Eagle Scout Project Helps Hospitalized Children

A prospective Eagle Scout is helping children in hospitals here in the valley.
 
The two month long Eagle Scout project is coming to completion as they start to distribute what they call lily pads.

13-year-old Joshua Stephens brought his troop and the community together to help young hospital patients become a little more mobile.

The Eagle rank is the highest honor in Boy Scouts, but it doesn’t mean the end of the road for Joshua.
 
As part of the requirement, Stephens had to lead and organize the entire service project.
 
“It wasn’t just about getting it done, it was about getting it done right so it would be something we could utilize with our patients. He completely was in charge of this project,” Sanford Child Life Specialist Wendy Iwerks says.
 
“You’re gonna sit like this, that way you don’t slide off,” Joshua Stephens says, explaining his lily pads.
 
John Frer is the very first patient to use one of these, saying he likes being able to move around the hospital.
 
The idea came to Stephens after thinking back to when he was in the hospital.
 
“He said, well I had appendicitis, and I was stuck. And he remembered trying to walk from the hospital room to the playroom, and how horrid it was. I’m proud of him, I’m proud of the hard work that he did,” Joshua’s mother Robbie Stephens says.
 
The Boy Scouts of America say the average age for someone getting their Eagle Scout award is 17, but Joshua Stephens is only 13.
 
“If I don’t get it before I turn 18, I can’t get it at all, and it’s really important for me. Most kids don’t get it this young,” Stephens says.
 
Joshua Stephens’s friend Brett Whited is also set to get his Eagle at the young age of 13.

He helped out with Joshua’s project because he also had to stay in the hospital.
 
“When I was in the hospital, I mean, you sit there in the bed waiting until they say, you have this and here’s that, but now you can move around and have fun,” Whited says.
 
Most people leave scouting after getting this rank, but Stephens plans on sticking around.
 
He still has scouting goals, soaring even higher than the coveted Eagle.
 
“Get every single merit badge: that’s kind of a goal of mine that I’ve had for a long time,” Stephens says.
 
And with more than a hundred badges out there, he’s got a ways to climb, but he’s sure to help the community along the way.
 
Sanford says Joshua Stephen’s service project made and gave 13 lily pads to the hospital.