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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Related People
(4)Lara Bangerter
Manager, Lehi Historical Society & Archives
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Mayor of Lehi, Former City Council Member, Engineer & Business Owner
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Former Principal, Lehi High School · Agriculture & Science Teacher · Lifelong Lehi Resident
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Child Passenger Safety Technician, Former Boutique Owner, Parent Educator, Community Builder
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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
The Natural Parenting Boutique on Lehi Main Street
Charlene opened a natural parenting boutique — Boot Baby Boutique — in the old Lehi Hotel near the train tracks on Lehi Main Street. The shop sold cloth diapers and baby carriers, but its heart was parent education and community space. She rented from a midwife in a building that also housed a gem shop and wedding dress rentals. The business later moved up to Sandy but represented a season where business and belonging overlapped.
Charlene Freestone
COVID Ends One Chapter and Opens Another
On the day of the Utah earthquake in 2020, Charlene realized parents were not going to bring small children into stores the same way anymore. She folded her boutique quickly, sold her share to co-owners, and stepped away from both retail and nonprofit worlds. She then worked at her children's school as a teacher's aide during COVID, witnessing how everyone banded together to keep things going.
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.'
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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.
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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.