Braxton's Eagle Project

This great kid did a nice Eagle project, especially considering the amount of work.  First, he had researched and found "Giant Steps", an organization that educates and helps out individuals and families of those with autism.  Braxton (after 3 months) got it approved to hold a book drive and build book shelves.  To follow up, he was going to hold a special read-in with the youth group at our church with the students.  Then we broke the news that we were moving and life went in fast forward.  We were not able to complete that project.

So, living in Idaho…we were struggling finding out what we could do for his project.  Finally, I went to the scout office and just asked if there were some references we could have (because we just don't know people) and sure enough, they said that just that morning, the head of the American Red Cross had come in begging for a scout to host a blood drive.  We both felt our prayers had been answered.  Little did we know the anxiety and stress this would cause over the next month.

Braxton prepared a 10 minute presentation along with a guest speaker (our Bishop who is the head of the ER at the local hospital) about the need for donating blood, how to prepare, answers to commonly asked questions, etc.  He gave this at a humanitarian day held at our ward building.

Here he is holding the Heartland Blood Center calendar where Lizzie and I were featured for the month of July because of my birth story.

He then worked his tail off giving at least 5 other presentations around the community and training other scouts on what to say and how to ask for donors in 9 different wards.  He also scheduled volunteers to work in 6 different areas through the day of the blood drive.

Some were in the nursery

Others could work the snack station, check-in, running between stations, or walkers who escort the donors from the beds to the recovery tables.

Mrs. Gladstone from the Red Cross came by to check on him and see how everything was going.

This was the welcoming party

Barb was one of our first donors.

After checking in, the volunteers would wait to go through the questions with the Red Cross.  These chairs were full almost the whole time!

Rick Wallis was a key player in helping remove my stress and assisting Braxton.  He is his teachers' quorum leader and knows everyone in Idaho Falls.  After Braxton and Steve and spent 12 hours asking for snack donations for 3 days and getting all "No's" except for 2 cases of waters, Rick cashed in on a few IOUs with some buddies who owned convenience stores and got Gatorades and Juices for us. 

He was my saving grace through this whole ordeal.

Our donors were of all ages!  This manly senior football player was such a good sport to do this!

One of the requirements was to have a Thank You treat to hand out to all donors, volunteers, and employees of the Red Cross.  

Bro. Fuhrman thought this would be hilarious.

Deacons could help set up and take down and count it towards their own volunteer hours.

Here's one of the many convenience stores who said No.

How could they resist him?  They all blamed the economy.  Thank goodness we were allowed to have homemade treats and that the Relief Society ROCKS!  20 different women donated cookies, crackers, fruit, chex mix, cheese, yogurts, etc.  We had the best snacks!

Overall, we are just glad to have it OVER!  Braxton had 50 units donated and 69 volunteers check in the computer system.  We were told 50 is what was required in order to "count" as a completed project.  Later, we were told that it was all a misunderstanding and that really he only needed 50 signed up.  Nice.  Oh, well.  We were praying for 50 units and God delivered on our plea.  All of the workers had told Braxton that it was one of the best run blood drives they had ever been to and that they would stand up for him if necessary.  How kind!