Neighbor Works Salt Lake paints 15 homes, including one of a former SLCPD officer

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — 160 volunteers painted 15 Salt Lake City homes in just one morning. Neighbor Works Salt Lake continued their tradition of Paint Your Heart Out again this year.

It was the 40th year of the event. Neighbor Works Salt Lake has painted almost 900 homes in those 40 years. One of the homes this year belong to Charlton Johnson. He served in the Salt Lake City Police Department for 42 years.

ABC4 met with him as volunteers painted his home. He said, “I’ll swallow my pride, because I guess I should.”

Charlton enjoyed the view watching friends and strangers come together to do the needed work, but he was also a little uncomfortable, not used to being the one receiving the help.

Charlton added, “I appreciate every last one of these people.”

Bryce Garner is the CEO of Neighbor Works Salt Lake. His organization does good things for the community all year, but the Paint Your Heart Out event is a highlight of the year.  

Garner said, “It’s important for us to bring neighbors together to show that we can help take care of our neighborhoods, and we can work together to help a neighbor who needs a little extra help.”

This is the 40th year of the painting event, and this year 160 people gathered at 15 different homes. They finished the work in just a few hours. It’s quite the feat, something only possible thanks to the donations of resources, paint, and people from Utah companies.

For Charlton, his health has prevented him from doing this work himself. He said, “I’ve done things for everybody else. I always tell people, I’ll get to it.”

Charlton served Salt Lake City as a police officer for 42 years, a service to a community he loves.  Now his community was able to return the love.

To learn more about Neighbor Works and their Paint Your Heart Out event, CLICK HERE.