You Have to Make Your Own Community
After moving into a house with a young child in Lehi, Charlene felt deeply lonely and told her mother. Her mother responded directly: community would not simply find her — she needed to create it. Charlene began organizing playgroups, teaching babywearing, and eventually helped form a nonprofit chapter of an international babywearing organization. That advice became the operating philosophy of her life in Lehi.
Key Lessons
- • Loneliness can become a call to create belonging — for yourself and for others
- • The most powerful community-building often starts informally: a playgroup, a Facebook event, a lending library
- • Belonging doesn't happen automatically in growing places; someone has to build the bridge
Community Connections
Stories, people, and ideas that connect across the archive — ranked by shared themes, guests, places, and topics.
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(4)Building Community and Child Safety: Charlene Freestone's Journey
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How Education and Community Go Hand in Hand in Lehi
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Related People
(4)Lara Bangerter
Manager, Lehi Historical Society & Archives
Mark Johnson
Mayor of Lehi, Former City Council Member, Engineer & Business Owner
Doug Webb
Former Principal, Lehi High School · Agriculture & Science Teacher · Lifelong Lehi Resident
Charlene Freestone
Child Passenger Safety Technician, Former Boutique Owner, Parent Educator, Community Builder
Related Stories
(4)Grief Turned Into Safety Work
Charlene Freestone
Six Children, One Minivan, and a Wooden Box
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George Goates and the Sugar Beets — A Story About What Lehi Is Made Of
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William Hadfield's Christmas Package — A Small Kindness That Changed Everything
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Related Quotes
(4)"Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could continue to carry on that spirit?"
— Lara Bangerter
"You need to make your own community. It's not going to find you."
— Charlene Freestone
"I wouldn't consider myself a pillar, but I sure love the community."
— Doug Webb
"We collect, preserve, organize, protect, and share anything and everything Lehi."
— Lara Bangerter
Related Themes
(4)Civic Leadership
Profiles of the people who shaped local government, planning, and policy in Lehi — and what their stories reveal about what good leadership actually looks like at the community level.
Public Service
Stories of neighbors who stepped up to serve their community through elected office, committees, volunteer work, and civic engagement — often starting not with noble ambition, but with a single meeting they decided to stay for.
Family Legacy
The stories of families who planted roots in Lehi across generations — the ones who built the traditions, the parks, the businesses, and the sense of belonging that others now enjoy.
Community Resilience
How Lehi residents have navigated challenge, change, growth, and hardship — and emerged with optimism, connection, and a deeper appreciation for what they've built together.
More from Charlene Freestone
Charlene Freestone
Six Children, One Minivan, and a Wooden Box
At a child safety checkpoint in 2021, Charlene helped a family with six children in a seven-seat minivan. One child was on a secured wooden box. The family had daisy-chained lap extender belts through the outer car seats. Charlene and another technician spent over an hour arranging new seats, only to learn the mother was pregnant and needed room for a newborn. They had to start over completely. The experience became a career turning point.
Charlene Freestone
I'm Back, But This Time I'm Helping
Charlene's son was born with needs requiring surgeries. A nurse with child passenger safety training helped her family during the car seat oxygen test. Exactly 12 years later, Charlene began working with Intermountain at Utah Valley Hospital — on the exact anniversary of her son's discharge. Looking at her badge, she thought: 'I'm back, but this time I'm helping people here.'
Charlene Freestone
Grief Turned Into Safety Work
Charlene mentions a man in his 50s who became involved in child passenger safety after losing his daughter in a car accident. He used his grief constructively, becoming a volunteer for Zero Fatalities and eventually a certified CPST. He's also trilingual, making him an invaluable resource for families facing language barriers.
Related Stories
Naomi McClure
Moving Her Own Furniture to Stage a Listing
A client couldn’t afford professional staging but wanted their home to look its best. Naomi emptied her own living room and moved her sofa, coffee table, and furniture into the vacant listing. Her husband watched TV on the floor. The listing sold. The client got a better outcome. The story became the clearest illustration of what it means to actually be in service to the people you work with.
Naomi McClure
Refusing to Calculate Commissions
Naomi made a counterintuitive decision: she would not calculate her commission before, during, or after transactions — at least not until her check arrived. Her logic: if you know the number, you work for yourself. By not knowing it, she kept herself in service mode. The money followed. The repeat clients followed.