From left -- Joshua O’Cain, Alex Marjanovich, Jonluke O’Cain and Caleb O’Cain.
Eagle Scout Candidate Joshua O'Cain of Boy Scout Troop 673 is giving thanks and honoring military service members in two ways this Veterans Day. As his Eagle project, he along with friends constructed wooden boxes to collect hundreds of books ranging from preschool level to high school for the children of wounded warriors, active duty and veterans being served at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) Pediatrics Department. It houses 13 clinics to include Cardiology, Rheumatology, Hematology-Oncology, Pulmonary and Asthma Management. Children being seen either have books read to them or read books in the lobby as they wait for their treatment. They can take the book home with them to keep or finish. As such, the bookshelves need to be refilled often and the Pediatrics Department relies on donations to supply books to their young patients. The WRNMMC Pediatrics Book Donation Drive will be held Nov. 6 - 19, 2016, and Joshua will be accepting books in gently used to good or new condition.
There will be a wooden box where you can drop off your book donations at The Brogue, Starbucks, and Safeway in Great Falls. If you have a larger quantity and would like to request pickup service contact Joshua at cbocain2@hotmail.com. In addition to the military focused Eagle project, Joshua and his family are supporting a service organization called Military Operation Kindness. Operation Kindness combines military thank you letters with donations of snacks, toiletries, socks, sports equipment and coffee to make care packages for deployed troops throughout the year. The O'Cain family have written over 600 thank you military letters this year to soldiers deployed away from their families for the upcoming holiday season. And, more than 500 letters last year.