Eagle Project; R. Caleb Gray

Well, thankfully that is done! For those of you who do not know yet, in October Caleb decided what he wanted to do for his Eagle.  He would choose a local assisted living center (Beehive Homes), have some Christmas decorations made by our ward and family, then go with some of our ward and decorate the living center and sing some Christmas carols to them.  How did it go?

The prep work.  We cut up some wood from a branch in our back yard and made some cute ribbon Christmas trees for the residents.  Caleb also had some Relief Society sisters sew up a few Christmas scarves for the residents as well.

Caleb set up a room at our ward Christmas party for the ward members to come back and help make the decorations for Beehive Homes.  Some of the them turned out really cute and the primary kids all had a lot of fun helping Caleb.  As Caleb put it, "it went extremely well.  Better than I expected."

Some of the door decorations that were made for the project.

Last night, 7 December 2016, was the night of completion.  We gathered at the church before driving to Beehive Homes.  There was a great turnout (32) and so we had plenty of help with decorating and singing.

Caleb was not feeling too well that day, head cold and pinched nerve that gave his right leg pain, but the show still happened.  Caleb did great!  As Rob put it, "For a service project run by a 13 year old, it was great!"  Caleb feels that it went really well.  I think that the residents enjoyed the singing.  I, Diedre, hope that there are enough decorations to make their home look cheery for the holidays and that we did enough.  You know, basic mom worries of, "Did we do enough?"  Peter said this, "Mom, I think that the people there just liked having us come and spend time with them."  Peter speaks the truth.

So, an Eagle project.  The scout is supposed to learn leadership skills and serve his community, "help others at all times."  I hope Caleb learned some of that while doing all the work for this project.  He did not enjoy me reminding him of things here and there.  He did not enjoy the footwork of approaching strangers and asking for their help or donations.  The paperwork is still to come, so I am sure there will be more nagging to get that done.  However, my hope is that Caleb had JOY in his service to others.  Also, that this small piece of service helps the people at Beehive Homes feel special and cared for.