About a year ago, I was approached by a young man, Alek, who wanted to do his Eagle Scout project with the Lincoln Park Community Shelter. For those of you who aren't familiar with scouting, an Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project is the opportunity for a Scout to demonstrate leadership of others while performing a project for the benefit of his community. This is the culmination of the Eagle Scout candidate's leadership training and requires a significant effort. The project must benefit a community organization, but it be solely a fund-raising project. After talking a little bit with Alek, we came up with the idea of creating "move-out kits" for people graduating from our program. Many of our guests only have their clothes and a few personal possessions when they leave LPCS. The idea was that these kits would include basic items that everyone needs when first moving into an apartment such as a laundry basket, dish towels, dust pans, etc. Alek set out to organize the collection of new and gently used household items to create these kits. He created fliers, posted them around the neighborhood, and organized a collection date. A few months ago, Alek, his family, and some friends brought in everything that had been collected. In addition to assembling 20+ "Graduate move-out kits," Alek had collected a large amount of other household goods for LPCS graduates to access. There was so much stuff that the LPCS dining room was full! Once again, the staff of LPCS were moved by how generous this community is to us and our guests.
Alek has earned over 50 merit badges including Wilderness Survival, Fire Safety, and First Aid. In addition to these merits, Alek has also held a number of leadership positions within his Troop. Alek now joins the ranks of Neil Armstrong, Gerald Ford and other prominent individuals who have achieved this prestigious status as young men. LPCS would like to congratulate Alek on his achievement of scouting's highest rank, Eagle Scout.
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