It was midday, and a mass of humanity swarmed outside the entrance to the old bowling alley in Midvale.

What was going on? A new soup kitchen opening up? A bunch of out-of-work people wondering if the bowling alley was still open?

Nope. Just another Utah business striking it rich.

It isn't all bad economic news these days. Just look at what's going on with the School Improvement Network. It's doing over 100 percent more business than two years ago. Since January, it's brought on 26 new hires.

The Utah-based education resource company is growing so fast that its longtime rented office in Sandy started looking like the old woman's shoe. When they discovered that the Junction Lanes building in Midvale was available, they moved fast. They transformed the lanes into desktops and the alleys into cubicles and moved in.

Last Wednesday, they held a grand opening and, to cut the ribbon, invited Midvale Mayor JoAnn Seghini, who was only too happy to accept.

"They bought a vacant building and brought 66 jobs to Midvale," gushed the grateful, astounded mayor as she snipped the scissors and looked for someone to hug.

First in line were John and Blanch Linton, the husband-wife team that, along with their son Chet and his wife Joan, founded the School Improvement Network in 1991 and nurtured it for a decade and a half until it became the national overnight sensation it is today.

The company's objective, then and now, is simple: to help teachers help their students achieve at high levels.

The inspiration for the Lintons' life work dates back to a time in the early 1980s when John, a 30-something out-of-work filmmaker, finally put the education degree he'd earned at BYU to work and hired on as a teacher at Sandy's Alta High School.

They showed him his classroom and handed him his books and that was pretty much that.

Feeling inadequate and hoping to learn the ropes, John used his planning period each day to wander the halls at Alta and eavesdrop on other teachers.

It dawned on him, there ought to be a better way.

Before long, he was out of teaching and back making movies — this time of exceptional teachers in action.

Blanch quit her job as an elementary-school teacher and joined him.

You may have heard the gasp from educators all over the Salt Lake Valley when the Lintons cashed in their teaching retirement to pay for their startup film gear.

But they made a formidable team, she with her organized left brain and he with his creative right brain.