CHARLOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – For Scouting America Life Scout and Gainesville High School student Joshua Foster and his mother, the walls of the UVA Cancer Center were all too familiar.

Joshua’s mother, Keiko Foster, had undergone stem cell treatment; spending stretches of time in treatment centers in Winchester and Charlottesville away from family and friends and persevering through multiple complications that kept her from recovery. While there, one of the high points had been receiving a care package from a Life Scout as part of their service project required to become an Eagle Scout, the highest rank Scouting America offers.

Now, her son has assembled care packages for UVA Cancer Center patients, undertaking a similar service project to give back and become an Eagle Scout himself.

“I know what it’s like for someone to spend long periods of time in the hospital,” Joshua said. “I want there to be something for those patients to do.”

Months of outreach to local churches and other scouting groups for package supplies and donations culminated in bags piled with items from pens, crossword puzzles, blankets and tissues and a $1,117.21 financial contribution made out to the Cancer Center. Finally, each scout in Joshua’s troop signed a card left in every package.

Leaders of the cancer center and the stem cell transplant program held up Joshua’s work on Monday morning as the mother and son stood to the side holding their check, both the project and their cycle of giving back complete. 

Joshua, a member of Troop 2 in Winchester, began working in March before bringing the proposal to UVA Health in April. Judy Kauffman, the director of Cellular Therapy and Stem Cell Transplant Program, was Joshua’s first point of contact and reflected on meeting the scout and his mother in Harrisonburg to come up with a list of products patients would need.

“These are little gifts that actually mean a whole lot,” Kauffman said. “You spend a couple weeks and sometimes months in the hospital post-transplant, so these care packages will reverberate a little love and joy.”

The project required making pitches to five different churches in Joshua’s area, many of them he was familiar with as Keiko is a pastor and has preached at Good Shepherd United Methodist, as well as Greenwood United Methodist and Market Street United Methodist Congregations.

After assembling an Amazon Wishlist, he made flyers with QR codes that helped contributors add to the care packages or donate money to the project. He also reached out to other Scout troops in Winchester and learned the value of communication as he coordinated and solicited donations.

“It takes a lot of coordination and teamwork to make a thing like this work,” Joshua said.

Keiko attributed Joshua’s commitment to service to growing up in the church, where she said he has learned the importance of servant leadership and giving back long before beginning his Eagle Scout project.

“I’m really hoping that he will continue that spirit of serving others,” Keiko said.

As Joshua continues to progress through his Eagle Scout preparation, he noted that his hope for the project is that it will extend beyond him, whether to younger scouts or those in the community seeking to give back.

“Hopefully these projects will inspire someone else like they inspired me,” Joshua said.