As our temperatures start to cool down, a local non-profit is thinking about BYU-Idaho students who have never lived in colder environments.
Greatest Wish is a non-profit organization that collects and donates winter clothes to give to BYU-Idaho students in need.
About 16 years ago, Janice Bagley and her family sponsored a BYU-Idaho student from Kenya. He arrived in Rexburg soon before Christmas, and the warmest clothes he had were sweatshirts.
“We were able to help him get set up with some warm winter items,” Bagley said in an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio. “He thrived here at school and went on to Harvard.”
Bagley and her family did the same thing a few years later for another international student who didn’t have warm-enough clothes for the harsh Idaho winters.
“Through helping him and a series of other events, we decided we wanted to do this on a larger scale,” Bagley said.
Since their first donation event, Greatest Wish has been able to help around 800 students get the warm clothing they need.
For more information and to volunteer, visit https://greatestwish.org/.