A group of students at a college in Rhode Island surprised a school security guard with the trip of a lifetime.
As reported by local ABC affiliate WCVB-TV, a group of freshmen at Providence College started a GoFundMe page in an effort to send their dorm’s security guard on a trip home to Nigeria. The security guard, James Mogaji, works four overnight shifts per week on campus, and hasn’t seen his family in 11 years. After the GoFundMe raised $18,658, more than five times the students’ initial goal of $3,500, Mogaji will visit Nigeria in June.
Earlier this week, the group of students posted a video on social media in which Mogaji first learned of his long-deserved trip home. As seen in the clip, Mogaji falls to his knees after being overcome with emotion upon learning the news.
"He's just the kindest soul anyone has ever met in this building. He means so much to us he's so important. It was amazing how fast everyone connected and were able to put it together for him," freshman student Brandon Reichert, who helped organize the GoFundMe, told WCVB.
The school’s Dean of Students, Steven Sears, shed light on the impact Mogaji has had on the school since he started working at Providence College earlier this year.
“What is so special is the impact James has had on all of us,” Sears said. “His reaction and the authenticity not only for this group and the students involved with him and the care, and what he said at the end is that he is praying for them, he is praying for their success, and that God watches over them and that he does that everyday.”
