Boalsburg Cub Scouts use January meeting to make Jared Boxes

BOALSBURG — Members of Cub Scout Pack 380 in Boalsburg assembled Jared Boxes during the pack’s Jan. 21 meeting at the Harris Township Lions Club building.

A Jared Box is a plastic storage box filled with small toys, games, books, crayons, puzzles and other fun activities for children. Each box contains items selected for a specific age and gender. The boxes are delivered to hospitals, and provide a special diversion for young patients in emergency rooms, patient rooms, surgical centers and clinics as they receive chemotherapy and other medical treatments.

Cubmaster Marvin Sanders directed the 21 Cubs to tables filled with items donated by their families and arranged by children’s ages and genders. Each boy filled his box with at least 10 items and included a hand-written greeting card.

Many items were left over when all the boxes were filled, so the Cubs used paper and plastic bags as substitutes until more boxes can be procured. “We got more than we have boxes for,” said Sanders. “That’s a good problem to have.”

At evening’s end, 25 boxes and 10 bags were filled and ready to be delivered.

Sanders said the boxes will be delivered to Mount Nittany Medical Center in the next two weeks. “The hospital said they are inundated with Jared Boxes at Christmas, so we decided to do ours a month later.”

Cub Scout Nate Tarnell was enthusiastic about the project. “I got one when I was in the hospital once, and I liked it,” he said.

The Jared Box project was started in 2001 by the children at Our Lady of Victory School in State College to honor their classmate and friend Jared, who battled cancer with inspiring courage and faith. Jared maintained his sense of humor and the joys of childhood through play. He carried a backpack full of toys and games to all his appointments, and wondered why the other children didn’t bring toys to their exam rooms. Jared shared his toys and often invited other children to join him in playing the card game UNO.

Jared lost his battle with cancer on Nov. 12, 2000.