Sandy-based nonprofit HomeAid Utah will turn a tiny-home village into a free carnival on Friday, Aug. 14, asking families to bring one thing through the gate: a pack of diapers.

The 8th Annual Diaper Drive Extravaganza runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Other Side Village, 1882 W. Indiana Ave. in Salt Lake City. No tickets or registration required.

Kids and parents can hit a petting zoo, face painting booths, a dunk tank and a 16-team cornhole tournament, according to the Sandy Journal events calendar. Free donuts, popcorn and cotton candy round out the midway. Families can also tour new, unoccupied tiny homes on site and watch HomeAid volunteers construct their signature "diaper houses" from stacked diaper packs.

Diapers collected at the event support families statewide through what HomeAid Utah calls the Utah Diaper Bank. Over seven years of drives, the nonprofit says it has raised 3.2 million diapers. The most recent drive alone brought in 482,360, according to the organization's website.

Why The Other Side Village

The carnival doubles as a window into HomeAid Utah's building work. The nonprofit, headquartered on Towne Ridge Parkway in Sandy, has completed 11 tiny-home units in Phase 1 at The Other Side Village, a master-planned neighborhood providing permanent housing for people transitioning out of chronic homelessness. Builder partners include Woodside Homes, Hamlet Homes, Fieldstone Homes, Symphony Homes, Steel Biltt and Perry Homes, with the project valued at more than $600,000.

Preston L. Cochrane of The Other Side Village celebrated two of those homes at a ribbon-cutting in late July. "Two more lives with a place to call home," Cochrane wrote on LinkedIn on July 26, calling the units "Rooted" and "Rising."

According to organizers, the event gives families a chance to have age-appropriate conversations with children about homelessness. The need is acute: in 2025, 4,584 Utahns were experiencing homelessness on a single night, an 18% jump from the prior year, according to HomeAid Utah data shared on its LinkedIn page.

How to help

Bring diapers of any size to the carnival. Online donations are also accepted through HomeAid Utah's website. The event is free, family-friendly and open to all.