{"id":21571,"date":"2025-07-25T01:03:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T01:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/21571\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T01:03:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T01:03:04","slug":"book-drive-honors-boy-scout-killed-by-lightning-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/21571\/","title":{"rendered":"Book drive honors boy scout killed by lightning strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Two decades after a lightning strike tragically killed a young boy scout<\/a>, a new book drive is honoring his memory.<\/p>\n

Officials said the troop was prepared<\/a> and in safe shelter, but nothing could\u2019ve been done to prevent the death of 15-year-old Paul Ostler.<\/p>\n

Now, his friend Matt Edwards, who was in the cabin at Camp Steiner with Ostler, is launching a book drive called Paul\u2019s Pages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really remember a time when Paul and the Ostlers really weren\u2019t in my life,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n

Remembering a friend<\/p>\n

He said they grew up in the same neighborhood and went on several Scouts camping trips together. A trip to Camp Steiner in the High Uintas in August of 2005 became their last trip together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way it\u2019s set up is you have what\u2019s called an Adirondack cabin, so it\u2019s a three-walled cabin and then has a bunch of bunk beds,\u201d Edwards recalled. \u201cYou\u2019re basically sleeping on hardwood with a sleeping bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remembers a rainstorm coming in, which ruined the boys\u2019 card game. They went to bed. The next thing Edwards remembers is waking up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the electricity went up my sleeping bag zipper, so it insulated me, but I think it, like, kind of contracted my muscles,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI\u2019m just like seeing the scene of chaos and everyone\u2019s kind of screaming and panicking and I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards remembers seeing people crowded around Paul.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really hear anything until I got to the hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s when they said, \u2018Hey, there\u2019s this accident. One person has died.\u2019 I immediately was like, I mean, it\u2019s got to be Paul just from what I saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lightning strike victim\u2019s mother remembers<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s mother, Teresa Ostler, now lives in North Carolina. She remembers the incident vividly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lightning bolt hit a tree six feet away from the Adirondack that he was staying at, and it just defies nature,\u201d Teresa Ostler said. \u201cWhen you send your child to camp, you just send them to have fun and to have a great time. I know that he was having the best time of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/p>\n

She and Edwards have returned to the cabin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still lightning burns,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a place of destruction, but it\u2019s also a sacred place,\u201d Teresa Ostler said.<\/p>\n

After his death, Paul\u2019s family gathered and passed along books for readers around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gathered books together and put a book plate in, and then would give away books,\u201d Teresa Ostler said. \u201cWe especially did it on his birthday and so we would have cake and ice cream and balloons and books. We probably have, probably 15,000 books circulating throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reading was one of his favorite pastimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came home from school and he said, \u2018I sat by a boy who doesn\u2019t like to read,’\u201d Teresa Ostler recalled. \u201cHe found one of his favorite books, and he just knew in his heart that if he took that book to his friend, that his friend would love reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards said Paul knew a lot about a variety of topics.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just had such like a vast vocabulary, random facts, details, things where we would say things like, how do you even know this? Where do you come across this? And in hindsight, I think a lot of that came from reading,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Edwards said he struggled with Paul\u2019s death for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly if it was up to me, at 13, I would have decided, I don\u2019t think I need to leave my house anymore, I\u2019m just going to stay home. Why would I leave?,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cBut, other friends, community, they just did a good job of, I feel like kind of dragging me out and just helping with the healing process and moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honoring Paul<\/p>\n

When Edwards saw his own children, including his son, Finley Paul, showing an interest in books and an interest in Paul Ostler, he came up with \u201cPaul\u2019s Pages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are asking for new or gently used books to be donated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

They partnered with Granite School District for the book drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey essentially split the books into two routes,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cAny new books, they go into a Santa grab bag that they have around Christmas time, and it\u2019ll give books directly to kids that they can bring into their home and have their own books. Used books, they go into a teacher resource pool where teachers can pick books that they think will support their in class curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teresa Ostler said it\u2019s the perfect tribute to her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul loved transporting himself to a world, wherever it was in that book,\u201d she said. \u201cHe thought that reading made the biggest difference and that he just wanted people to just jump on that bandwagon with him and, and enjoy the fantasy and the exciting story.\u201d<\/p>\n

20 years after she lost him, she\u2019s grateful Paul is still known as a difference maker.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would want those kids to know that reading makes a difference,\u201d she said. \u201cReading can help you become the person you want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

All book donations can be dropped off at The King\u2019s English Bookshop located at 1511 S 1500 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84105.<\/p>\n

Donations can be sent to Matt Edwards on Venmo @Matthew-Edwards-54.<\/p>\n

*KSL TV does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Two decades after a lightning strike tragically killed a young boy scout, a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[457,96,2294,13805,13802,101,13804,13803,56,54,55,1068],"class_list":{"0":"post-21571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-home","11":"tag-ksltv-com","12":"tag-ksltv-com-utah-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-talk-and-community","15":"tag-traffic","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom","19":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}