A bed is something many people can take for granted, but Life Scout Jacob Tuckness was working toward achieving the rank of Eagle Scout at only 13 years old when he found that there was a sometimes unrecognized need by local students for that basic home amenity.
“Long story short, my mom showed me this video of this other organization … they were making bunk beds and I thought that was a good idea,” Tuckness said. “And also, one of my friends — she’s a judge now — she … ended up telling me how many kids go without a bed and I thought, that’s horrible. Everyone should have a bed. I know I love mine.”
From there, Tuckness got to work raising money, gathering supplies and volunteers to help him with his Eagle Scout service project of building bunk beds for children in need.
Being only 13 and a student at Mountain Valley Middle School, Tuckness wasn’t old enough to operate the tools necessary to construct the beds, so he turned to leading a group of adult volunteers who would cut lumber to size and prepare it for assembly at the homes of students in need.
“That’s the thing with an Eagle project: you have to instruct people,” Tuckness said.
The people helping included adult leaders, scouts, friends and his neighbors.
“It was my project, but I had a lot of people helping me,” Tuckness said.
People from the community came together to help him with his project in a variety of ways, from cutting the lumber to financial help.
“I also had some help from McCoy’s (Lumber),” Tuckness said. “They gave me a discount on the lumber, which helped a lot.
“He really wanted to build something,” his mother, Alice Tuckness, said. “That’s what we started with.”
His mother, a teacher at Mountain Valley Middle School, helped get him in touch with Communities in Schools of South Central Texas.
According to CIS, the final delivered bunk beds, which were made for two CIS families at Mountain Valley Elementary School and Morningside Elementary School, included the frames and bedding.
“We are very thankful to Jacob for all the hard work and dedication he put into making these beds,” the organization said in a press release. “These will truly change the lives of the students who are benefiting from them. When Jacob first approached CIS about this project, he mentioned that it had really stuck with him when he learned about the importance to children of getting a good night's sleep and sleeping in their own bed.”
What’s left for Tuckness to achieve the Eagle Scout status is to finish his application and await a review by the scout board.