http://youtu.be/-Ch8P3G9Zko
Every Month the company Free Country honors someone in the United States with the Everyday Hero Award and this month a teenager in Las Cruces was honored for a project he did with Community of Hope.
16-year-old Joseph Harley Strawn is working to become an Eagle Scout. When he was trying to settle on what service project he could do, he decided to work with an organization that he felt connected to, Community of Hope.
“I learned about Community of Hope because a former scoutmaster who had been a very big impact on my life,” Strawn said. “He was here for part of his life, and he passed away before I even began the Eagle Scout project. I just wanted to commemorate this for him, so that’s why I came here.”
Camp Hope helped his former scoutmaster get back on his feet, so Strawn asked Executive Director of Mesilla Valley Community of Hope, Nicole Martinez, what project he could help with. He decided on helping put a solar panel on the guard shack. Something Martinez said is very helpful.
“We have camper residents here who don’t have electricity in the evening,” Martinez said. “And we are asking them to stand guard at the guard shack 24/7. And so this is really a way that would allow them to have that safety feature of having a light, and access to be able to charge things that they might need that help them as their working on transitioning out of their homelessness.”
Strawn says he helped coordinate different organizations that were willing to donate their time and money, as well as digging a trench for the wiring, and working on putting together a solar battery. He says this is the biggest project he’s ever completed.
“I had led some things in the past before,” Strawn said. “But nothing like this. It was kind of intimidating, a little bit. You’ve got this big goal; this was a $6,000 project so that’s pretty big. Can I even do this, sometimes I didn’t think I could do this but I’m glad I stuck with it. I’m glad I got everyone coordinated.”
Nicole Martinez says the residents have taken full advantage of the new solar power, and work to conserve the energy as much as possible.
“They love it,” Martinez said. “The residents have been really grateful to all the support that Joseph has given, and he did have a great team that was helping him with that, engineering without boundaries, positive energy, we did receive some funding some funding and support from the Las Cruces Homebuilder’s Association. The residents were really excited on the day they came here. Even today, they came up to thank him again for helping with this project. I think it makes them feel that they are part of the community when people do recognize that they are here and they are working toward self sufficiency.”
His father, Ken Strawn, says Joseph wasn’t sure if he wanted to accept the award for his work.
“He’s going I don’t really want this publicity,” Strawn said. “I’m not a hero, but if I can bring some more publicity to this place, maybe they can get a shade tree or some other items that they really need. So, he plans on still helping them once he earns his eagle rank advancement.”
He says they are proud their son has always felt connected to helping others.
“Very proud, his mother and I are very proud of him,” Strawn said. “He’s been doing service for a long time, and we’re very proud. He’s almost completing his eagle rank advancements to the highest in scouts.”
Joseph says teenagers can help a lot of people if they put their mind to it.
“I feel teenagers can do a lot,” Strawn said. “A lot more than they think, they just need to get the motivation. Maybe sometime is contact, and maybe sometimes it’s people not thinking they can do much. But really, if you look at this I’m just a 16-year- old who’s just got a big idea, and just decided to go with it.”
He says he wouldn’t have been able to complete the project without the help and support he got, and plans on continuing to help at Community of Hope.
