Spanish Fork,” Project Manager Lance Merrell said. “We’ve been wanting to get back in the Springville community just to help the people here.”
The mission at Mountainland is to provide preschool services to the children of low income families as well as children with disabilities.
“Half of our families come from Hispanic backgrounds,” Community Outreach Coordinator Cindy Jenkins said. “We have got a lot of Spanish speakers, Portugese speakers and then we also have Chinese.”
Jenkins said that the new center will teach 60 under-privileged kids. Google Fiber is planning to donate a computer lab to Mountainland.
“Our game plan right now is we are trying to get the initial clean-up done. We just barely purchased this building about a month ago,” Merrell said. “It will be a task but we are hoping we can get it done.”
Members of the community came together to wipe, polish and dust down all the grime that has accumulated over the years. The volunteers hope that their hard work will help those in need.
Member of the Springville Kiwanis club Brent Haymond said, “It will be helping children learn how to read and be a part of our community.”
