thedrifter
12-13-08, 06:30 AM
December 13, 2008
Boy Scout leads effort to care for Marines
Denise Goolsby
The Desert Sun
Stephen Handal and fellow members of Boy Scout Troop 262 in Palm Springs assembled and delivered 635 Christmas care packages to the U.S. Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms on Sunday.
The care packages will be sent to Marines serving in the Middle East.
Stephen, 14, of Rancho Mirage led the effort as part of his leadership project required to attain Eagle Scout rank.
The eighth-grade student at St. Theresa School wanted to do something patriotic.
“I just saw the Marines on the news and in the newspaper and I wanted to do something nice for them,” he said.
His goal was to collect enough items to send 150 care packages. He went to local stores — official request letter in hand — to solicit donations.
He also ran a notice in St. Theresa's church bulletin.
The response was amazing, he said.
In two weeks, he collected enough items to assemble 200 packages. He received razors, beef jerky, toiletries, packages of Red Vines, granola bars, Cup-O-Noodles soup, hot chocolate packets and playing card decks.
Then he received a $5,000 donation from a woman's trust. She was a strong troop supporter. The money was donated through local lawyer and trustee Mike Cosgrove.
Stephen used the money to buy enough goodies to fill 435 more care packages.
The day before the delivery to the Marine base, volunteers gathered at the gym at St. Theresa's school to put everything together.
“Forty people helped in an assembly line to package up all the care packages,” he said.
Christina McCulloch, Scout Master for Troop 262, said she was very proud.
“The size and the scale of this is really something an adult should be executing,” she said.
Stephen, who started out as a Cub Scout when he was in kindergarten, became a Boy Scout when he was 11, he said.
He is now a Life Scout, with an eye toward attaining his Eagle Scout rank in 2009.
“It was a good challenge,” doing the project, he said.
McCulloch said this type of leadership experience is invaluable.
“If we can get a youth to do something like this right now, think of what kind of man he's going to be,” she said.
Ellie
Boy Scout leads effort to care for Marines
Denise Goolsby
The Desert Sun
Stephen Handal and fellow members of Boy Scout Troop 262 in Palm Springs assembled and delivered 635 Christmas care packages to the U.S. Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms on Sunday.
The care packages will be sent to Marines serving in the Middle East.
Stephen, 14, of Rancho Mirage led the effort as part of his leadership project required to attain Eagle Scout rank.
The eighth-grade student at St. Theresa School wanted to do something patriotic.
“I just saw the Marines on the news and in the newspaper and I wanted to do something nice for them,” he said.
His goal was to collect enough items to send 150 care packages. He went to local stores — official request letter in hand — to solicit donations.
He also ran a notice in St. Theresa's church bulletin.
The response was amazing, he said.
In two weeks, he collected enough items to assemble 200 packages. He received razors, beef jerky, toiletries, packages of Red Vines, granola bars, Cup-O-Noodles soup, hot chocolate packets and playing card decks.
Then he received a $5,000 donation from a woman's trust. She was a strong troop supporter. The money was donated through local lawyer and trustee Mike Cosgrove.
Stephen used the money to buy enough goodies to fill 435 more care packages.
The day before the delivery to the Marine base, volunteers gathered at the gym at St. Theresa's school to put everything together.
“Forty people helped in an assembly line to package up all the care packages,” he said.
Christina McCulloch, Scout Master for Troop 262, said she was very proud.
“The size and the scale of this is really something an adult should be executing,” she said.
Stephen, who started out as a Cub Scout when he was in kindergarten, became a Boy Scout when he was 11, he said.
He is now a Life Scout, with an eye toward attaining his Eagle Scout rank in 2009.
“It was a good challenge,” doing the project, he said.
McCulloch said this type of leadership experience is invaluable.
“If we can get a youth to do something like this right now, think of what kind of man he's going to be,” she said.
Ellie