Scouts Brave Cold, Coronavirus For 'A Gift From The Heart'

BRIARCLIFF MANOR, NY — A Briarcliff teen and his fellow Boy Scouts spent Saturday in a driveway-and-garage-based assembly line putting together care packages for cancer patients to help fill a void caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Paul Creegan, a 14-year-old in Troop 18, got the idea because throughout his childhood he had joined his grandfather and father to help pack fruit baskets with the Pleasantville Lions Club and deliver them to the Sisters at the Rosary Hill Home for the terminally ill.

This year, the Lions Club was unable to do it because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But Creegan wanted to ensure that the patients still received individual gifts, so he decided that the beneficiary of his Boy Scout Eagle Project would be the residents at Rosary Hill.

"Community service is very important and is something I learned from my grandparents and parents," he said. "I feel it is my responsibility to carry this forward. I’m also very honored to dedicate this project to my mom who is a cancer survivor."

Under his leadership, the Scouts worked in assembly-line style in his grandmother’s garage in Pleasantville, to fill dozens of tote bags with toiletries, Sudoku games, adult coloring books and colored pencils.

Rosary Hill Home, owned and operated by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne since 1901, provides one-on-one palliative care to those suffering from terminal cancer.

"We are thrilled to accept Paul's Eagle Project," said Mother Mary Francis Lepore, OP, Superior General, Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. "It will bring great joy to our residents, especially at this difficult time. We are so happy to see such a caring young man helping us at Rosary Hill."

Creegan, a third-generation Boy Scout and freshman at Fordham Preparatory School, funded the project with money from his own savings, and solicited donations from family and friends.

Since the bags will be delivered in time for Valentine’s Day, he named his project "A Gift from the Heart."

When the project is completed, Paul will be one step closer to earning the rank of Eagle Scout.