Phil Johnson is now 25 and serving in the Peace Corps in tiny Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic along the Chinese border



Johnson teaches English to children of many ages in a land he both adapted to and adopted. Like many small, mountainous, rural countries, the need is great in Kyrgyzstan, where Johnson has taught since September 2005 in a small room with whitewashed walls. That's where Andrew Bell's Eagle Scout project comes in. Bell is organizing a care package of enormous proportions -- more than 1,000 pounds -- to help Johnson's teaching efforts. Items waiting at Rosedale Gardens Presbyterian Church to be shipped overseas include board games, storybooks, audiobooks, tape recorders, an entire class set of standardized school English books, posters to decorate the walls, world maps, English posters, an A-B-C chart, sports equipment like soccer balls, baseballs, a few golf clubs -- and five air pumps. "I just finally figured out it was something I wanted to do," said Bell, son of Kathleen and David Bell. "Something I thought would be extremely beneficial to Phil, and the community in Kyrgyzstan; something that would be enormously helpful.

Phil Johnson is now 25 and serving in the Peace Corps in tiny Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic along the Chinese border

Path of an Eagle

Livonia teen to ship huge donation to another scout serving in Peace Corps

May 6, 2007

BY TOM LANG

FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

Andrew Bell was tempted to do an uncomplicated project in his final step to becoming an Eagle Scout.

But he realized reaching around the globe to help another Eagle Scout was the better plan.

Bell, a senior at Livonia Franklin High School, has lived in the same Rosedale subdivision home his entire life, four doors down from where Phil Johnson grew up.

Johnson is now 25 and serving in the Peace Corps in tiny Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic along the Chinese border. Johnson teaches English to children of many ages in a land he both adapted to and adopted.

Like many small, mountainous, rural countries, the need is great in Kyrgyzstan, where Johnson has taught since September 2005 in a small room with whitewashed walls.

That's where Bell's Eagle Scout project comes in.

Bell is organizing a care package of enormous proportions -- more than 1,000 pounds -- to help Johnson's teaching efforts.

Items waiting at Rosedale Gardens Presbyterian Church to be shipped overseas include board games, storybooks, audiobooks, tape recorders, an entire class set of standardized school English books, posters to decorate the walls, world maps, English posters, an A-B-C chart, sports equipment like soccer balls, baseballs, a few golf clubs -- and five air pumps.

"I just finally figured out it was something I wanted to do," said Bell, son of Kathleen and David Bell. "Something I thought would be extremely beneficial to Phil, and the community in Kyrgyzstan; something that would be enormously helpful.

"I was really considering doing a regular project that would be more of a local community focus than such a larger-scale service. When I saw all the people giving me everything, and offering to buy new sports equipment and new books, it was overwhelming. I spoke at one church service and right afterwards people came up to me handing me money and asking how much they should make out the check for."

More than $4,000 also has been donated to help in shipping and purchasing more items if needed. The final step is finding a company or shipping service that can get it to Johnson as easily as possible, considering the distance, remoteness, security of items and paperwork.

Johnson is due home to Livonia around Thanksgiving this year, after he turns his classroom over to another volunteer as the school year begins. He has become relatively fluent in Russian, the language of choice in Kyrgyzstan.

Johnson's parents are Bruce, 53, a science teacher at Holmes Middle School, and Christine, 54, a scientist in the Henry Ford Health System. Phil Johnson graduated from Churchill, where he ran cross-country, and Michigan State University. He was an Eagle Scout in the same Troop -- 270 -- in which Bell is a member.

Bruce and Christine said that as far back as they can recall, their son Phil was helping other people, especially children. He volunteered at church, school or in the community -- building houses with Habitat for Humanity and going on annual mission trips from the church.

Troop 270 leader John Cargill said he saw Phil Johnson jogging in the park one day home from college and asked why he was going into the Peace Corps and not to medical school or something similar; he said Johnson replied: "I've been so blessed my entire life, I have to do this; I have to give back."

Bruce and Christine went to visit their son last August for 10 days. They commented that Michigan is on almost the exact same latitude as Kyrgyzstan, but the summers are hotter and winters are colder there.

Christine said she has full confidence in the Peace Corps' taking care of its members. One of her coworkers also served in the Peace Corps, so talking with her provided a little more peace of mind about sending her own son overseas, Christine Johnson said..

"I was upset emotionally that he was going away for so long"-- 27 months -- Christine admitted. "That I had a hard time with -- but I was not afraid for his safety, and I knew he'd do well. I thought it was great; I was really proud of him."

"Once we visited with Phil (in Kyrgyzstan), that was reassuring to us, because the people we met there were just fabulous," Bruce Johnson said. "They were all very nice. We could see in his interaction with them that they were always doing things for him."

Both parents praised the Rosedale community and the church for their outstanding participation in this Eagle Scout project.

"It's totally heartwarming; it put me in tears," Christine said.

Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: May, 2007; Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan; Directory of Kyrgyzstan RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Kyrgyzstan RPCVs; Colorado

When this story was posted in August 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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