When Ivan Tharp chose OSF Children’s Hospital of Illinois for his Eagle Scout Service Project, he based the decision on personal experience. Tharp was born with a heart defect that has, so far, required four surgeries with extended hospital stays. (Photo courtesy of Heather Tharp)

It’s tough to say how many days and nights Ivan Tharp has spent at OSF Children’s Hospital of Illinois, enough, though, for the East Peoria sophomore to choose it as the focus of his Eagle Scout Service Project.

“I wanted to give back to the hospital I spent time in,” Tharp said, who learned by experience how to pass time in a hospital. “I watched a lot of TV, played board games, played in the activity room where they have games and puzzles.”

Tharp was born with a congenital heart defect that lead to four heart surgeries, with the most recent being two years ago. Ongoing follow-up visits have also brought him back to the hospital, so Tharp has a pretty good grasp of what it takes to be a patient with patience.

So in early June, the Eagle Scout hopeful of Troop 627 began mapping out a plan give the gift of amusement to patients at the hospital.

First, he assembled a model book bag with activities and basic necessities, then calculated the total cost. For around $2,500, he figured, he could load 100 backpacks.

It was an ambitious plan, one that Tharp was able tackle by leaning on skills he’d already learned during the Eagle Scout process, which requires earning at least 21 merit badges and rising in rank.

“As Quartermaster, after every camp out, I had to make sure troop gear is where it’s supposed to be and organizing, all the cooking equipment is cleaned and knives sharpened,” he explained. “As Senior Patrol Leader, which is the highest rank, that person is in charge of orchestrating events, a lot of event planning, delegating campsite chores, communicating events of a meeting to the Scout Master and be a good role model.”

Such strict requirements illustrate why the rank of Eagle Scout commands a healthy respect from prospective colleges and employers.

According to Boy Scouts of America, only four percent of Scouts have earned the Eagle Scout rank since the organization began in 1911.

Tharp contacted OSF’s Child Life Services for approval, then launched a campaign to raise funds for the book bags.

He printed flyers and leveraged the reach of social media to solicit funds and donations from family, friends and the community.

By early November, he had enough funds to buy whatever items had not already been donated, crayons, fidget toys, Legos, then took what was left and bought some extras for the hospital’s activity room. He even threw in a box of Silly String for some of the patients to have a Silly String Party.

Once the book bags were assembled with help from his troop, Tharp showed up at the children’s hospital on Nov. 27 with 110 book bags for the kids there, 10 over his goal.

“I’ve done service hours, cleaned up an elderly woman’s yard, on Earth Day we cleaned up the sides of the roads, on Memorial Day we put flags on veteran’s graves at the cemetery,” he said. “The hardest or most challenging part is the Eagle Project and it was a lot of coordinating and getting the word out. I didn’t think about that part, but it really wasn’t that hard just using flyers and social media.”

The East Peoria Community High School sophomore only has three more merit badges to earn, along with letters of recommendation, to fulfill rise in rank to Eagle Scout. The merit badges center on personal management, family life and personal fitness. He stands to earn that rank this spring, two years earlier than most scouts.

Tharp became a Cub Scout in fourth grade, and hails from a scouting family, in which he is a fourth-generation scout, and family’s first Eagle Scout.

His great-grandfather and grandfather were both scouts. His father, Jake, is the Scout Master of Troop 627, and will likely pass that torch to his brother, Justin, next year.