Easterling supports West Point community
For Daily Time Leader
If you're 18-years-old and in need of help on an important school project, where can one go for any such help?
If your name is Jack Easterling, the answer comes from just down Eshman Avenue in West Point.
Easterling is an 18-year-old senior at Oak Hill Academy, and a former placekicker-punter for his school's football team.
Last September, Easterling was assigned to come up with a project to help improve the community in which he lives. His answer to the assignment was the Project Blessing Box.
Easterling took an empty birdhouse that had been sitting around his house unused for several weeks and decided to put it to good use. He filled the newly formed Blessing Box with canned foods and took it to those in need in West Point. Easterling said he got the idea for the Blessing Box from several sources, but mostly from the West Point Rotary Club.
"They helped me come up with the idea and they donated money, too, so they were very helpful,” Easterling said.
As word of the project reached more and more families in West Point, the need grew to help keep the makeshift bird cage stocked with canned groceries.
During a November meeting with the Rotary Club, Easterling was given the idea of purchasing more non-perishable items. It was during the meeting that he was introduced to West Point High School head football coach Chris Chambless.
During their first encounter, Easterling and Chambless became cordial toward each other. That's when Easterling came up with his next idea.
"I didn't have any association with ( West Point's) football team," Easterling said. "I just pitched them for help for the community."
Easterling, who said he would major in
International Business in college, said his idea for the Blessing Box began to take form after he failed to receive any college football scholarships after last season.
Chambless, who said he knows Easterling's mother, said he pledged that his team and school would keep the box filled for the month of February.
"Everyone was all in," Chambless said of his pledge. "The players, coaches and everyone brought in food, money ... anything they could afford.
"Our team has a lot of compassion when it comes to the city. It makes them feel good that they're helping somebody.”
Easterling said he respects Chambless for what he's accomplished at West Point and that he "loved what I saw" in Chambless and that his players acted "grateful that they could afford to help out and be a part of this project that helps the community they live in."
Chambless said his players brought in anything from $1 to $5, with a pair of players donating $10 each, with some also bringing in canned goods as well.
Since beginning his quest to help those in need, Easterling said he has received $300 from West Point merchants, $250 from West Point High School and $170 from the West Point Rotary Club.
Easterling has reached out to residents in Clay County, asking them for their assistance.
"Anything you can do to help would bring a lot of smiles to the community,” Easterling said. “It would be like playing football to us.
"We have to find ways of giving back to the community besides playing football.”