Pandemic Forces Utah Nonprofit To Find New Home

LOGAN, Utah – The pandemic has hit numerous businesses and families hard, and now it’s forced a Cache Valley nonprofit out of the building where it has helped so many — unless someone swoops in to save the day.

That staff at Jump the Moon do not have long to finish packing up their Logan shop.

The nonprofit, which helped people with challenges find ways to express themselves through art, has struggled to pay the rent because the pandemic has drastically cut the number of people it can help.

Jump The Moon helps people with significant challenges, discover their inner-artist. Because they haven't been able to help as many people during the pandemic, that Cache Valley nonprofit is now having to move out. Now, they're hoping someone will step in to help. @KSL5TV at 6pm. pic.twitter.com/Zy72GBjETA

— Mike Anderson (@mikeandersonKSL) February 4, 2021

Artist Michael Bingham has been able to find value in what some people discard. It’s apparent in his 800-pound astronaut.

“I found years ago that I really enjoy taking those things that other people have thrown away,” Bingham said.

He has also taken in people with so-called disabilities and shown them value. “Although I can hardly say that word. I don’t like the word disability. I really prefer diverse abilities,” he explained.

He and his staff of volunteers helped a lot of people before COVID-19. People like Keyona Eccles, whom KSL featured in a 2019 story as she discovered how to paint while in a motorized wheelchair.

“There are people in our society that maybe we underestimate because they have such a severe challenge,” Bingham said.

He has found their potential. It’s obvious all over his gallery.

Now the pandemic has impacted his work and he can no longer afford the cost to keep going in this building.

Talking about it made Bingham emotional. “You’ve just got me thinking about the number of friends that I’ve met here, that … mean so much.”

Those friends discovered their inner artist. What he got in return was hard to put into words.

“The things that they’re teaching me are way greater than anything I’m giving them,” Bingham said.

Now he’s had to do something he’s not used to — asking others for help.

“This place can be replaced. I just don’t want to stop working with and being with the people that make this place really cool,” he said.

Bingham has only days to pack up the studio, with no plans for a future site.

Some of the friends that he’s made over the years will come by for the last time in this building on Saturday.