Aiming for an Eagle Scout designation, Austin Birk of Jackson is spearheading a canned food drive and food storage improvements for Hope Children's Home, a not-for-profit children's home that provides emergency shelter for foster children in the Cape Girardeau and surrounding counties.
Wednesday, Birk was making a start on a canned-food holder and shelves for Hope Children's Home at his grandfather's shed. He's getting help on the venture from his father, Dale, and Keaton Birk, a fellow Boy Scout and Austin's 16-year-old cousin.
Birk, 17, just graduated from Saxony Lutheran High School. According to an email from his mother, Teresa, Austin has been a member of Boy Scout Troop 311 since sixth grade and is a Life Scout working toward the Eagle rank.
He has completed more than 100 service hours doing projects throughout the community, including placing flags on holidays, serving with Heart for Africa in Swaziland, Africa, and participating in youth projects at St. Paul Lutheran Church and Ukandu Missions in Chicago, Teresa wrote. She said she has been to Swaziland four times, and Austin has accompanied her twice.
She said the trip was eye-opening and "very, very impactful."
Along with the Eagle Scout project, Austin is working on completing badges for hiking, family life and personal fitness. Scouts are required to earn 21 badges to reach Eagle Scout.
Birk said he has until his 18th birthday in July to complete the Eagle Scout journey. Asked if he always wanted to reach that goal, he said sometimes he'd want to reach that objective and "then I'd want to just chill out and have fun for a while; then I'd go back to actually wanting to get some stuff done."
Now is one those times.
Birk said people can contribute canned goods now through June 13 and he hopes to complete the dispenser in a week or two.
Canned food collection sites, according to an email from Teresa Birk, include:
* Roy's Tire, 408 E. Jackson Blvd. in Jackson
* St. Paul Lutheran Church office, 223 W. Adams St. in Jackson
* Elite Travel, 354 S. Silver Springs Road in Cape Girardeau
* MedAssets Resource Group, 280 S. Mount Auburn Road in Cape Girardeau.
Teresa Birk suggested a project for Hope Children's Home, as she knows executive director Crissy Mayberry. According to its website, Hope Children's Home is a transitional home where children can be brought when they are taken into protective custody. Children receive "nurturing care, a meal, clothing, a warm bed and a full medical, dental and psychological screening while arrangements for an appropriate foster home can be made," the site said.
Mayberry said there are 12 people residing in the home, which serves Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger counties.
Mayberry said Austin Birk planned the whole project from start to finish.
"It was such a unique and unusual idea," she said. "It wasn't something I would have ever thought of and it was something that we could really use."
Having been in Boy Scouts for so many years, Birk said reaching Eagle Scout will be the capstone to his long scouting career.
"It will be kind of a good peak to the mountain that I just ended up climbing," Birk said, adding he got into Scouts to have fun.
The experience, Birk said, has taught him to be a leader, "even if you don't really want to be."
"At some point, everyone has to step up to the plate, and actually sometimes bite the bullet. They don't want to, but in the end, it benefits them," he added.
Birk has a 3-year-old sister, Hope.
When he's not scouting, Austin washes dishes and makes salads part time at Gordonville Grill, where he has been working for about two years. He plans to attend Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri, in the fall.
rcampbell@semissourian.com
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