Oswego: Boy Scout's Service Project Benefits People With Autism

OSWEGO, IL — To become an Eagle Scout - the Boy Scouts' highest rank - a candidate must plan, organize and execute a service project to benefit members of their community. One such candidate, Evan Allgaier of Oswego, decided in October that his project should benefit a specific slice of his community. He designed a project to help people that, like himself, are autistic.

"I thought I could make some sensory rooms on wheels in the form of carts... for local churches," the 14-year-old Allgaier said. "Because they don't have enough room for actual sensory rooms."

Allgaier recruited relatives, neighbors, local business owners and fellow churchgoers at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to build eight 3' x 2' x 2' wooden "sensory carts." Each one will be filled with tactile items to help over-stimulated people with Autism center themselves. These items, Allgaier said, include wobble cushions, fidget spinners, water snakes and bubble timers, among others.

The groups he contacted donated the items or contributed the finances to buy them, and his small army of volunteers - about 30 people total - helped tally the items and partially assemble the carts on Saturday, Nov. 30. The local Portillos also donated food for the event. Involving the community is a necessary part of the project, Allgaier said, and the work still isn't completely finished.

"We haven't finished all [the carts] all the way... there were a lot of people my age [who helped], though there were some older people," he said.

The cart materials and stimulation items together cost about $2000, Evan's mother Jennifer Allgaier said, slightly more expensive than their initial estimates of $1800. As part of the project, Evan has to keep track of these costs and who donated what. He will also have to oversee the delivery of each cart to eight church branches with autistic members. That step is still a few weeks off.

"We're hoping to deliver everything on December 14," Jennifer Allgaier said.

The process for becoming an Eagle Scout does not end with completing the service project. There is a review process to be completed afterward, to make sure the project was done according to the Boy Scouts of America's regulations. Allgaier will also eventually have to sit before a Board of Review - a council of adult scout leaders who will recount his entire scouting career and ascertain whether or not he deserves this final promotion. It is a drawn-out affair that can often take months and several tries to complete, and only about 3% of all youths who join scouting will eventually reach Eagle rank. Complicating matters, scouts are no longer eligible to attain the rank after their 18th birthday.

Allgaier seemed confident he could meet the challenge, given that he is undertaking his project with four years to spare.

"I want to get my eagle because it is something that I've been working on and I don't want to finish scouting without completing the Eagle," he said.