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Eagle Scout project at mission is child’s play
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
The Sprague family’s connection to Warren Family Mission has led one of its children to carry out an Eagle Scout project providing the mission’s drug treatment facility for women a playground for their children.
When Stephen Sprague, 17, of Bristolville, needed a service project that would satisfy the requirements to become an Eagle Scout, he focused on the mission because he and his family had worked with the nonprofit in the past.
Through their church, the Sprague family had participated in dinners and fundraising efforts at the Christian-based organization.
Stephen said he decided to focus his project on Hannah’s House in Vienna, the mission’s residential drug-treatment facility for women, because he knew someone who worked there. The mission also has facilities for men, women and children in Warren.
Together, Stephen and the mission staff decided that he could best help Hannah’s House by providing the facility with a playground for the children of the women living there.
“They get kids down there, and there’s not a lot for them to do with their mothers,” Stephen said.
So Stephen organized a pulled-pork lunch that was delivered to businesses in the Vienna, Howland, Warren and Bristolville areas in July. It raised $3,000.
The money was enough to purchase a $1,500 playground and landscaping materials. The remaining funds will be donated to the mission.
Last Friday and Saturday, Stephen, his family, members of Boy Scout Troop 75 of Bristolville and their families constructed the playground.
Projects such as this are meant to teach leadership and communication skills, but Stephen said the project also brought him satisfaction when he saw the kids using the playground.
“They seemed to be really enjoying it,” he said.
Michelle Beauchene, director of development and community relations for the mission, said Hannah’s House, which opened in the former New Life Maternity Home on Warren-Sharon Road in October 2009, now houses 10 women.
Residents of Hannah’s House generally stay for a year, learning how to live without drugs or alcohol. Warren Family Mission provides food, shelter, clothing and other help free of charge from donated funds.
For the first year or two of Hannah’s House, the facility was for women only, but more recently, it began allowing their children also, and there are now about seven who either live there or visit. Some come only on weekends.
“We’re so excited there’s something for them to do,” Beauchene said of the children, adding that Sprague “worked hard to make a huge difference for the kids here and the kids in the future. It’s going to get a lot of use.”