Remember that horrible stock market crash in October 1929? Of course you don’t. And neither does Taylorsville resident Pauline Fawcett. But, unlike the rest of us, she was “around for it” – albeit, in diapers.

“I was born Jan. 6, 1929, in Idaho,” the spry, 95-year-old Fawcett said. “I moved down here to Utah in 2000 after my husband passed away. I still get around very well, although I don’t drive anymore.”

She’s also not someone any of us want to see up on a ladder, painting. But thanks to a 32-year-old Zions Bank tradition, Fawcett didn’t have to don painter overalls to receive a home facelift last month.

The only Utah home Fawcett has ever lived in is among the many manufactured homes in the Monte Vista community (750 W. 4600 South). The house is also one of 28 houses that have received makeovers this summer, during the 32nd annual Zions Bank Employees Paint-a-Thon.

Utah homes receiving facelifts, 21 of them, are scattered from Logan to St. George. Bank employees also tackled six more in Idaho and one in Wyoming. Oh – a bit of Zions Bank trivia – the company has only one bank branch in the entire Cowboy State – up in Jackson Hole.

Coordinating the volunteer work at Fawcett’s house were team captain Elias Doty and co-captain Emily Merrill, who both work at the Zions Bank headquarters office in Salt Lake. Doty has been with them a dozen years… Merrill, three years.

“We had about 30 to 35 volunteers here for three straight evenings to scrape old paint and apply new on Pauline’s home,” Doty said. “Her son Steven, daughter Carol and daughter-in-law Trish were also here every night to help out. I’ve done this every year since I have been with Zions Bank – so I guess this is my 12th home. I love working to make a positive impact on the community and being able to hang out with my co-workers.”

Like Doty, Merrill has also volunteered for the Paint-a-Thon every year she has been a Zions Bank employee.

“I think these are very unique projects because all of us are putting in the time after our normal work hours,” Merrill explained. “We are dedicated to our communities. I love being a part of it.”

Doty reports it took about 13 gallons of paint to complete the spruce-up at Fawcett’s home.

“We used three different colors, including one that was brand new on the house,” Doty explained. “We were calling that trim color ‘Statue of Liberty Green,’ if you can picture that shade. We kept the main body of the home beige – and off-white for the skirt. Our volunteers also did a lot of caulking around the house and removed an old antenna Pauline no longer needed. I like the way it turned out.”

So does Fawcett.

“Words just can’t explain how grateful I am to these volunteers,” Fawcett said. “I’ve been trying to think all night about what I can say to them – and I just don’t know what it is. I am so pleased. I still can’t believe they did this for me. I love it.”

Fawcett says she has plenty of family living in the area who can come and enjoy it also, including: six grandchildren, four great grandchildren and three great great grandchildren. 

“People ask me all the time what the key is to living so long,” Fawcett said. “All I can tell them is good, clean living. I never drank or smoked. I came from a large family. My parents had 15 children. My sister (age 83) lives up in Oregon. I was up there to visit her in February.”

Since it was launched in 1991, the Zion’s Bank Paint-a-Thon has provided facelifts to some 1,315 homes in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Not counting the dollar value of volunteer hours, the bank has donated $1.476 million dollars toward beautifying the houses. λ