BOZEMAN — For a lot of people, this Thanksgiving looked a lot different than any other year, including MSU students who were advised NOT to go home for the holiday. The faculty and staff at Montana State University (MSU) wanted to make sure that students had something special to be thankful for Thanksgiving.
“We’re so excited. Today, we’re going to feed over 200 students who have to stay in Bozeman for the Thanksgiving holiday. We’re going to provide them a traditional Thanksgiving meal to make this feel more like home,” said Matt Caires, the Dean of Students.
We know the coronavirus has drastically changed a lot of our lives. It forced many students to be responsible and sacrifice a trip home.
“A number of our students were told this week that they were required to quarantine here in Bozeman, and that’s a really hard message to be away from family, especially Thanksgiving especially if you’re a first-year student,” Caires explained.
So volunteers showed up by the carloads ready to deliver meals in their personal vehicles.
“Want to make sure that the people in our community are taken care of. We’ll do what we need to do to take care of each other,” one of the volunteers said.
“It’s not even that cold. This is Montana. Right? So, just get out and do what you do, help people out, spend time with each other and do something good,” another volunteer explained.
“It’s important for us to show our kids that Thanksgiving is about giving back to others," said a third volunteer.
A lot of organization did NOT go into making today possible. In fact, the dean of students told me he only had to send out one email and this was the response he got.
Thursday's deliveries were completely free to students and covered by the university’s budget and no contact was made between volunteers and students.