SALT LAKE CITY — Homewood Creations in Salt Lake City is building free desks for kids who need them in the wake of school closures for the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think we were just really tired and feeling helpless like we couldn’t do anything,” Brandon Jensen said. “We took our skills as woodworkers and thought this was the best way to give back.”
The desks themselves are simple: just four interlocking pieces that fit together, but they are pretty strong and durable.
Donations from Homewood Suppliers and other companies have gone a long way to build them.
As for the manufacturing process, all of the employees there are donating their time on weekends to be able to get them done. In just two days, they have already built 600 of them.
“They were working all morning since 7 o’clock this morning and they’ve gotten through a lot of them,” Loni Goetz told us.
Each desk costs about $14 in materials, and the company is asking people to donate whatever they can so they can continue to manufacture them as long as the need is there.
Right now there are pick up locations worked out for Layton, Salt Lake City, Bountiful, and Tooele, and they are working on getting locations in West Jordan and Saratoga Springs.
To find out more about how you can donate or how to pick one up in your area, their website is linked HERE.
Goetz says that a lot of people are reaching out to them on social media sharing their story.
“One lady said that her two older teenage kids are at the kitchen table and saw the little ones in elementary school are just on the floor and they’re trying to do their homework on the carpet, so to be able to provide this to the elementary school kids I think it’s going to be great," he said.
Above all, this crew just hopes that kids that need places to work through this tough time will be able to use their desks to be able to keep the quality of their education high.
