BYU Students Made Tie Blankets for Charity
The Office of Belonging and Y-Serve organized a service event in October to support refugee children.
Updated on Oct. 12, 2026 in Philanthropy
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Hundreds of BYU students and staff assembled tie blankets during a Belonging Week service project. The supplies will be distributed to refugee children in Burundi, Bangladesh, and Ukraine by the charity Lifting Hands International.
Why it matters
The collaboration highlights how campus departments coordinate with local nonprofits to facilitate corporate social responsibility initiatives. Such programs offer organizers a structured way to engage personnel in community service and global humanitarian outreach.
Hundreds of volunteers participated in the service event, which was coordinated by the Office of Belonging and Y-Serve. The effort supports the international supply chain of American Fork-based charity Lifting Hands International.
The players
BYU
A large private university that manages campus-wide events and service-learning opportunities.
Lifting Hands International
An American Fork-based nonprofit organization that manages global supply chains to deliver aid to refugee populations.
The details
The Office of Belonging partnered with Y-Serve to organize assembly stations where participants constructed tie blankets. Following the assembly, local vendor Waffle Love provided food for the volunteers to support the event’s mission of fostering community and connection. The finished goods are now staged for transport to refugees in Bangladesh, Burundi, and Ukraine.
Timeline
October 2026: Belonging Week service event occurred.
Market Landscape
This project follows the established pattern of the university's Belonging Week initiatives. It reflects a wider organizational trend of linking internal campus culture programming with external charitable logistics.
Operators can evaluate the operational success of corporate service events by measuring participant volume and the efficacy of logistics partnerships. Partnering with established nonprofits like Lifting Hands International can simplify the distribution process for goods donated by internal teams.
The takeaway
Large-scale service events rely on the seamless integration of internal coordination and external NGO logistics. Business operators looking to launch similar programs should vet their charity partners to ensure global reach and established distribution networks.
Further reading
Learn more about local efforts by browsing the Philanthropy section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by BYU Daily Universe.
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