Edina Boys Earn Eagle Scout For Outstanding Community Service

Online, August 12, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Ben Fogg and T.J. Barden are good friends growing up together, birthday parties together, music recitals together, and attending church together. Now they are serving the community and receiving their Eagle Scout Awards together.

Ben Fogg is a student at Valley View Junior High (son of Cynthia and David Fogg). He wanted to help beautify the community. Ben first sought out Vince Cockriel, Edina Park Maintenance Supervisor, where he learned about work needed at Valley Creek Park.

Then Ben met with Tom Horwath, Edina Forester, who helped him select trees for the project and later taught Ben and his helpers the correct way to plant trees.

With the help of family, students from Valley Creek Elementary School, and approximately 50 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ben built a stone retaining wall and planted a garden around the park sign, poured a cement slab for a new park bench, and spent a full day working in the rain to get 23 trees planted.

When the project was winding down, Horwath remarked that Ben's project was the most complex and difficult Scout project he had ever seen.

T.J. Barden is a student at South View Middle School (son of Robin and R. Christopher Barden). He wanted to do something for soldiers in Afghanistan. He learned about Marine Parents on the internet. They ship 'comfort' packages, donated and delivered to them, to soldiers in the Middle East.

After establishing a relationship with Marine Parents, T.J. set out to contact Richard Birk at Jerry's Foods and Gary Larson at Cub Foods.

Birk assisted T.J. with a plan to pre-assemble 125 "Comfort for Soldiers" bags which were then purchased and donated by customers shopping at Jerry's Foods between June 17 and July 5. Each package contained drink mixes, beef jerky, toothbrushes, toothpaste, batteries, nuts, fruit rolls, granola bars, canned fruit, canned meat, and candy.

Larson agreed to let T.J. pass out flyers in the parking lot that asked customers to purchase one or more items needed for soldiers while doing their shopping in Cub Foods. T.J. organized 18 members of the Church to work three-hour shifts on June 18. By 3:00 p.m., they had filled 15 recycling bins with donated items--equivalent to another 125 'comfort' packages.

Lund's Foods donated a $50 coupon that T.J. used to buy needed zip lock bags.

T.J. arranged to have Edina Lions Club, Kid's Club at Concord Elementary School, and local members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints write letters of appreciation to the troops. Two hundred handwritten letters were delivered with the 'comfort' packages to Marine Parents.

U.S. Congressman Erik Paulsen was impressed with T.J.'s work. He wrote a letter of support and followed T.J.'s progress throughout the project.

In the end, Ben's project documented 301 hours of community service and T.J. documented 250 hours. When asked what they had learned in earning their Eagle Scouts, Ben said, "I learned a lot about leadership but also learned that it can be a lot of hard work." T.J. said he learned a lot about problem solving.

Ben and T.J. belong to Troup 3175 sponsored by the Lake Nokomis Ward (think parish) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Our Church is devoted to serving the community," said Bishop R. Chris Barden (think Pastor). "Serving others blesses and strengthens everyone-the giver, the recipient and the community."

Church members will celebrate with the new Eagle Scouts following a Court of Honor on August 13 and will show their commitment to community service by working at Feed My Starving Children earlier in the day.

The Lake Nokomis Ward is part of the Minneapolis Minnesota Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Stake has eight congregations with members residing in Minneapolis, Edina, Eden Prairie, Bloomington, Richfield, St. Louis Park, and other western suburbs. The Church has over 30,300 members in 80 congregations in Minnesota and over 14 million members world-wide.

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