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Show New Utah - ThursJav. Noven oer 28. 2002 - Pare 6 The thanks in Thanksgiving Point The Ashtons and their children share their family holiday traditions By Debra Hart As the holiday season approaches, thoughts turn to sharing time with loved ones and friends, and relishing rel-ishing family traditions. For one large, local family, fami-ly, Thanksgiving holds extra special meaning which they ' hope permeates through their creation of Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing Point. Alan and Karen Ashton are both natives of Salt Lake City, but have called Orem home for more than 30 years. The Thanksgiving holiday holi-day at the Ashton household house-hold is filled with warm, memorable family traditions. tradi-tions. From the time their first child got married, the large family has made it a tradition tradi-tion to host their Thanksgiving Thanks-giving meal on the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. On Thursday, the children chil-dren are expected to share the Thanksgiving holiday with their in-laws and the Ashtons postpone their traditional tra-ditional feast a day to avoid schedule conflicts. Their celebration cel-ebration often includes a visit, en mass, to a local movie theater. "She (Mom) loves to have as many kids as possible there," said one of the children. chil-dren. "Every year there are more and more children." During the Christmas season, the family enjoys caroling around their neighborhood. Each of the Ashton children chil-dren still has an original, hand-knitted sock (a few of which are more than 30-years-old and worn with well-loved holes) from their childhood which adorns a warm place on their mantle. In particular, Karen looks forward to the winter holiday season. "We love to get snowed in at the cabin," she said. "One of my favorite things is a snowy night at the cabin with all my grandchildren running around in their pajamas." Thanksgiving Point, which was founded in 1995, is not named after the turkey holiday, but for the Ashton's desire to show their thankfulness for all their blessings and give something back to the community. com-munity. "It's a geographical point (referencing the proximity to Point of the Mountain), but it is more of an attitude," atti-tude," said Karen. She says their intention was to provide a place for families to come and be safe and enjoy themselves. "The gardens are my favorite spot," said Karen. "They give me a spot to be thankful every day of the year." The acreage, which now makes up the infamous Thanksgiving Point, was originally intended for planting wheat and food-storage food-storage type crops. Karen wanted to develop a serene garden where she could seek solace and spend time working in the dirt one big enough for people to go and not run into other people. From that point, the inspiration just began to blossom into "what if we did this . . ." ideas, said Pat Pritchett, who has worked as a personal assistant to the family for more than 10 years. The inspiration has lead to creating a peaceful place for people to gather, such as the spacious gardens, gar-dens, farmer's market, the Fox Family Farm and a cornucopia cor-nucopia of fun, educational classes. "We were very careful care-ful with things," said Karen of their early years (they have been married since 1968), while Alan worked as a professor at BYU. "The kids were the most important impor-tant thing to us then and they are the most important thing now." When Alan co-founded WordPerfect, and financially financial-ly things improved, Karen says the only outside evidence evi-dence of change was that they were finally able to move into a house that was big enough for the family, who added 11 children within 16 years. When her children would come home from school and ask her "Are we rich?" Karen told them, "We have the gospel, we love each other, we have a safe place to be --1 guess we are." "When he (father) was home, we talked about tennis, life and such and such," said one son, who explained that business was always kept separate from family life. "My mom and dad have never pushed us to take part in family businesses," he said. "We weren't the 'WordPerfect 'Word-Perfect kids' or the 'Thanksgiving 'Thanks-giving Point kids."1 "That general policy of keeping business separate from family has always benefited ben-efited us. It helped us be 'regular Joe's,' pursue what education we wanted and take whatever jobs we v - ... Karen and Alan Ashton at Thanksgiving Point. wanted," he added. "We've tried to let them have lives as independent as possible," said Karen. During the summer of 1994, one son and a soon-to-be-son-in-law did ask to spend the summer working at Thanksgiving Point. They worked moving cattle, feeding the animals, exercising exer-cising horses and developing develop-ing what is now known as the Fox Family Farm. After that summer, they both moved on to pursue their own choices in education educa-tion and careers. Pathways of life have indeed taken the 11 children in diverse directions. direc-tions. One son is a seminary teacher, one is in construction, construc-tion, one works in the computer com-puter information systems field and two are currently serving as missionaries. Many of the girls chose to follow their mother's valuable valu-able example of staying in the home. "Alan and I made the Builder hopes for hospital restoration . By Cathy Allred The old Lehi Hospital has a chance of resurrecting like a phoenix out of the fire of tribulation. Her walls are tattered and torn and the skeleton revealed underneath under-neath belies the building's age. More than 100 years old, she will eventually be restored or torn down. Situated on 206 East and State Street, the seedy looking look-ing structure's large windows win-dows have all been broken, . the back stairs have collapsed col-lapsed and cracks riddle the cement steps and walkway. Originally the Lehi Commercial Com-mercial & Savings Bank Building built in 1891, the structure must soon be restored, probably to the tune of $350,000, or be demolished according to Todd Vincze. A custom builder, he would like to see her restored to her original beauty. It has withstood multiple renovations, vandalism and other abuse. If the walls could speak, they would tell of a bank robbery (March 1919) whose criminals were never found, report the joys and sorrows of Dr. Eddington's patients and the unusual and unique businesses run in its bowels from a crema torium to an auto body shop (November 1923). It was on the second floor that appendices were removed, tonsils taken out, broken arms set, and Lehi babies were born. While much of what was once a proud edifice is gone, there are still hints of her past history. On the second floor, medical med-ical terms for supplies still mark metal shelving with plastic tape. The old birthing room's wash table for the babies is still intact and on a small square of the wall remains faded pink wallpaper with elves, rabbits and berib-boned berib-boned girls. Vincze hopes to preserve some of her history and is seeking a loan to purchase and restore her to her original origi-nal glory. She will become a bed and breakfast catering to brides, families and friends. He has struggled getting financing and has found the state's funds are depleted for historical building restoration loans and grants. They have an application with Key Bank and are continuing con-tinuing to pursue state and federal grants. "It is getting frustrating at this point," Vincze said. His friend Kathy Sharp and Vincze have done market mar-ket research and itemized their costs. They feel this type of business is not only possible but is a needed service in the area. Vincze hopes to build a solarium above the second floor stairway and corridor and to add a cupola above the entry with a flag and a copper color roof. There will be a florist shop, a salon, a photography photogra-phy studio. The bed and breakfast will additionally have a limousine service to pick up clients at the airport air-port to the Old Hospital. "The bride can come in with her mother, come down from her room, get her hair done and photos taken, go to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple Tem-ple to be married or Thanksgiving Point for the reception," Vincze said. "It's an ideal location. There won't be anything like this in Salt Lake City and Utah County. It will be one of a kind" Besides money, there is one more thing hindering their restorative efforts -floor plans. They would especially like to see a copy of the original floor plans. "I know there's pictures and information on the hospital. hos-pital. People who used to work there with stories, history, his-tory, artifacts and photos," said Kathy Sharp. "I had Carol Oxborrow give me Doc Eddington's last operating license. We have hospital beds, door knobs and other artifacts." arti-facts." If the bank approves the loan, which they hope it will, Sharp and Vincze will be asking for others to step forward with these things to share with the public at the new hospital building tentatively to be named The Alexander after Vincze's traditional family name passed down for generations. w,- fruit (Jksfcti J I Ollt ( Apples. Potatoes. Citrus Fruits. Onion. Pine Nuts & Honey also available. HOURS: 10-6 D Y v.-It's Beqinnina to Look 'a lot i iW. ?:m CHRISTMAS I :;. '': IT We invite you to visit our Festive Old General Store :: and Share the Spirit of the Holidays! i 128 N. 100 E. Lehi 801-768-9201 Open 9 to 6 decision early on that I would be in the home," said Karen. "We learned the greatest lessons in life from our children." Eight of the eleven kids are married and have brought 21 (and counting) grandchildren into the arms of the family. Karen says Thanksgiving Point really does exist as an expression of gratitude and all the money earned from the venture goes back into Thanksgiving Point. "They wanted some place to give back to the community commu-nity for all they had received," said Pritchett. "I've known them for 20 years. Money didn't change them. It just gave them the ability to do things on a larger scale than they were already doing." Pat refers to the gardens as "55 acres of heaven." "That was all built with the idea people could come and rejuvenate themselves, 2( of find solace and healinr aJ-:- get ideas for their own bad,tri, yards," she said. 7.,nfC "The family as a wh0' has not really been involvr in thanksgiving poin, said one of the kids. "It has introduced ft game of golf to the fn, said one of the children)13l's while reflecting of wh,iFrS Thanksgiving Point halh done for the family. "None oj stui US Efolf reallv woll k, Jli " J "ll, uui j least 10 of the guys (includ ing in-laws) do it quitj often. It has become a fun family activity." pi "Every day we wake ujinili and count our blessing.t inft said Karen. "We have loveMt faith and confidence thai' a lite has meaning. "We are each others be irienas, wnicn is a swee joy," she said. "Familie really are the way to saw the world." Debra Hart can b reached a Leosbanjoaol.com ::.1 17 , . mfo - ' :; Q -an ; be, V '. :to 1 J foe . . ng c r . , tio x ; dir - ' , ss. i v ae .. ; ? . i . " in 'f , - ; .; per 1 . - : .v :' -din i ", . : " ; : - . . - Photo Dyounv , Todd Vincze points out where previous owners hi J "modernized" the old Lehi Hospital and tried to mow more energy efficient by bricking up the Iar9e moon windows. 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