Troop 1182-G, chartered by the Park West Lions Club in Manassas, Virginia, is proud to recognize McKenna Westen, of Bristow, Virginia, who earned her Eagle Rank in February 2021. She created a Little Lending Library for her community, served as an elections leader for OA and has been an amazing representative of this Inaugural Class of Eagles.
Eagle of the Week
A Better Pool
Ethan T. of Troop 1966 in Fairfax Station, VA, has always been an avid swimmer. In fact, for the past ten years, he has been part of the Sideburn Run Swim Team, which is nearly as long as he had been a Scout. So when Ethan was looking for an Eagle Scout Project, he learned that Sideburn Run’s pool had some overgrown ivy area. While he was inspecting the ivy-covered area, Ethan recalled the times he and his teammates had found the space too small. Ethan began to consider incorporating a way to make the area around the pool more usable while for his teammates while he inspected the ivy. After consulting the board members, he decided he would clean up the ivy and clean up the area so the team could maximize it.
Ethan got to work by writing up a proposal for the pool board. Once they approved his proposal, he created a timeline, yet that timeline got put on hold due to COVID-19. Yet once restrictions were lifted, and Ethan drafted a new plan that followed social distancing rules. Ethan then began to gather the supplies, and he got to work. He found some trouble trying to lead at first. He realized he couldn’t just explain and then do the task to his volunteers; he discovered that he would only do the work. He also felt overwhelmed by the number of questions he would receive, asking if he could assist them. Yet once he figured out how to properly guide his volunteers, Ethan felt like he could handle anything.
After completing this project, Ethan felt he learned a lot about leadership and how to break down a large project into manageable parts. He was proud to have helped his community and later said, “My favorite aspect of this project was seeing all the different tasks coming together. I enjoyed stepping back to see the progress we had made and how all the tasks were coming together. I also enjoyed seeing my plans turn out exactly how I envisioned the project would look in the end. I am looking forward to next season so people can start using the new area. I feel like the swim team can now fully maximize that area during their meets, and members can enjoy the games we made.”
The Importance of Bees
Robbie S. of Troop 2012 in Sterling, Virginia, had taken an interest in his father’s hobby as a beekeeper. Watching him work taught Robbie the importance of bees in the environment. He learned that bees and other pollinators are vital to plant reproduction and biodiversity. While learning more about these pollinators, he also learned that honey bees are at extreme risk of extinction due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) which is caused by various factors such as pesticides and poor nutrition. Robbie knew that for his Eagle Scout Project he wanted to raise awareness about pollinators and help the local honey bees out with some new bee boxes.
Robbie needed to show his Troop and his community the importance of pollinators to their ecosystem. So he began to research all he could about honey bees, mice, tracheal mites, and other pollinators, and how they help spread pollen. While Robbie was enthused to have found so much information, he was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of it and he had to figure out how to condense it into a slideshow. Once he had completed his slideshow, he recruited some volunteers to begin the process of building bee boxes. They were able to get their hands on a few kits with the help of Robbie’s father and they began their work. After finishing two beehives, Robbie was ready to show his work and spread awareness about pollinators to his community. He explained their importance to biodiversity, and ways they can help on an individual level, such as not using pesticides on your lawn.
Now that he completed his project, Robbie was able to not only learn more about pollinators and how to build bee boxes but how to effectively communicate and organize. There were many steps to this project from emails and agendas to keeping Scouts organized and keeping track of dates which led Robbie to quickly build his communication and organization skills. Even though it was hard work, it was all worth it in the end for Robbie because he was able to spread more awareness about the importance of pollinators.
If you’re interested in learning more about pollinators, you can check out Robbie’s slideshow here!
An Eagle Project With a History
A site of historic interest at the edge of Brambleton Regional Park in Ashburn provides a glimpse into our area’s past. Featuring grave markers that pre-date the U.S. Civil War, members of several prominent and distantly related Loudoun County families with names like Burdine, Edwards, Havener, Hawes, Jackson, Lyon, Moran, Paxson, and Shryock connect us with events and individuals whose life and times helped shape our own. The site’s historical marker, notes the presence of Private Richard “Dick” Moran, the “Warring Methodist” and an influential member of Mosby’s Raiders – a well know contingent of Confederate soldiers, and a bold disruptor of local union army efforts of the time.
Exposure of the Lyon Family Cemetery to the elements over the decades left headstones sunken, fallen over, or severely tilted. Many were cracked. The spoils of time rendered many of their faces unreadable. The stone perimeter fence– expertly constructed and laid hundreds of years ago— had crumbled under nature’s ongoing assault. A once grand and impressive rectangular wrought iron fence surrounding a large granite marker withered with rust and tilted inward as if in protective crouch.
To restore these grounds, and with it a piece of local history, the fourteen-year-old Gray recruited an impressive array of volunteers to carry out this restorative work. The effort required not only physical repairs, but expertise of skilled craftsmen and local historic preservation organizations.
Chief among these volunteers was Mr. James Short, a former Brambleton Regional Park manager, and owner of a local gravesite maintenance company, Gravesite Guardians LLC. As a project consultant and trainer for the work crew of Troop 51 Scouts and community members helping with the project, Mr. Short conducted onsite demonstrations on marker identification, cleaning, leveling, and re-mounting.
Representatives of local historic preservation organizations contributed their expertise and abilities to the project. The Stuart-Mosby Historical Society, and the Loudon Preservation Society, assisted in archival research, database and information retrieval. Several representatives from the Daughters of the Confederacy gave of their time to help clean and remount headstones. Scouts and families of Troop 51 contributed both physical skill and enthusiasm for completing the effort.
Thanks to the work of Jack Gray and his team, visitors to this site have gained a new opportunity to understand the history of our area and country. With a greater appreciation for the events and individuals who have shaped our society, we as citizens are better prepared to discuss our shared challenges and solutions.
To explore the Lyon family cemetery historic location, and see the work of Eagle Scout Jack Gray and his team, visit Brambleton Regional Park in Ashburn.
New Theatre, New Props
I absolutely love theatre, and I actively partake in it. So when I learned there was a new high school opening up a theater program in my area, and with a director, I had worked with in the past, I felt that fate had called me to help them out and get them started by building something for them. I felt that making them some set items would help them so they had something to begin working with when they went back to in-person learning.
After contacting the director, I got a solid plan of what was needed and what he thought would be some useful objects to build for them. In the end, we decided on four advertisement sandwich boards, four set-piece black boxes, and one industrial prop table. I set a date to go and purchase all the wood I needed for the project. Then with the help of my neighbor and his woodshop, we were able to sort, measure, and cut all the wood into the pieces we needed so that the next day when the Scouts came to my house we could just set everything up and put it together.
The tricky part of my project was mostly getting all the wood cut, measured, and sorted because everything had to be exact or else it would not work. When putting the boxes together, we discovered that the measurements for one piece were an eighth of an inch longer than it should be, so that meant that every piece based on those measurements was now an eighth of an inch longer. It was frustrating to spend so much time making sure that it was all perfect just to have something not right. Still, one of the Scouts who came to help happened to be the technical director at my school’s theatre company, so I knew he had tools in his car. Luckily he had a saw that we were able to use and fix the problem.
After the build day, we moved on to painting everything matte black with two coats on each box, board, and table. A little while later, the director and I set up a date for us to meet at the school to transfer all the materials from my house to the theatre room, and at that point, we were finished.
My favorite part of the project was planning the workdays. Two days for building, and two days for painting; however, we had more Scouts show up than I thought on the first build day, and we were able to knock out everything with hours to spare. I was able to take the extra day to go over everything and make sure it all looked fine and then spend some time cleaning up and prepping for the paint day.
Once the first paint day hit, we had many younger Scouts eager to help show up, so the painting went extremely fast. That day it was super hot and sunny outside, which helped with the drying of the paint, which allowed us to put on the second coats very quickly. This also allowed us to finish early on the painting day as well, which meant we did not need the second painting day that was planned. I was glad I had the extra days built in just in case, however; not needing them was a huge relief and a favorite part of my project.
I have never been the type of person to start and lead a project and then sit back and let everyone else do the work, so it was difficult to sit back and only be used as a resource when help was needed, and not one of the people working on the project as well. But all in all, my biggest lesson learned was that sometimes letting go and letting things happen is a good thing. It’s still my project that I planned and started, and if they needed me, they would ask; it was a whole new take on being a leader, and I think that learning experience was a really powerful one for me.
Clearing the Path
O
ne day I walked my dog down this path in Rock Spring Park, and I was getting extremely frustrated with the path. It had rained recently, and the path had become more like a small muddy river than a path. And that’s when I got the idea that I could perhaps fix this path for my Eagle Scout Project.
First, I reached out to my fellow Scouts within my troop for help with repairing this path. They agreed to help, which made the project go smoothly thanks to all their hard work. When working, I found the most challenging part of this project was probably getting it all organized beforehand and during the actual work. But once it was all organized, fixing the path was smooth sailing from there.
My favorite aspect was probably seeing the finished product and how surprisingly fast it all happened. I learned a lot about planning out projects, mostly because I need to anticipate what might be required. I was also able to learn more about the managing side of leadership. As a leader, I’ve realized it’s more about guiding the people you lead and directing the labor they do, rather than doing all the work myself.