Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

WORLAND – It all started with a trip to Salt Lake City.

Accompanying his mother to Utah for a doctor's visit, Jack Pharaoh of Greybull saw his first homeless people on the streets when he was 9.

"There were so many people with just blankets or a coat and no food or place to live," remembered Jack. "I came home and told my parents I wanted to do something so people didn't have to be like that."

Jack took his savings, $75 from his piggy bank, and went down to the local food bank with the intent of donating his money and volunteering to help. The food bank told Jack he was too young to work there, so he came up with another plan.

"I figured if I couldn't work there I would take my money and do something else," said Jack.

With the help of his mother, Misty, Jack found plans on the Internet for a book donation box, and bought the materials to make a plexiglass fronted donation box for food and items for the needy. The box was then installed in front of the Pharaoh home in Greybull.

Always charitable (buying lunches for friends at school who couldn't afford them) Jack now has three boxes in northern Wyoming, with the installation of one at the Worland Community Center Complex on Saturday.

As well-wishers pulled into the parking lot to donate food and meet Jack, volunteer Todd Royal, a volunteer weather forecaster with the National Weather Service, assembled the box and began filling it with food.

Keith Van Brunt, an aircrew nurse with Guardian Flight, presented Jack with a hat and keychains, before donating his own case of canned foods. "We heard this story and just had to come down and show our support," said Brunt.

Standing off to the side, Jack's father, Chris, took Jack's popularity in stride.

"People are always asking if we are Jack's folks and if this is Jack's house," laughed Chris. "We are pretty used to him being the superstar."

For Jack, the addition of one more box is just another step to his ultimate goal of helping those "in a rough spot." Someday, through donations and hard work, Jack would like a stand-alone building with cooler and freezers so he can supply people with free milk, eggs and meat. "People need healthy food and meat is a big one," said Jack.

As for his original box in Greybull?

"I'm going to turn that one into a hygiene box for people," said Jack. "If you're clean, you're healthy."