Eagle Project

Bee Crossing: A Project Of The Future

June 7, 2021 by The Scouter Digest Staff

Submitted by: Nuruddin A., Eagle Scout

Bee Crossing is an Eagle Scout project with a focus on sustainability— to live beyond the present day. It was always planned with the future in mind. That’s why this project’s three goals were about safety, education, and community.

The physical part of this project was planned to foster the future as well. It’s 16 wooden posts, 10 with Solar LEDs and all with plaques. They’re planted in a marshy grove between an Elementary School, and two neighborhoods. The plaques describe the diverse representation of wildlife. From the native to the invasive, to the birds in the trees to the skunk cabbages rooting in the hummus, the beauty in the diversity are the main highlights.

A website was made since 16 plaques could not cover every single species in Bee Crossing. This website, beecrossing.org, was made to correct and expand on the information covered by the plaques. These plaques were also made with the Elementary School in mind. We have been working with the school to make Bee Crossing a part of the local curriculum. In fact, each plaque has a unique QR code that leads back to the website. This way, if visitors wish to do their own research, they can scan the QR code and learn more through the sources we provided or the additional information we offer.

The suggestion to light up the path was actually pitched by the community itself. The path at night is awfully dark, but many people still use it. The 10 Solar LEDs were placed on the post as a way to have renewably powered lights to keep the community safe at night. These LEDs are dim enough to avoid blinding, but bright enough to make the path visible. This way, everyone can enjoy the path both in the day, and safely at night.

Sustainability and the future goes hand in hand. Scouting teaches us to be prepared for life, and bringing a community together with this project does exactly that. Bee Crossing was made to be a rally point for everyone to gather around. The name itself was suggested and voted on by the community. We have a volunteer group called Friends of Bee Crossing to maintain the path. The vision is for this project to become bigger than itself. For this project to instill a sense of identity and action. To one day return home and see many projects and works done for the benefit of all of us, would be a dream come true.

Bee Crossing is an Eagle Scout project built now for the future with 16 posts embedded along the trails with Solar LEDS and plaques about the wildlife.

Culpeper Scouts Soar to the Rank of Eagle

April 27, 2021 by The Scouter Digest Staff

Scoutmaster Donald Demory of Troop 196 discussed in an interview with Emily Jennings of The Free Lance-Star shares how three Eagle Scouts were able to complete their projects despite the challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic may have presented.

Andrew Flack made custom-built free community library boxes for Culpeper area parks. When asked about the program, he stated, “It teaches great skills, good ethics and morals, and a lot of life lessons to carry with you your whole life.” For Aiden Durica‘s Eagle project, he constructed an awards platform for the Soap Box Derby and installed micro-libraries. Eddie Fleming organized a group of volunteers to helped him install 150 feet of fencing at Cedar Mountain battlefield. His group also installed a new sign that was laser-engraved by a local business.

We are proud of our newest Eagles Scouts and their contributions to the Culpeper community!

The Importance of Bees

January 22, 2021 by Robbie S

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!

New Theatre, New Props

December 7, 2020 by Alexander V

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.

Temple Benches

December 7, 2020 by Nathan T

Nathan T. of Troop 904 in Arlington, VA, has always attended Van Hanh Buddhist Temple. His family has been members there for 30 years. It is a welcoming place, and Nathan enjoys attending services there. But during holidays and special events, the temple became so crowded that many people had no place to sit and would have to stand for hours; this was especially challenging for elderly members. Nathan saw this and he knew he had to help. So for his Eagle Scout Project, he decided to build four new benches for the temple so that everyone would have a place to sit.

First, Nathan spoke to the temple’s leadership and showed them sketches and plans of the style and size of the benches. Once his plan for the benches was approved, he was told he could start in April. But unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nathan had to postpone his plans to August. In the meantime, he was determined to keep working as much as possible. Nathan gathered the necessary materials and volunteers for his project. They began their work by measuring and cutting the wood. Then they moved onto assembling and painting the four benches.

Nathan couldn’t have been more proud to see the four benches in the temple after the hard work he and his volunteers put into it. It was exciting to see the project completed because Nathan knew how many people these benches could help.

Clearing the Path

December 6, 2020 by Mason A

One 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.