ARTICLES

Eagle Scout gathers clothes for Haiti

By Jean Denton
Special to the Catholic Virginian

The middle school students at the school in Saltadere, Haiti, are getting a boost to their meager wardrobes thanks to a Charlottesville Boy Scout and the generous, coordinated support of the city’s three Catholic churches.

Anthony Poehailos, 15, took on a daunting task for his Eagle Scout project which grew even larger as he went along. His plan was to collect gently-used, summer-weight clothing for middle school children in the Haitian village that is twinned with his parish, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Holy Comforter Parish.

He began with a clothing drive in the fall at the two parishes and Incarnation Parish as well, which sponsors his Troop 17.

Later he added a second phase to his project to include new clothing: socks, underwear and sneakers.

In the end, he and his troop had gathered more than 900 used garments and 450 new items to be shipped by sea container to Haiti. The Scouts, with their families and friends also raised the shipping costs by working concessions at Charlottesville’s John Paul Jones arena on two weekends. That came courtesy of the local Knights of Columbus who offered him their regular weekend slots.

Anthony, the oldest of four sons in his family, is an altar server at St. Thomas Aquinas parish and a freshman honor student at Monticello High School. A Boy Scout Eagle project requires that the Scout not do the actual work himself but plan and organize it and supervise others in carrying it out.

Anthony said he got the idea for his project from his pastor, Father Brian Mulcahy, and followed up by a personal visit with the Saltadere pastor, Father Rene Blot, when he visited Charlottesville. The Haitian priest told the Scout that “everyday clothing” for children in preschool through ninth grade was much needed.

Knowing he had to narrow the project, Anthony explained later, he decided to provide for middle-school-age children “because they can hand them down to the younger kids.”

He said his fall collection was harder as he was still learning to communicate and organize his workers, but contributions piled in. The biggest chore was getting all the clothing washed, he noted, but his St. Thomas parishioners washed as the Scouts sorted.

After the first of the year he used his improved organizing skills to set up “giving trees” at the three churches who responded beyond his expectations.

“I wasn’t going for much,” he admitted, “but I was really overwhelmed by how generous people were — we got some 30 and 40-dollar shoes.”

In fact, Anthony said he learned much more than leadership through his project.

“I learned about the Catholic sense of oneness by practical application,” he explained, “seeing the unity of all the churches here and with St. Michel’s in Haiti, too.”

He added that in preparing for his project he learned about conditions in Saltadere.

“Knowing about the life of the young people at the church and school in Saltadere really motivated me to do the very best I could, because I knew what a big difference it would make to them,” he said.

In all, his volunteers had tightly packed 80 cubic feet of clothing and shoes in boxes, and St. Thomas Haiti Twinning coordinators Vince and Terri Powers drove them to the sea container in Virginia Beach a few weeks ago.

“He was awesome,” Terri Powers said of Anthony. “He did all the planning and got a lot of help from the parishes. He was a delight to work with.”

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