Interns brush up on their service skills

LINDON — What was meant to be a sales call turned into an unexpected service opportunity for a group of Brigham Young University and Utah Valley State College summer interns.

Patsy Bates, 63, of Lehi received an unexpected call this month from a group of students working for College Works Painting, a national company offering business internships to college students in 13 states.

Operating across Utah, College Works Painting trains students from BYU, UVSC, Utah State University and the University of Utah in small-business skills, from marketing and sales, to the hands-on work of painting houses.

"It's really about teaching students how to run a small business," says Ken Shin, a recent BYU graduate and the Utah Valley District Manager.

The students manage regions within each city, knocking on residential doors and finding jobs. But when the interns approached Bates' door, they weren't expecting a service opportunity to fall into their laps.

"The boys came by and offered to do an appraisal for the paint job. They were polite, nice, but when I got the quote I knew I wouldn't be able to afford it. I thanked them and apologized for taking up their time. I only had $300 or $400 in the bank," said Bates.

The single mother of three, a custodial employee of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 29 years, went on disability in July 2007, two years before her planned retirement, after a steady onslaught of physical ailments. "I'm now on disability after having both feet set and fused, a knee replacement, shoulder replacement, and needing another shoulder replacement still. This is all been while trying to work through with my rheumatoid arthritis," said Bates.

The College Works interns returned to their regional office and decided that Bates' house would offer not only a chance to give back to the community, but also a way to train first-year hires. The company, which uses Kwal and Sherwin-Williams paint, called their distributors and got Kwal to donate enough to cover all of Bates' home.

Shin then met with Bates to talk about the details in what the company refers to as a "design consultation." They discussed what would be the home's perfect shade of blue and whether the window boxes should get a spruce-up as well.

All the personal attention and generosity has really left its mark on Bates. "When I told my daughter, who lives next door, she was astonished that there are people out there that would do something like this. I couldn't believe it."

The students don't feel too shabby about it either. "I really enjoy working with people, and I love training college students — helping them get from A to B and reach success," said Shin.

On Monday they started the project, power-washing the home, prepping problem areas and masking the windows and trim. On Tuesday they were finished, completing their work for Bates.

"It looks brand new. I can't express in words what this means to a person like me," said Bates.

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E-mail: etakahashi@desnews.com

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