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Scout’s Inspiring Eagle Project Helps New Moms, Infants at NICU

For new moms with a child in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), their world can be filled with uncertainty, fear, and huge amounts of stress.

Anyone who has had this experience or known someone who has gone through it can attest that every day presents challenges, and that the moments new moms are able to spend directly with their child are truly precious.

Scout's Inspiring Eagle Project Helps New Moms, Infants at NICU
He built footstools to help new moms at the NICU to be more comfortable (photo: WISN News)

Scout Tony M., of the Boy Scouts of America Potawatomi Area Council knew all to well what that experience was like. He watched his mother go through difficult times at the NICU when his younger brother was born.

It made a real impact on the young man.

So, when he was looking for an opportunity to give back to his community through his Eagle Scout project, Tony hit upon the idea of doing something that would help the same NICU that had been so good to his own family years before.

Tony knew that many of the new moms with children in the NICU would be facing a lot of discomfort, both mental and physical, and he decided to focus his project on helping to provide just a little more comfort for them.

The NICU had several rocking chairs that new moms would use when holding their children, but Tony thought of a way to make the experience even more comfortable for the new moms and their children.

For his Eagle Scout project, he provided the NICU with several hand-made wooden footstools that would allow new moms to put their feet up and sit more comfortably when they spent time with their children in the rocking chairs.

“Every time we use these stools, we’ll have a story to tell the mothers about someone wanting to give these stools to make them more comfortable and happy here,” said registered nurse Lori Kallin.

Tony’s mother, Jennifer, was also touched by her son’s project and proud of the work he had done.

“These moms, hundreds and hundreds of moms, are going to hold their children for the first time using something that my baby made,” she said.

To learn more about Tony’s inspiring, heartfelt project, be sure to check out the whole story from WISN News.

To learn more about the positive impact that Scouting can have on young people like Tony, be sure to check out this article on the recent Tufts study, and watch this video:

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