1st Lady offers hand up to local woman

At 25, Brandi Irons has accomplished a great deal. She is raising a young son while holding down a job at the Kootenai Recovery Center, and recently completed her first semester in a social work program at North Idaho College earning a 3.7 GPA.

It wasn’t always so. Irons has struggled with drug addiction since she was 13, been incarcerated three times and emerged from multiple rehab terms, only to relapse. Her climb has been a long one.

And she owes part of her current success to an unlikely source – Idaho First Lady Lori Otter. In October of 2016, Irons and Otter were on a panel together at the Kroc Center in Coeur d’Alene when the first lady heard the young woman’s story.

She was moved and offered to pay for her schooling/ Betsy Russell , Eye on Boise. More here.