Eli Glickman’s Eagle Project is so innovative and interesting that I wanted to submit it to Scouter Digest so others could hear about it. Here is Eli’s own description of his project:
“Personal stories are a treasure trove of information, they offer perspective, reflection, and first-person experience. That’s ultimately why I selected oral history as the background for my Eagle project. I had heard about another project done in my Troop by a Scout who has since graduated, Scott Burns, where he interviewed World War II veterans about their experiences in the War. I wanted to focus less on actual wartime and more on the process of returning home that veterans undergo. I felt that this was part of most veterans’ stories that is seldom discussed in society and that it deserved attention. I then got in touch with the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress which was the ultimate beneficiary for my project. After that a group of Scouts and I reached out to several veterans whose contact info we received through Troop connections; I later reached out to the American Legion to get a complete 10 veterans to interview, their help in coordinating and establishing these contacts was tremendously beneficial to the success of my project. After that the Scouts and I coordinated a plan to conduct the interviews, focusing on hearing as much of each veteran’s story as possible and learning about their reflections on their experiences. The result of the project was incredibly rewarding, the Scouts and I learned not only stories from these veterans but how to better empathize and interact with veterans we see on a daily basis.”
