Jacob’s Eagle Project

Jacob got his project approved a couple months ago, but due to the weather, holidays, and scheduling, he hasn’t been able to make a big push.

That changed last weekend.

The project was to lead a bike drive for Bicycle Collective, an organization that take the bikes, donates them to needy individuals, but also teaches classes to provide employment and skills for a lot of people. When Jacob and I first visited there were some refugees in there putting together parts to build up their own bikes. Super cool organization.

Jacob got a lot of bikes from our ward and neighborhood, but his goal was to collect more than 50. So last week he and his troop delivered several hundred flyers around Highland. Jacob created the flyer, organized the routes, send out the scouts, helped deliver flyers, arranged a pick-up date, reserved a trailer, assigned scouts to pick up the bikes, help in the actual collection process, then organized a third meeting of scouts to help reload the trailer with all the bikes. He put in a lot of work himself and showed an awful lot of leadership. When all was done, he delivered 64 bikes to Bicycle Collective.

The staff was impressed that he was able to collect so many bikes.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing though. There were a couple arguments with mom and dad about finishing the project. Some of the scouts didn’t want to help out and bailed on assignments. The collection day took longer than expected, and some people complained that they didn’t get their flyers in time to donate. But, overall I think Jacob did an excellent job and Manina and I are both very proud of him. Many people are going to benefit from those bikes. Jacob still has some merit badges to complete before he can earn his Eagle rank, but having the project done is a huge milestone. Way to go Jake!