MONTPELIER — Steve Allred was hoping to create a local Brigham Young University alumni chapter in the Bear Lake Valley, but what he got was a chapter that includes 12 counties in three states.

“The alumni association said they were giving us a big area but said to just concentrate within 100 miles,” Allred said.

The process began early this year when he reached out to the BYU Alumni Association, inquiring about starting the Bear Lake chapter. What they told him was that the Pocatello and Logan chapters had gone inactive and they would grant him the Bear Lake chapter and fold those other two chapters into his.

“Once I sent them an email and told them I was interested in doing something, it blew up from there,” Allred said.

The new Bear Lake Area Chapter of the BYU Alumni Association includes Bear Lake, Caribou, Franklin, Bannock, Power and Oneida counties in Idaho; Rich, Cache and Box Elder counties in Utah; and Lincoln, Uinta and Sweetwater counties in Wyoming. According to the BYU Alumni Association's most recent count, that area has 7,763 BYU alumni, including 2,252 in the Idaho counties, 4,619 in the Utah counties and 892 in the Wyoming counties.

The chapter was established in April, and the first order of business was to allocate $18,000 in funds from the Utah Replenishment Grants to current BYU students living in those counties within the chapter's Utah counties. The funds come from money collected from the purchase of Utah license plates with the BYU logo.

“Julie (Perry), the past chair, was involved with the chapter in the Logan area,” Allred said. “Her area of interest was always in the replenishment grants. That really helped us with some continuity.”

The chapter doled out that $18,000 by the end of May. How they are distributed is determined by the chapter and can be as little as a few hundred dollars up to full scholarships.

“If they have tuition that is due, it is going to help with that,” Allred said. “We did a number of full scholarships, and it's about $3,000 to $4,000 per semester.”

The replenishment grants are allocated by the State of Utah on an annual basis, he said.

The next order of business is letting those nearly 8,000 alumni within the chapter's borders know that the chapter is alive and well.

“We are going to send out our initial email to everyone that the (BYU) Alumni Association has emails for,” Allred said.

For those who are looking to get involved and don't want to wait for the email, the Bear Lake Area Chapter has a website through the BYU Alumni page. Just click on the link to Alumni Chapters. The group also has a Facebook page, BYU Alumni — Bear Lake Area Chapter.

The hope for the future of the chapter is to help continue to raise funds to assist current students and to foster social gatherings, especially watch parties for BYU sports.

“I would like to do some sports watch parties and other things, especially during basketball season,” Allred said.

A season ticket holder for BYU football for the past two decades, Allred said he will be watching the Cougars in person.