As he considered ideas for the capstone project of his Boy Scout career, Gryphon Miller kept coming back to childhood memories when his family lived in Colorado and provided foster care.
Many of the kids who came to their home were scared, timid, looking for anything that could bring a sense of order. Miller, whose family now lives on Star Lake south of Litchfield, wanted to do an Eagle Scout project that focused on children in those difficult situations.
In early May, he delivered, in a big way.
Though not his original idea, Miller’s project of creating visitation backpacks for children brought smiles to the faces of Meeker County Social Services workers and seemed destined to do the same for youngsters and their parents.
Miller, accompanied by his parents, brought 15 completed backpacks, filled with age-appropriate activities from coloring and sticker books to games and puzzles and crafts, to Social Services Foster Care and Child Protection Supervisor Kirsten Langerman and Foster Care Licensing Specialist Tina Redepenning happily accepted them. In addition to the completed backpacks, the Millers delivered several unfilled backpacks and items with which to fill them.
“It’s awesome,” Redepenning said. “It’s going to be a great tool to use with our families. I think families will love it.”
Miller, 17, is a member of Boy Scout Troop 3224 in Willmar, who graduated from Minnesota Virtual Academy this spring. He’s been involved in Scouting since he was in first grade, with his mother, Liz, having been a den mother when they lived in Colorado and then helping to reestablish a Cub Scout pack in Litchfield after the family moved to Minnesota about two years ago.
Gryphon steadily advanced through Cub Scouts, then through the various levels of Boy Scouts. In addition to earning the required number of merit badges, a Boy Scout must complete a community service project in order to earn Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the organization.
Projects often involve constructing something like a sign or furniture, or repairing an item for a community organization. But, Gryphon Miller admitted with a smile, building things isn’t really in his skill set. Plus, he had those memories of foster care kids from his growing up years in Colorado, so he reached out to Meeker County Social Services to pitch an idea that would meet the community service requirement of his Eagle Scout project, and be helpful to youth in the foster care system.
“It was an idea we had a while ago,” he said. “Our original idea was to give duffel bags to kids in foster care, so that when they’re going to new families, they have places for their stuff.”
Though they appreciated the offer, Redepenning said, the duffel bag idea didn’t really fit needs of the county’s foster care system.
While there weren’t enough children in foster care placement — the agency does its best to prevent out-of-home placement whenever possible, Langerman said — there was another need.
“Because he wanted his project to be specifically for kids in care, we talked about the times when families are then getting back together, and doing visitation, to have activities that they can do together as a family,” Langerman said. “So, they’re not bored during these visits, or not knowing what to do when they’re in these unnatural settings … we talked about some fun activities that sometimes their parents either can’t afford, or they’re not sure what to bring.”
Social Services staff members or another agency provide supervision for visits, sometimes at the Family Services Building, sometimes at a park or library or the family’s home, depending on what the child and family want and what level of supervision is required. The backpacks Miller created through his Eagle Scout project will ensure a portable activity pack that will be ready to use in any of those situations, Redepenning said.
“We’ve in the past had to scrounge up some things, like if people weren’t thinking about bringing something for a visit, or it’s just a last-minute thing, or they’re kind of in between and don’t have the ability to bring items,” Redepenning said of visitation prior to Miller’s project. “People don’t want to come and sit in a room and just look at each other. Right? So, having some meaningful activity that they can do together as a family is something that we just saw a need for, when kids do enter care.”
Social Services staff suggested that, based on children in placement and the visitation system, Miller try to put together 15 of the visitation bags. Knowing children in the system range in age from birth to 18, Miller put together a plan for creating five visitation backpacks for each of three age groups — birth to 3, 4-10, and 11 and older.
“They should last us, hopefully, at least a year or so,” Langerman said. “It sounds like he has a fairly good system for how to utilize them, and it might depend, too, we have family who enter (with) multiple age groups within that one family. So it might be, based on what I’m seeing, two bags might be appropriate to meet the needs of the family, as well.”
Miller said he envisioned the bags as a “lend-out system,” going out with a family, but coming back to Social Services to be used by another family in the future. But he said that with his part completed, it would be up to staff to decide how best to use the bags.
However they’re used in the future, the backpacks are well-stocked and have a well-organized inventory system. Along with purchasing the backpacks and activity items, Miller created laminated cards that indicate the items in each bag, allowing for easy tracking of items that might need to be replaced.
In addition to providing a community service, the Eagle Scout project is designed to give the Boy Scout an opportunity to organize and lead his fellow Scouts in doing the project. Miller did that by bringing other members of Troop 3224 together to decorate and assemble the backpacks. One session saw the Scouts use their artistic talents to individualized artwork on the outside of each backpack. During a second session, Miller directed his fellow Scouts in assembling and stuffing each of the backpacks.
Before all the assembly, though, Miller needed funds to purchase the backpacks and activity items. He wrote letters to various service organizations asking for their support and was overwhelmed with the response, receiving more than $1,200, a sum greater than the goal. Among the donors were VFW clubs in Litchfield and Willmar, VFW Auxiliary in Willmar, Marine Corps League and Eagles Club.
At one point, it looked like their donations would amount to $750, Miller said, so he created a budget to purchase the original goal of 15 backpacks and items to fill each of them. But just when he thought they had everything, they received additional donations, allowing another shopping expedition to add about $500 worth of backpacks and activities.
He’s happy with the project, and what it means to achieve the Eagle Scout rank. But just as importantly, Miller said, he’s happy it could make a difference for kids and families who might need a boost.
“I wanted to do something that meant something to me, and that I could give back to an organization that maybe didn’t have as much, you know, support from the Eagle community,” Miller added. “These were actually really fun. It was kind of new. There weren’t very many other ideas for Eagle Scout projects that I really wanted to do. We kind of figured this out the first couple of years I was in Boy Scouts, and I kind of just stuck to that as I ranked up.”
