St. Anthony’s Free Clothing Program Receives Over 2,000 Articles of Clothing from Eagle Scout Project

April 4, 2023

Eagle Scout, Kaustav Pal, talks to us about his scout project, a clothing collection drive that directly benefited the Free Clothing Program

Tell us about yourself.
I was born in Fremont, CA, and I’ve spent most of my life in San Ramon, CA. I am currently 16 years old and a junior at California High School.

Tell us about your troop.
I joined cub scouts when I was in 3rd grade and then boy scouts in 6th. My troop (troop 84) holds its meetings in San Ramon every Tuesday.

Can you please explain your Eagle Scout project in 2022?
My Eagle project was a clothing collection. The project had four phases, which took place over the course of two weeks (planning, distribution, collection, sorting). For my planning phase, I had three scouts assist me with preparing the flyers getting everything ready for the distribution phase the next day. During the distribution phase, I had four groups of scouts distribute flyers along the routes I had given them. A week later during the collection phase, I had scouts collect the clothing. After that, we sorted the clothing based on given guidelines and packed the clothing into garbage bags, which we brought to the city a week later.

How did you hear about the St. Anthony Foundation? What made you choose St. Anthony’s for your project?
Sometime during the fall of 2021, I was searching for organizations online to partner with for my project. When I found St. Anthony’s and read the mission statement on the website, I felt that it matched my own goal. Not many troops in my area help in the city, so I thought it’d be a good idea to work with them, and to help those in need.

What were the final results of the project?
We ended up getting around 2,142 pieces of high-quality clothing donated.

How does it make you feel knowing your project is helping people directly in the local community?
I’m very happy that I was able to follow through with my project and get all the clothing to help those in San Francisco. It feels good knowing that people are benefiting from it.

Looking back on the project, did the project have an impact on you?
I do believe the project impacted me in a good way. It motivated me to work hard and be more attentive when getting things done, making sure everything was perfect or close to it. I do think that it’s been a good learning experience where some things were positive and others were negative, which I believe has now better prepared me for handling those situations in the future.

How do you spend your free time?
I’m either reading, gaming, hanging out with friends, or working on some project during my free time.

What are some of your favorite hobbies?
I occasionally cycle and longboard and I enjoy exercising and playing sports.

St. Anthony’s Free Clothing Program is accepting donations of clean, new and gently-used clothing. For further details about individual donations or organizing a clothing drive, visit the Free Clothing Program webpage HERE. Also, the program offers volunteer opportunities as well. For more information and to book a date and time, visit the volunteer webpage HERE.