Eagle of the Week

Yoi S-F. completed his Eagle Board of Review in January 2024, marking the end of an incredible chapter in his Scouting journey. For his Eagle Project, he set out on a goal to memorialize a fellow Scout: a bike rack and repair station at Winston Churchill High School. This project will stand as a lasting memorial to Jacob Cassell, who tragically passed away while biking down Old Georgetown Road at 17 on July 31st, 2019. From advocating for bike lanes at Montgomery County meetings in his early teens to creating a successful fundraiser, Yoi’s dedication to this cause is a testament to his unwavering citizenship and character!

Jacob Brian Cassell, who was born with autism, left an incredible mark on the special-needs community. His service extended beyond borders, from mission trips to the Dominican Republic and Honduras, to his active role in Boy Scout Troop 233. Jacob’s life was a testament to the power of determination and the impact one individual can have on the world.

As a Boy Scout, Jacob earned the rank of Life Scout and completed all of the requirements for Eagle except for his Eagle Scout project, which he had planned for September 2019. His family and his troop later completed his project.

Yoi’s mother showed him the article of a fellow Scout and Churchill student who had been in a tragic accident, and he realized he had also biked on Old Germantown Road with his dad on the same day. That moment is where the inspiration for his Eagle Scout project stemmed from, but Yoi wanted to do something before then. So, at 14 years old, he went to Montgomery County meetings and advocated for the bike lanes along OGR! While the state initiated this bike lane project independently, Yoi’s follow-through is an excellent example of citizenship and character.

Yoi further honored Jacob by dedicating his Eagle Scout project to building a Memorial bike rack and repair station at Winston Churchill High School, the high school they both attended. This would reflect Jacob’s love for riding his bike and the high school since Jacob was the mascot for the Winston Churchill Bulldogs, causing people not to love him because he was the Bulldog but love the Bulldog because he was Jacob Cassell. These reasons solidified Yoi’s decision to make the high school the perfect place for the memorial.

To start his Eagle Project, he went to former Principal Heckert to get approval for the project, but once she left, he had to get approval from Mr. Taylor, who was coincidentally the principal of Yoi’s middle school. After his approval, he was sent to the PTSA to discuss funding. After going back and forth between the PTSA and the school, Yoi created a GoFundMe for his project, reaching the proposed $7,500 goal within 48 hours and ending with $9,333 from over 120 donors. After another back and forth with the county about where the building site would be and waiting for the county to collect bids for the project, the finish line was finally in sight for Yoi.

Yoi found a contractor and vendor for all the materials needed for the project. The contractor poured in the concrete slab necessary to install the bike racks and repair station on October 9th, with the actual bike racks and repair station installed by October 26th. On October 28th, 2023, the repair station was painted purple, Jacob’s favorite color, marking the completion of Yoi’s Eagle Project.

Yoi donated the unspent money from his GoFundMe to the school, which paid for a memorial sign. As requested by Jacob’s father, Jacob’s bike is currently being fully restored and will be donated to a family in need so that someone else may enjoy cycling as much as Jacob did.

As Yoi stated in his GoFundMe, “Jacob Cassell was a shining member of our society. He spread his love and compassion to everyone he met. Jacob was a leader, a friend, and an inspiration to all. Above all, however, he was and forever will be our bulldog.”

Jacob’s legacy will always be remembered at Winston Churchill High School, and Yoi helped to solidify that with his project.

Citation:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/jacob-cassell-memorial-fundraiser
https://jakecassellfund.org/about-jake/
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/jconline/name/jacob-cassell-obituary?id=8980879
https://moco360.media/2020/03/08/remembering-jake/

Brendan W., a Scout from Great Falls, VA, was recognized by The Washington Post for his Eagle Scout Project, which was themed around music, a subject he is very passionate about.

Brendan’s project involved collecting instruments, repairing them if necessary, and giving them to low-income youth. What was expected to be no more than 25 instruments quickly turned into over 100 instruments he collected and repaired!

Read the full article: The Washington Post

For his Eagle Scout project, Lucas M. from Troop 2535 prepared 100 meals for residents of Alexandria Community Shelter (ACS). With 50 residents at ACS, Lucas provided meals for all of them on two different weekends. These residents depend on food donations, so Lucas said, “This project will show that the community cares about them.”

Lucas was originally going to build a bench located at Lyon Village Community House in Arlington, close to his home, but as he said in an article written by Shirley Ruhe about his project plan, “People would use a bench once in a while, and it didn’t speak to me. I wanted to do something I enjoy, and that would be personal.” This led to his decision to make 100 meals of homemade pasta for the residents of the Carpenter Shelter in Alexandria, near his high school. This would eventually change to the ACS, which the Carpenter Shelter runs because the original location had enough donations, whereas ACS didn’t have nearly as many and also allowed people under 18 to serve.

Lucas really enjoys cooking and feeding others. He has made boxed pasta for his confirmation project and homemade pasta with his grandmother. His meals would include homemade Fettuccine and Meatballs topped with spaghetti sauce, with sides of garlic bread and green beans. He created a shopping list of everything he needed, set up a GoFundMe page for $345 in cash donations, made an Amazon Wish List for some of the food and supplies, put up a flyer at his martial arts studio, and shared the links in the Lyon Village email bulletin and with his family. He signed up volunteers online and sent the link to his Troop and a few friends, getting a total of 29 volunteers, ranging from family, friends, Troopmates, and adults.

Lucas conducted his project on June 1st and 2nd, the first weekend, and June 14th and 15th, the second weekend. Both weekends were very successful. As Lucas states, “We successfully fed everyone at the shelter who wanted food and there was enough food left over for lunch the next day. I found good prices on bread, butter, and ground beef, so I wound up with extra money for fruit salad for the second weekend. Hungry Root sent us some free kiwi fruit in our family’s meal kits, so I threw that in. People at the shelter were really happy about the fruit, especially the kiwi.”

Of course, completing a project without a couple of hiccups is very rare. “One group of volunteers didn’t show up for the correct time slot, so it was kind of stressful. Sometimes it was hard to find everyone a job, because a lot of it was just waiting for stuff to cook. On the first weekend, it was hard to cook 50 servings of pasta all at once. The second weekend, I knew what to do.”

Most importantly, Lucas demonstrated immense leadership skills throughout his project. He showed people how to do tasks, like using the pasta machine, making meatballs, and preparing garlic bread. Instead of just telling them to do it, he showed and explained the tasks in detail before assigning them. He even had directions written for volunteers at each station.

Lastly, when asked, ‘What was the most rewarding about being the leader?’ Lucas said, “With a lot of Eagle projects, you don’t get to see the effect it has. But I got pretty much instant gratification. Most people said thank you. Some people came back and asked for more. I didn’t want to be hailed as a hero, but they gave me a round of applause after dinner. If I had the money and the help, I would do this every two weeks.”

Lucas began his project on April 4, 2024, had his plans featured in an Arlington Connection and The Gazette Packet article in early June, then followed through and completed his project on June 15, 2024, after 132 hours. He completed his Eagle Board of Review on November 19, 2024.

When asked for his advice for other Scouts doing Eagle Projects, Lucas said, “Pick something you know will make a difference and something you will enjoy. You don’t need to do the same things that everyone else does.” Having been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in September, getting the answer to why he faced certain challenges and why he came up with creative solutions, Lucas feels this advice is especially important for neurodiverse Scouts because it will help them stay motivated as it did for him.

Annabelle L from Difficult Run’s Troop 55G had her Eagle Scout project featured in the Fairfax County Park Foundation Parktakes Winter 2025 magazine!

Working with the Invasive Management Area (IMA) Volunteer Program, she rescued trees, removed invasive plants, and showed phenomenal leadership with her volunteers.

Read the full article: https://fxparks.org/e-parktakes.html

Scouts BSA Troop 58’s Grant K. painted a large mural of different explorers throughout history on a wall at the elementary school he attended: Newton-Lee Elementary School. The reason for the mural’s design is that Newton-Lee’s mascot is a compass, and the slogan is “We are Newton-Lee Explorers on a voyage to success.”

Another Scout from a different Troop who originally considered doing this mural as his Eagle project posted a survey to their fellow teachers asking which important historical explorers they would prefer to be on the wall. Grant used those historical figures selected from the survey.

With this mural featuring explorers from many different fields, backgrounds, and time periods, Grant is confident that it will help promote diversity and help students remember to explore their personal interests through brave and creative ways.

The mural is located outside the Exploratorium room, which is dedicated to exploration and encourages innovation and creativity. It took five days to paint since Grant and his group had to paint on days when the school staff was available but after hours so they didn’t disrupt the students and teachers.

After a total of 170 hours worked on this project, which includes meetings, planning, sketching, and painting, Grant completed his Eagle Scout project in early April 2024 and his Eagle Board of Review on June 3, 2024.