Favorite eagle projects

[andrewcanoe]

What is the best/most original/most memorable/ most touching eagle project that you have seen?(other than your own) I ask this for a couple of reasons

 

1.These project might inspire others scouts to excel and "go the extra mile.

 

2.The troop I serve has a number of boys that are coming up on Eagle and will be submiting projects and I would like a yardstick to measure their projects against.

[Bob White]

I had a scout who went to the local zoo and studied about zoo enclosures for Tigers. With the guidance of the head zoo keeper he designed a timber excercise playground for the big cats at the zoo. He got the needed supplies donated from local lumber yards and supervised the construction of three such pieces of equipment for the zoo. It took over 3-months and several hundred labor-hours. The exhibits lasted about 7-years.

 

Another scout cleared a 1 1/4 mile hiking trail at a State Park. Every 1/10 mile he cleared a campsite area put in a fire ring, a log perimeter, built a picnic table for each, stacked ample firewood. It took a few months to do.That was over twenty years ago, those sights are still used today.

 

One scout from a troop where I served as Scoutmaster rescued an old cemetery. Reset the head stones, cleaned them, documented the names and dates and locations of the persons at rest there, landscaped the grounds and organized a rededication ceremony.

 

One scout designed and landscaped a meditation garden at his church. It was about 1200 sq. ft. in area and included dozens of different species of perrenial flowers, had benches constructed and installed and organized a dedication ceremony. It took several weeks and several hundred labor hours to complete.

 

Just a few of my favorites.

 

Bob White

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[dsteele]

I'm dating myself with a couple of these examples, but it's okay because I've already told you guys how old I am.

 

I tend to focus on Eagle Projects as being important because they allow the Eagle candidate to demonstrate his leadership ability in guiding others in accomplishing an important task.

 

I don't believe an Eagle Project has to be a "bricks and mortar" project.

 

 

My first favorite Eagle project (not done by me) was done in the late 1970's in the district where I grew up. This was before books were put on tape and called books on tape. At the time, there were very few books recorded and the blind very often missed out.

 

This Eagle candidate contacted the Public Library and got from them a list of the most requested books. He then borrowed several tape recorders (there used to be such a thing, complete with a microphone and they looked like the old tricorders from the original Star Trek series -- I explain that for the benefit of the under 30 crowd.)

 

Anyway, the candidate then recruited several other people to read the books into the tape recorder. Led the effort to collect and catalog the tapes, and worked with the library to incorporate the taped books into a "Books for the blind" program. In all, they recorded several hundred books.

 

Another one I liked came at the very beginning of the public access cable channel. One Eagle candidate -- who happened to be in my troop -- wrote, produced, directed, and filmed a program to educate the public in basic first aid which ran on the cable access channel for a long time.

 

DS

[shemgren]

One of the Scout in my unit planted, weeded, harvested 10 arces of land, gave all the produce to the local food shelf. He had in excess of 100 volunteers and in excess of 3000 hours into the project. He transported over 4,000 lbs of produce in donated trucks. He did all this organically. He found volunteers from all over the area and got the seed donated. The land belonged to his family. It took over 6 hours to assemble his Eagle packet. Whew!

 

 

 

 

[Proud Eagle]

My two personal favorites were:

 

The construction of a pair of bridges as part part of a handicap accessible and pet walking trail near the camping area in the local State Park. The project also involved the clearing of about a half mile of the trail as well. (Other parts of the trail already existed.)

 

The other was a playground improvement at the local Catholic school. A trench was dug around all of the playground equipment. Railroad ties were placed into the trenches (only partially below ground). The enclosures created by the railroad ties were then filled with wood chips/mulch. This did two things. It made the playground safer because the wood chips softened falls. It also doubled the amount of use the playground could get. The woodchips prevented water from pooling below some of the equipment and creating massive amounts of mud. In all that project involved something like 140 full lenght rail road ties and at least 3 (may have been 5, don't remember for certain) large dumptruck loads of mulch. (The project did contain one unusual aspect. Some of the work was performed by inmates of the local jail. Apperently it was neither required of the inmates nor paid, so it was technically volunteer service. The inmates apperently were glad for a chance to get outside and do strenuous manual labor instead of sitting around the jail doing nothing.)

 

(This message has been edited by Proud Eagle)