Making houses homes: Spokane Life Scout collects more than 500 pieces of furniture for formerly homeless, low-income people

Barbara and John Cervelli couldn’t help but tear up when they thought of how proud they were of their son, Cooper Cervelli.

“He has such a great heart,” Barbara Cervelli said.

Cooper Cervelli, 13, has collected 562 pieces of furniture for the Catholic Charities Furniture Bank to help formerly homeless and low-income individuals furnish their new homes for his final project to become an Eagle Scout. He has worked over 132 hours and made countless trips with his dad in the family’s black pickup truck to deliver furniture to the furniture bank.

The Catholic Charities Furniture Bank provides donated furniture and household items to low-income and formerly homeless people, and the organization also sells lightly used furniture to the public in the store.

Cervelli has worked every day since February, keeping meticulous records of everything he’s collected and distributing over 200 fliers to his neighbors in Nine Mile Falls.

Most scouts don’t work on their final project until closer to their senior year, and many don’t earn as many badges as Cooper Cervelli has at his age – he has 37, without much room on his sash for more.

He said the most rewarding part of his project was getting to meet the people who will be receiving the furniture he has collected. There was one refugee family, and recipients came from all ages and backgrounds.

Now that Cervelli has turned in all the paperwork for his project, he will have to be interviewed by a panel of about six adults involved with Boy Scouts and his troop in August.

If he is approved by the panel, he will officially be an Eagle Scout, with an induction ceremony in late fall.