CENTRE HALL — At the Wednesday, June 25, meeting of the Penns Valley Area School District Board of Directors, one student’s Eagle Scout project was officially accepted to be implemented for the upcoming school year, but the impact the project is ready to make goes far beyond the classroom.
Jackson Pase, a Scout with Troop 20 in Centre Hall, presented one of four handmade sensory boxes he designed and built for special education classrooms. The boxes are filled with tools to help students with sensory needs, regulate their emotions, focus and decompress during overwhelming moments, something Jackson understands on a deeply personal level.
“Being an autistic student, there were several times when he was a younger student that he would become overwhelmed or overstimulated in the classroom,” Jackson’s mother, Carrie, said. “He would need to leave the classroom and go seek some sensory support or find a place to calm down or something to help him regulate his emotions because they were all over the place.”
The sensory boxes are packed with tactile, visual and soothing items, including Play-Doh, fidget spinners, squishy toys, pop tubes and stress-relief pillows designed to guide breathing and ease anxiety. Each box is equipped with a variety of sensory tools, allowing teachers to quickly access items that help students self-soothe and stay engaged.
“A lot of teachers had these little gadgets and things, and they would offer them to him to help him regulate his emotions. So he thought it would be a neat idea to create a place to keep these things so teachers aren’t having to come up with them on their own or spend their own money on them,” Carrie stated.
The project became a true test of leadership. Jackson sourced discounted lumber from a local family with Scouting ties, gathered donations from Lowe’s and Home Depot and leaned on help from fellow Scouts and community members. He not only learned how to build the boxes but also taught others, exemplifying the leadership principles central to the Eagle Scout rank.
“Part of the Eagle Scout project is showing leadership,” Mike, Jackson’s father, said. “So, not necessarily doing all the work yourself, but then recruiting people to assist, leading them through the process. He would have to learn how to do something and then he would have to teach it to somebody else.”
The Pase family was overwhelmed by the outpouring from neighbors and strangers alike. Community members across the region — and even across the country — responded to a public Amazon wish list with encouragement and supplies.
“People we didn’t even know shipped things from our Amazon wish list to our home and gave good messages to Jackson,” Carrie said. “We couldn’t have done this without any of them.”
While the project has been receiving tremendous feedback, perhaps it’s the message Jackson wishes everyone to know that truly hits home.
“He wants [people] to understand that, when you’re a kid like Jackson, you have challenges socially and you don’t always have an easy time making friends or finding your people,” Carrie said. “In Scouting, he found his people. He made lifelong friends. You can find your people, too!”
