Tampa Palms Scout Collects 2,000 Books For TPE During Eagle Scout Project

By Matt Wiley

Jacob Shuster likes to read. He read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged cover-to-cover when he was 14. Reading is something that has stuck with him since the time he spent at Tampa Palms Elementary (TPE), the first school to open in the New Tampa area (located on Tampa Palms Blvd.), where he also learned to read.

Now 16 and a freshman at Freedom High (on Commerce Park Blvd. in Tampa Palms), Shuster is hard at work on another one of his passions — becoming an Eagle Scout.

To receive the prestigious honor that fewer than five percent of all Boy Scouts actually go on to earn, a scout has to complete a project that benefits the community and puts him in a position of leadership, during which time he manages other people. Although he still has two years to become an Eagle with Troop 142, which meets at St. James United Methodist Church on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., also in Tampa Palms, Shuster has already gotten started.

To help repay TPE for helping him learn to read, Shuster decided to organize a book drive for the school.

“I’ve stayed in contact with (TPE) principal Kimberly Keenan,” Shuster says. “She recommended the project because a lot of kids that come from less fortunate neighborhoods don’t have books to read at home.”

Shuster decided to hold a weeklong book drive at the school from January 27-31, during which time he was able to collect more than 2,000 books. One day during the drive, he dressed up in an eagle outfit (which also is TPE’s mascot) and greeted young students outside the school and visited classrooms.

“The kids seemed really thrilled to see an eagle walking into their class,” he says.

Thanks to the book drive, Shuster says that teachers will be able to stock their classroom libraries with some of the books from the drive and students will be able to take some of the books home, as well.

In addition to the book drive, Shuster also is in the process of building a drive-up book drop box so that books can be donated to the school at any time. Donation bins and banners from the drive have been left with the TPE PTA for future use.

Shuster says that the project has allowed him to put what he has learned through scouting to the test.

“I’ve learned a lot from the project,” he explains. “It’s taught me budgeting, management of others and organization. It wasn’t as easy as it looked.”

For additional information about Boy Scout Troop 142, visit MyTroop142.org.