A service project is a key step on the long road to achieving the rank of Eagle. The service project involves many hours of work from the prospective Eagle Scout. Eagle projects must demonstrate the scout’s leadership ability and be of significant benefit to the community (as opposed to helping scouting or an individual). Earning the Eagle rank is a rare achievement; roughly 5% of scouts across the nation, historically, have achieved this highest rank. Troop 147 has averaged about one Eagle Scout per year over the last 20 years, but this year we were fortunate to have four boys earn this honor.

The projects of these four Eagles were:

1. Sprucing up Huntington Hospital, Pasadena. One Eagle scout organized a day of work painting equipment around the Huntington campus, including arranging all the supplies needed, feeding his team, and directing the project.

2. Restoration of three meeting rooms at the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Arcadia. One scout organized a major effort to restore meeting rooms that were unusable because of clutter and damage. These rooms were extensively redone by scouts working over their summer vacation. Many hours over many days were spent by teams of scouts cleaning, sanding and painting walls and ceilings to restore these rooms.

3. Fundraising and purchase of an AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) for Monrovia High School. This project required a substantial fundraising effort involving a car wash (thanks to Pep Boys for the use of their parking lot), much letter-writing to local businesses, and extensive research to choose an appropriate life-saving AED. This project also involved more than the usual research and paperwork, such as obtaining the proper physician’s prescription along with school board and high school approval for installation of the AED.

4. Installing park benches at Plymouth Elementary School, Monrovia. This Eagle scout organized a day of installing four heavy-duty concrete benches on the grounds of his local elementary school. This effort required raising funds for materials, digging and pouring foundations, and installing very heavy benches that will last as long as the school will, probably.

Thanks go out not only to these Eagle scouts, but to the entire troop for putting in many hours of hard labor on these worthy projects.

And congratulations to our four newest Eagle Scouts on their accomplishment – achieving this rank is something that they can be proud of for the rest of their lives. These young men are a credit to their parents, their troop, and their community.

Stay tuned for some photos of the above service projects…