USU Professor and Students Reflect on First Season of the William A. Burnard Warming Center

If you were to ask a couple years ago, Nicole Burnard might not have considered it possible.

But today, she’s about week removed from the closeout of her first season as the founder and chairperson of the William A. Burnard Warming Center — a Logan-based nonprofit aimed at providing local unsheltered individuals overnight refuge from freezing temperatures.The Master’s in Social Work student teamed up with USU Assistant Professor and Director of the Transforming Communities Institute Jayme Walters, along with several other community and board members to open the center back in December of 2022.

In total, between Dec. 9 and March 31, 100 unique guests were served at the center — an effort that took more than 100 volunteers, thousands of hours of service, thousands of dollars of donations and supplies, and several community partners, including St. John’s Episcopal Church, within which they are housed, to pull off.

Students, staff and faculty from Utah State University, past and present, were among those who have either donated time or money to the center since its creation. This includes interns who served as site leaders, like Zoyee Thomas, an undergraduate in Heath Education and Promotion, or Kara Bachman, who previously served as the Food Security Program Coordinator at USU’s SNAC, but now helps to organize supplies at the WAB Warming Center. Tim Keady, a professional practice Extension assistant professor, also served at the center to help facilitate the nightly operations.

As the center now enters its offseason, plans are being made to hopefully fund a full-time employee to help facilitate the operations of the center. They also are aiming, eventually, to expand into an independent facility.

However, even if neither of those come to fruition, they still plan to open their doors again next winter and beyond to continue to serve those who need to come in from the cold — even just for a night.