Reservations Bound
Uniting Friends to Help Bring Christmas to Others

On a Navajo reservation in the Northeast corner of Arizona, 2,000 children are walking around with bright, new knit hats.

“We have the most colorful rez ever!” says Gladeeh Begaye, founder of the non-profit organization Reservations Bound. 

Gladeeh was born on a reservation in Arizona, but as the thirteenth child of a new widow, the hogan the family shared was just too small to house each one. Following a few of her brothers and sisters, Gladeeh was brought to live with the Swenson family in Orem, Utah. Over the years, the Swensons adopted three children, including Gladeeh, had one son of their own, and cared for a total of twenty-two foster children.

They raised their family in the gospel and instilled in the children principles of service and love. Family vacations were spent visiting and caring for Gladeeh’s birth family, and the Swenson’s made sure their Navajo children maintained strong ties with their home. 

Gladeeh graduated from Orem High and then Brigham Young University, double majoring in social work and commercial art. She taught school and then took a job as a school bus driver for the Alpine School District. A year later she broke her leg and went to recuperate in her brother’s hogan on the Navajo reservation. One day Gladeeh looked outside, and noticed her nieces and nephews were playing, instead of attending school. When she asked why they weren’t in school, they told her simply, “No shoes, no school.” 

Gladeeh returned to her home in Orem, determined to find a way to help her family. That was thirty years ago. Today, Gladeeh’s organization, Reservations Bound, collects and distributes needed items to communities all across Arizona. Donned “Grandma Christmas” by friends who help with donations and friends on the reservations, Gladeeh makes several trips to Arizona each year—sometimes three or four during the holiday season—and during the summer with back-to-school clothes.

A few years ago, Gladeeh made a push for “shoebox gifts.” The idea was to collect a box for each child that contained a hat, gloves, socks, and a few Christmas treats. At first Gladeeh was unsure about the response she would get, but went ahead with a goal to compile 300 boxes. To her happy surprise, donations came in that filled her house with 2,000 shoeboxes.

Looking back, Gladeeh sees the particular inspiration of those shoeboxes and their contents. “Who would have thought,” she says, “that the Navajo Reservation would have been dumped by snow and suffer severely cold temperatures?” The hats, gloves, and socks were immensely appreciated. The donations fill Gladeeh’s home, often overflowing onto her patio and driveway, until she and other volunteers load up a few trailers and made their way to Arizona. They stopped in several villages, sometimes taking up to seven days to make the deliveries. 

As word has spread, Relief Societies, Young Women’s groups, communities, and scouts working towards their eagle projects have joined Gladeeh. They knit hats, and provide blankets, coats, gloves, toys, treats, and especially socks to bring Christmas to a nation that would otherwise have none.

Gladeeh and her fellow volunteers notice how personal the gifts are to each person. “As the time comes to present a box to a child, the inspiration comes as though each box was personally made to accommodate their needs and desires,” she says.

One beautiful quilt was tossed back into the trailer repeatedly until somehow Gladeeh knew when it was the right time to be given to an elderly woman. “It’s not my project, it’s the Lord’s project. It’s hard to plan things the way I want them to be because somewhere along the way I’m guided to whatever really needs to be done.”

Gladeeh accepts and delivers donations year-round. To help, call (801) 427-8890.

LDS Living Magazine