SANDY -- He's intensely embarrassed and has a difficult time talking about it, but Sam Dolim is about to complete a charitable project to deliver books and school supplies to a remote school in Mexico.

The 17-year-old isn't just being humble about the completion of the ambitious project that will make him an Eagle Scout.

Sam was diagnosed in elementary school with a high-functioning form of autism.

"I view it not as a barrier," Sam said of his autism. "I don't know how to describe it."

For years, his mother, Rochelle Dolim, has taught her son that the mental disorder isn't something that has to define his life or that of his twin 14-year-old sisters, who have been diagnosed with the same form of autism.

On Saturday, Barnes & Nobles bookstore at Salt Lake City's Gateway is holding a book fair for the project. Shoppers can buy children's books in Spanish for Sam.

A portion of other sales also will go toward the project. Sam makes little eye contact and mumbles through sentences.

"It will be OK," he said about delivering the books.

Sam and his mother are flying to Mexico with the books Dec. 18. When they arrive, the pair will buy school supplies with $400 Sam has raised by selling fishing flies.

Two days later, they will deliver the supplies and books to a two-room school in the village of Lopez Mateo, a town in southern Veracruz.

Sam and his mother visited the village four years ago and it was the school that popped into his head when he began searching for an Eagle project six months ago.

"I just had a feeling to do this," Sam said.