By MARIA WINGERT/Murphy News Service

Maple Grove High School Senior Brady Voels has been a bit less busy since turning 18 in October. His birthday marked the end of his time in Boy Scout troop 287, so he spent the months leading up to his birthday focused on one thing: reaching the rank of Eagle Scout.

To those in the Boy Scouts of America earning  Eagle Scout status is akin to becoming class president or team captain. Each role takes years of dedication to a specific goal, and Voels has been eyeing his, gaining the rank of Eagle Scout, for some time.

Voels had to submit an application displaying his work and leadership as a Scout — and complete a final Eagle Scout project — to earn the rank.

“This has been a great project, and I’m really glad I got it done one time,” Voels said.

Voels’ project was to make and distribute hygiene kits for homeless or highly mobile teens. He needed the assistance of a few fellow Scouts and his dad, Travis. They helped collect donations to build the kits by asking fellow students and teachers at Maple Grove high school to donate travel-sized deodorant, body wash, toothbrushes, and shampoo.

Voels bought 150 toiletry bags to hold the donated items with the help of his dad. The he, his fellow Scouts and his dad assembled the kits into the bags and separated them by male and female.

Lea Dahl, the homeless liaison for school district 287, helped to create a way to get the bags to students who needed them.

“It’s been a really wonderful program for us,” Dahl said. “We are making sure these students are getting health care products.”

Dahl has worked with district 287 for more than 28 years assisting students at the schools in the western suburbs. She now has distributed the 109 complete kits to social workers and counselors throughout the district.

Travis Voels is a teacher at Maple Grove High and already has seen the difference the packages make in his classroom.

“From a classroom teacher perspective, working with the kids that were highly mobile or homeless, you can see they start to have a harder time at school because of cleanliness,” Travis Voels said. “It’s hard to help them out because it feels almost judgemental to be handing them deodorant or other supplies. It is nice to have a school counselor handle it, that’s usually more private.”

That’s where Dahl comes in.

“You don’t make a deal of it. You just make sure they have the supplies they need. We try to make life as close to normal as possible,” Dahl said.

Now that Brady Voels has finished his Eagle Scout project, he is looking forward to helping his younger brother, Riley, start his.

Since Riley will be turning 17 soon, he has just a bit more than a year to complete his own Eagle Scout project.

While he is still awaiting the official announcement, Voels’ excitement for his Eagle Scout rank is clear.

“It’s the one thing I’ve done that my dad hasn’t,” Voels said. “I don’t want to disappoint him.”

Reporter Maria Wingert is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.