KEARNS, Utah — Jason Cowdell was enjoying New Year's Eve with his family in Kearns when suddenly he heard what he describes as fireworks and then a loud bang.
"Me, her, and the kids all ran out there and sure enough there was a car halfway in the building," Cowdell said.
The car was sticking out of the Kearns Community Action Center just across the street from Cowdell's house.
"We had a suspected drunk driver made their way up a hill and ran into one of our facilities that houses a number of Head Start classes," said CEO of Utah Community Action Jennifer Godfrey. "A little over 120 children receive services at this site."
Godfrey says many of the families that rely on the Kearns Community Action Center are living in poverty. The Utah Community Action Center provides services from head start classes to heat and housing assistance.
"These families are absolutely dependent on our organization to provide safe secure spaces for their children to learn and engage... and so being without these services is a hardship on our families," Godfrey said.
Godfrey says they were forced to close the Kearn Campus because of safety concerns. The car crash caused structural damage to the exterior of the building, potential roof damage, damage to the fence line of the building, and made a mess of what was formally a children's classroom.
"There's a number of things we are looking at before we resume classes at Kearns... we also have safety and security measures we would like to look at investing in the property," Godfrey said.
Godfrey says she is thankful everyone was able to walk away from the incident, but the families who rely on their services will bear a burden.
"As a result, we have families and children that cannot receive services," Godfrey said.
Cowdell is hopeful that people will think about how their decisions could impact others before getting behind the wheel.
"Drive slow on streets. You're supposed to drive slow on and definitely don't drive drunk," Cowdell said.
The Utah Community Action Center says they hope to reopen classrooms as early as Monday, but the damaged classroom will have to relocate to another campus.
If you want to support the Utah Community Action Center or the families, you can go to their website.
