7 Creative Eagle projects

Image by Donna Weaver

“Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;”

Doctrine and Covenants 58:27

According to the scriptures, we ought to be “anxiously engaged in a good cause.”  The Boy Scouts of America is a wonderful program that encourages boys age 11-18 to develop their abilities and serve their communities.

Here are some Eagle Scout projects recognized by the news media this last week:

7 Creative Eagle Scout projects

1) NEBRASKA: Eric O’Neill (junior)- Raised $3,000 to build a memorial site where a WWII B-17 bomber plane crashed while on a training flight, killing its nine passengers. (May 27, 2012 - Independent.com)

2) TEXAS: Jonathan Provost (freshman)- Organized a drive to register potential bone marrow donors.  At the drive (June 9th) people will fill out some paperwork about themselves and swab the inside of their cheek.  Donors will be matched with patients in need of their stem cells, and will be able to donate 1/4 cup of stem cells to help the patient.  After donation, the donor’s body will regenerate the donated stem cells.   Jonathan decided to do the project after he saw his 24-year old cousin, Matt Zieman, die from Leukemia. (May 29, 2012 - CrossTimbersGazette.com)

3) COLORADO: Chad Haunschild (14)- Organized a summer-long project to create a community park next to the Fremont Center for the Arts.  The park will include an outdoor gazebo, amphitheater, benches, tree-stump table and designated places for community artwork.  He already raised about half of the money required to carry out the project ($9,000) (May 29, 2012 – CanonCityDailyRecord.com)

4) CALIFORNIA: Zach Graham (16)- Organized a month-long project to create a pair of trellises and stone planter benches alongside a park trail.  The project took about 1,800 hours of labor and $32,000 in donated materials. (May 29, 2012 – RecordNet.com)

5) NORTH CAROLINA: Jarrett Jackson- Raised $22,000 to construct a helicopter landing pad for local medical helicopters so they’ll  have a safe place to carry their patients.  (May 22, 2012 – MarketWatch.com)

6) TEXAS: Cameron Alexander (17)- Constructed an obstacle course for the Pasadena Police Department’s K-9 program.  The project will benefit seven dogs trained to track drugs and explosives. (May 22, 2012 – Chron.com)

7) WISCONSIN: Danny Zimmer- Built erosion-control planks into the side of a steep trail on Black Hawk Island.  He also built fencing to help hikers avoid walking over a diverse patch of ferns, and a safety fence to keep hikers away from a cliff that lies next to the mouth of a cave. (May 25 – WiscNews.com)

“The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good.”

- Brian Tracy

Personal Notes:  For my eagle project, we collected a couple thousand pairs of eyeglasses to go to third-world countries, such as Cambodia.  On one day we split up and went by about 10 eye centers and collected their used eyeglasses.  We then cleaned the eyeglasses, sorted them by prescription strength (ex. -1.5, 2, 3.5, etc.) and sent them to an eye doctor in Utah to bring them on a humanitarian trip to Cambodia.  It’s amazing how much good we can do, if we work together.