A newly dedicated welfare center in Salt lake City represents more than just a thrift store, Church leaders said during the dedication of the Sugar House Deseret Industries building on June 8.
After more than seventy years serving the Sugar House community, the second Deseret Industries to open in Utah closed its doors to welcome a new, much larger facility only blocks away from the original store.
"Inside this facility devoted people will extend lifting and helping hands to those whose lives will be transformed for the better," said President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency. "Generations will be blessed because of what will happen here."
Church leaders and community members gathered in the new store — located at 721 E. 2100 South — to celebrate its opening and officially dedicate the building.
"This building is intended and designed to magnify our power to help others," said President Eyring. "To make it a reality, Church members and leaders have given their time, resources and talents. Citizens, community leaders and neighbors have given unstinting support."
Not only has the physical facility expanded with the new location, so have the services offered within the multi-purpose center. An LDS Employment Center, Deseret Industries store and LDS Family Services are all available at the new location.
"The acts of service, love, healing and compassion that will take place within these walls will ripple throughout eternity," President Eyring said. "It is a place for the father of five who lost a job and paces the floor in the middle of the night worrying about how he will support his family. It is a place of hope for a couple that want with all their hearts to welcome an infant into their embrace and to their family. It is a place for those in need who can surround themselves with a team who daily works with them to surmount obstacles and reach heights they never thought possible."
More than 300 LDS Employment Centers are scattered across 56 countries. These centers provide encouragement as skilled professionals and volunteers offer career workshops, meetings to help people network to find work opportunities and personal job counseling.
There are 43 D.I. buildings within seven western states to help individuals — referred by their bishops — to develop work capacities, while providing thrift shopping services to all. The LDS Family Services located in the building will provide assistance to individuals seeking professional help.
With this year marking the Church's 75th anniversary of the establishment of its welfare program, the new building exemplifies much of what the welfare program stands for by helping people help themselves. Not only is the new store a place of refuge for the poor and needy, it is a place where those who want to help lift others can volunteer.
"God requires His children, which we all are, to care for the poor among them," President Eyring said. "The way it is to be done is clear. Those who have accumulated more are able to humble themselves to help those in need. Those with abundance are to voluntarily sacrifice some of their comfort, time, skills and resources to relieve the suffering of those in need. And the help is given in a way that increases the power in the recipients to care for themselves and their families."
Bishop H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop of the Church, said the site of the store will be in a perfect position once the public transportation system in Salt Lake is completed. He spoke of the former Sugar House D.I. and the need for growth because the community had "outgrown" the old store.
Sister Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president, spoke of having bought a piano from a D.I. store. It didn't sound good, and needed some work. With some tuning, the piano today has a beautiful sound.
"That piano stands as a symbol of what Deseret Industries does and what LDS Family Services does and what Employment services does," Sister Beck said. "We take something that used to have great value, and somehow in life experiences it gets battered and broken, and it just needs to be repaired and restored to its diamond quality it was meant to have."
