Scout helps foster kids learn

MOREHEAD CITY - Collin Edge of Morehead City is only 13 years old, but he's already experienced enough to know that there are kids who could use his help.

He's seen them come through his front door.

His parents have provided foster care for various children over the years and too often, he said, the children arrived at their home with little more than the clothes on their backs.

"I remember how all the kids would come with nothing," he said.

It's a memory that made an impression on Collin, and he has turned the experience into his Eagle Scout service project.

Collin, a rising eighth-grader at Morehead Middle School and a Life Scout in Troop 130, is collecting supplies for children in foster care in Carteret County.

Binders, notebook paper, pencils, crayons, markers and glue sticks are filling boxes at his home and two collection sites in town. Before school begins the supplies will all be stuffed in backpacks and book bags and given to children who need them.

The goal is to make sure all school-age children in foster care in the county are prepared for their first day of class.

"It gives them a chance to get better grades in school," Collin said.

If more supplies are collected than needed for the foster children, then other underprivileged children in the county will be helped.

All children, he said, should have the supplies they need to do well in school.

"If they have to have special things in school, they should have them. It gives them a better chance," he said.

Collin first discussed his project idea with his parents and then talked to his scoutmaster and got the approval of Carteret County Department of Social Services Director David Atkinson.

With approval at the local level, Collin took his proposal to the East Carolina Council of the Boy Scouts of America and has since been putting his action plan to work.

"I wrote a lot of letters," Collin laughed when asked how he kicked off his plans.

Letters went out to family members and businesses and fliers were distributed around his neighborhood, church and scout events.

He's spent his summer tracking collections and donations. It has been hard work, he said, but the community has been supportive.

"They've wanted to help," he said.

Liz Edge said the project has been Collin's to carry out, but it is one that touches close to home and has the family's full support.

"Obviously it is personal to our family," she said. "He picked this up and started it and we've felt it is really important as a family."

Liz and her husband, Joe, who serves in the Coast Guard, provided foster care to children for about five years while the family was stationed in Hawaii and Massachusetts.

"There was always room on the couch for one more," she said.

Collin and his older sister, Mikaela, 14, were always accepting of their parents' choice. Their youngest siblings, Patrick, 10, and Joanna, 8, were adopted through foster care.

Liz Edge said the Eagle Scout project has proven to be a valuable experience for her son and as the community has learned about the project, she hopes people have seen that there are children around us who need our help.

"People don't realize that there are kids in need of help right here in Carteret County," she said.

Collin is glad to provide what help he can and glad his service project was accepted. It was his first - and only - idea.

"It was the one that I wanted to do," he said.

Collin will be collecting supplies until about one week before school starts in Carteret County on Aug. 25.

Donations can be dropped off at the Morehead Middle School office or at the St. Egbert Catholic Church office. The school office is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. The church office is open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m. until noon.

Or contact Collin Edge by e-mail at CMEdge94@ec.rr.com.

Contact Carteret County reporter Jannette Pippin at jpippin@freedomenc.com or 252-808-2275. Visit www.jdnews.com to comment on this report.