CDH Student Runs Nonprofit Dedicated to Helping Anyone in Need

March 31, 2023

Isaac’s Blessing Bags, founded by Isaac Garcia ‘24, is a nonprofit dedicated to helping anyone in need, but it wasn’t always like that.

When Isaac was only 11 years old, his  family moved to St. Paul and he became aware of homelessness. He asked his parents what he could do to help and started going to encampments, handing out anything he could. He ended up leading his 6th-grade class at Community of Saints in collecting gear into "Blessing Bags" to distribute directly to people in the community experiencing homelessness.

“As time has progressed, I’ve been able to make new connections and work on helping even more people not only in my community, but others as well.” said Garcia. “I’ve also been able to work with my school. We recently had an ‘out of uniform’ drive to help raise money for my cause.”

Last summer, Isaac was part of a Canadian television show that he is hoping will be on HBO within the next year. Through the making of this show, he plans on earning enough money to be able to buy a mini school bus and turn that into a portable way to hand out his Blessing Bags.

Kai Bodden ‘24 and Grant Bowman ‘24, Garcia's classmates at CDH, have been helping with his initiative. “They have joined me on my journey and I plan on being able to work more with not only them but more of my fellow classmates and friends.” said Garcia. “I don’t know what my next steps are, but I do plan on continuing to grow and do more.”

If you are interested in finding out more about Isaac's Blessing Bags or are interested in donating, you can go to his website. In winter, Blessings Bags often have mittens, socks, gloves, hats, snacks and drinks. For Spring, they plan to have more snacks, drinks and tarps.