The Other Side Donuts celebrated its one-year anniversary June 28 with a full-day event that brought in people from all over Utah. With bouncy castles, a dunk tank and doughnut decorating, the shop commemorated their successful year with activities that highlighted who they are. 

Donald Bostwick, a recent graduate of The Other Side Academy, said, “I’ve done a lot of bad things in my life; this was a good one.” Now working for Progressive Insurance, Bostwick attended the Academy for two years before beginning his “workout phase,” where he began integrating back into society. He currently borrows a car from the Academy to get to work, but has plans to buy his own and become more independent from the program. 

The Other Side Donuts employees and The Other Side Village residents Candance (left) and Austin (right). (Sienna Chubak/City Journals)

 The Other Side Academy works in tandem with The Other Side Village, which is a nonprofit organization that builds tiny homes to help men and women who are coming out of chronic homelessness become a part of a community. Bostwick was on his way to prison when he decided to write a letter to the Academy to try and hopefully do something different, other than keep going in and out of jail, as he had been all his life. 

As for The Other Side Donuts, it is the Village’s first social enterprise and all of the proceeds go directly to the Village. CEO Tim Stay said, “It’s just around the corner from The Other Side Village, and many of our residents that live at the Village also work at The Other Side Donuts, so it’s close proximity, but it also gives them employment and job skills and opportunity to become self-reliant.” 

The employees working at The Other Side Donuts were every bit as passionate and vibrant as the location itself. Bright colors, rainbows, clouds, flowers and sparkles filled the inside and outside of their shop at 760 S. Redwood Road. Bostwick was happy to include that he was even on the construction crew and cut out the clouds that hung from the ceiling.