By Ken Jarvis, Area Media Specialist
By nine in the morning it was already getting hot and the humidity was stifling. But underneath the pavilion behind the San Antonio West Stake’s Helotes Ward building a group of about 20 volunteers tried to ignore the heat as they prepared to help Eagle candidate Brayden Chatland accomplish his goal of building beds for San Antonio area children. Brayden’s team was working to support the Sleep in Heavenly Peace organization.
He admitted that the fundraising was a hard but good experience for him. “Honestly, I’m not a super outgoing person. I’m a little shy so it was a really good experience to go and talk to people.”
According to Scoutmaster, Jeffery Steffen, Brayden is one of 15 boys preparing to receive the Eagle award this year. “About six of them have completed an Eagle project and are waiting on a final board,” said Steffen. “That includes two young men who are not members of our Church.” The rest of the boys are moving swiftly toward completion.
Steffen went on to explain that they’ve been carefully working with the boys, mentoring and encouraging them to reach the pinnacle and the culminating event of the Scouting program in preparation for their greater service. “You get youth who are not used to coordinating and establishing a network of support but as they work through this little by little, line upon line they get the incremental skills that will allow them, in a couple of years, to reach out to others and ask, ‘Do you want to hear a message about our Savior, Jesus Christ.’”
Young Men’s President, Aaron Vaughn, believes working to obtain the Eagle rank helps a young man demonstrate his testimony of Jesus Christ. “They’re taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ at home and here they are not just participating but leading out in inviting and recruiting others to participate in a very worthwhile endeavor.” Vaughn was impressed with the range of service opportunities these Eagle projects provided the ward. “I would say we’ve had most members of the ward participate.”
According to Scoutmaster Steffen, some of the projects have been building a community board at a park, building a pathway in an outdoor garden at a school, and completing a small soccer field so the children of at-risk women would have a safe place to play. “We had one project of putting together hygiene kits, new baby kits, that were sent to another country. Today we’re building beds for children who don’t have one.”
Steffen summed up the goals of all the youth leaders saying, “We want men to be leaders of the community, to be leaders of the Church. Those are the types of skills they have to have balanced with gaining a testimony of Jesus Christ. All that works together to be an effective husband and father. To be an effective missionary.”