November 24, 2004
Helping women in transition
earns RHS student Eagle badge
His
faith and a desire to help those less fortunate spurred
Reynolds High School freshman Preston Dyre to organize a home
improvement project for My Sister’s House, a local women’s
shelter.
Preston, who is 15 and a member of Boy Scout Troop No. 542,
had been looking for a community service Eagle Scout project
for more than a year when he was inspired to help My
Sister’s House.
“I just was looking for an Eagle project, and I wanted one
that would be representative of me,” Preston said.
He put nearly 40 hours into the project, writing out a
detailed action plan for the project, explaining the work to
be done, who would be performing the tasks, the donations that
were needed and a safety plan in case of emergency.
As part of the project, Preston and the other volunteers spent
most of Saturday, Nov. 20, raking leaves, building a woodshed
and filling it with firewood to help save on electric costs
for heating, spreading bark dust and planting bulbs.
Preston also secured donations from Cinnabon, Ace Hardware,
Lowe’s, Fred Meyer, Albertsons and Papa John’s Pizza for
the project, which allowed him to place a bench on the front
porch of the house and provide a wheelbarrow to move the wood
from the shed to the house.
“I think he just felt like this was a place that needed a
lot of stuff,” his aunt Sherry Dickson said.
Becky Coleman, the founder and director of My Sister’s
House, said she is in awe of the work that Preston and the
three dozen volunteers have done.
“I can’t believe it,” she said. “I’ve not
experienced the abundance of God like that. Sometimes it’s
just overwhelming.”
In addition to the projects he has already completed, Preston
said he would like to collect a two-year supply of laundry
detergent for the women at My Sister’s House.
“It’s just awesome to see him out in the community doing
this kind of stuff,” Preston’s cousin Brittany Dickson
said.
My Sister’s House, which operates out of a home owned by
Trinity Lutheran Church, is a transitional home for young
women who are pregnant or those with children who have nowhere
else to go.
Many of the women were living on the streets or on friends’
couches before coming to My Sister’s House, Coleman said.
Some have experienced domestic violence.
Dyre said he wanted the women at My Sister’s House to know
that “boys aren’t all bad,” adding that he hoped he and
his friends could be good role models for the young boys
living at the house with their mothers.
