FOUR EASY STEPS TO
PLANNING AND COMPLETING YOUR
EAGLE SCOUT LEADERSHIP SERVICE PROJECT

The Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project is probably the most challenging advancement requirement in all of Scouting, but it is also probably the most important of all and the most rewarding to complete. It’s your golden opportunity to use some of the knowledge you’ve acquired along the Trail to Eagle, to demonstrate the leadership skills you’ve developed and to learn how to manage a large project involving many steps and lots of people. But even more important, it’s your big opportunity as a Boy Scout to make a meaningful and lasting contribution to your religious institution, school or community.

Most scouts seem to put off their project until well after they’ve earned all of their 21 merit badges, sometimes until their senior year of high school when it is almost too late to complete their Eagle Scout requirements. (You must complete all of your requirements including your project before your 18^th birthday.) For some of you, things are very busy now -- busier than you hope they will be next month or next term. For others, it’s tough to come up with a good idea for a project. And some of you who have helped work on your friends’ Eagle projects worry about whether you, too, will be able to organize so many people to complete such a big project. Practically every scout who ever did an Eagle project had all of these concerns and more.

The good news is that it’s not as hard as it might seem if you start now, before things get even busier, and if you break the project into discrete steps. Think of the last mountain you climbed. When you were standing at the bottom staring up at the peak, it looked huge and you might have wondered how you would ever make it to the top. But you didn’t get anywhere just standing there with your pack on your back. You plotted a course on your map, you took the first step, and then the next step, and then the next one. Along the way, you had to stop once in a while to take a break and make sure you were still on the right trail. The same goes for your project. You set a goal, plan a way to get there and then start moving -- step by step. You might make a few mistakes along the way, but that’s OK as long as you keep checking to make sure you’re on the right trail and as long as you keep moving. The first step is always the hardest, but once you start down the trail you won’t want to turn back.

Here’s one way to start breaking your project down into manageable steps:

STEP 1: DEVELOP AN IDEA

For some reason, it seems that developing a project idea is always the hardest step. Start by developing lots of possible ideas by reading the requirement itself, thinking about what others have done and talking to adults in your troop, church, school and community organizations. Look for needs that you might be able to help fill with a little help from the troop and your friends. Think about groups that you would enjoy helping and projects that you might have fun doing. Perhaps most important, talk about your ideas with your parents and the troop’s adult leaders, who have experience with past projects and can help narrow down your choices.

Understand the requirement - The very first thing you need to do is read the requirement itself, which is very straightforward. This comes right out of the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook that is discussed later:

As stated in the Boy Scout Handbook: While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to your religious institution, school, or your community. (The project should benefit an organization other than the BSA.) The project idea must be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, your unit leader (Scoutmaster, Varsity Scout Coach, Venturing crew Advisor), unit committee, and by the council or district advancement committee before you start. You must use this Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, No. 18-927A, in meeting this requirement.

Understand how the National interprets it - Beyond the requirement itself, the National Boy Scouts organization provides only these additional guidelines in the Workbook:

Originality

Does the leadership service project for Eagle have to be original, perhaps something you dream up that has never been done before? The answer: No, but it certainly could be. You may pick a project that has been done before, but you must accept responsibility for planning, directing, and following through to its successful completion.

Limitations

Routine labor (a job or service normally rendered) should not be considered. Work involving council property or other BSA activity is not permitted. The project also may not be performed for a business or an individual, be of a commercial nature, or be a fund-raiser. (Fund-raising is permitted only for securing materials or supplies needed to carry out your project.)

Size

How big a project is required? There are no specific requirements, as long as the project is helpful to a religious institution, school, or community. The amount of time spent by you in planning your project and the actual working time spent in carrying out the project should be as much as is necessary for you to demonstrate your leadership of others.

Understand how the Knox Trail Council interprets it - The council does not impose its own additional requirements, but the council leadership and the local Eagle Scout Board of Review are charged with reviewing and approving all Eagle projects as they see fit, consistent with the requirement and the guidelines outlined above. While the council sends your single-page Eagle Scout Application form to the National after your Eagle board of review, neither your workbook nor other information on your project is included. You should keep in mind that the Knox Trail Council has gotten very strict in applying the requirement. For example, they emphasize that:

• You must be a Life Scout to start your Eagle Project, and you will be required to enter the date of your Life Board of Review on your Eagle Scout Rank Application. The Council will not accept projects or work done while a Star Scout.

• The project must provide community service. It may not be done for a business or individual, be of a commercial nature, or be a fund-raiser. (Fund-raising is permitted only for securing materials or supplies needed to carry out your project.) Routine labor (a job or service normally done) should not be considered.

• You need to demonstrate leadership of others. This is as important as the service provided, if not more so. You will need to give examples of how you directed the project rather than doing the work yourself.

Further, the council expects at least 100 hours of work, by you and the individuals you directed in the project. This is not an official requirement, but it is their interpretation of what constitutes a project significant enough to count as an Eagle project. Keep track of the hours you and others spend working on the project (by name of the individual and the date the work was done).

Think of past projects as examples - One of the best guides to the right kind of project (the right organization, the right types of end result, the right size, etc.) is the list of projects that have been completed successfully by scouts in the past and approved by the local Eagle Scout board of review. Attached is a list of examples given by the National in the workbook, provided by the Knox Trail Council in their Trail to Eagle seminars, and completed successfully by scouts from Troop 157 over the last few years.

Look for a need - As you start thinking about possible projects, look around your religious institution, school or other community organizations for things that need to be done and opportunities to help other people. Look at other churches and schools, too. For example, you might attend St. Peter’s Church, but our troop is affiliated with St. Julia’s church and there might be worthwhile project ideas there, too. You might attend the Weston High School, but there might be a project at the Country School or Woodland School worth considering. And remember that your “community” is not just the town of Weston. It certainly includes the greater Boston area (particularly some towns that are less affluent than ours) and possibly even a much larger area for certain types of projects. Indeed, you might have an easier time finding an opportunity to make a real difference in people’s lives outside of Weston, where things are not as well taken care of already.

Ask people for suggestions - Some people are very focused on community affairs and the needs of other people. Try to figure out who they are and ask them for ideas. For example, if your parents or neighbors devote some of their time to certain local charitable or service organizations (e.g., the Lions Club, Weston Historical Society, WEEFC, etc.), ask them to introduce you to the leaders or managers of those organizations. Talk to the pastor of your church, who will not only be aware of the needs of his parish, but also of opportunities to reach out to those in need beyond the parish. Talk to your teachers, the school principal, your football coach or others who have been involved in service projects in the past. At the High School, for example, Mrs. Marsh coordinates community service and is always thinking about projects. Ask your parents or troop leaders for ideas, but then talk to many other adults as well.

Bounce your ideas off the Troop’s adult leaders - Once you have a few ideas that you like, or maybe even one that you really want to do, talk to the troop’s adult leaders to get their reactions. Describe your ideas, including who will benefit from the project, how they will benefit, how many people you think it might take to complete the project, what materials might be required, and when you might do it. They’ll give you their sense of whether you are on the right track and maybe even build on your idea to help make it better. They can refer you to other people who might be able to help you get the project off the ground, suggest ways to secure the necessary materials and generally help you focus your efforts.

STEP 2: PLAN THE PROJECT AND GET IT APPROVED

Once you have an idea that you like and that seems to make sense to your parents and the troop leaders, you need to start planning it out and getting both your project idea and plans approved by the proper organizations, your Scoutmaster, the Troop Committee and the Knox Trail Council.

Identify a sponsoring organization - Your project needs to be sponsored by some religious institution, school or community organization. Beyond the fact that you will need a representative of this organization to sign your Eagle Scout application, someone ultimately has responsibility for the area where you will be working and/or where your project will have impact. In most cases, this person is very easy to identify. For example, if you plan to paint the church basement, the right person is the church’s pastor. If you are doing a project at a school, the proper representative is probably the principal (and if it’s not, he can tell you who it is). If you’re doing a project for a homeless shelter, it would be the executive director of the shelter. Be careful when you consider projects for the town itself because there are often many different officials, boards or other organizations that might need to be consulted, including the Board of Selectmen, Board of Health, Conservation Commission, Weston Forest and Trail Association, etc. It is certainly possible to obtain all of the necessary approvals, but the more people and boards involved, the more difficult and time consuming the approval process -- before you even start the project. Also, keep in mind that some town organizations are friendlier to Eagle projects than others.

Identify the organization’s representative and set up a meeting - Once you have identified the appropriate sponsoring organization, call the top executive and ask if he/she is the right person to work with on your project. In general, the right person is the individual who has the organizational authority to approve the project and to authorize whatever specific work you plan to do. For example, you could ask the school janitor if you might re-varnish the gym floor, but if the school principal is the only guy who can authorize that particular work, you ultimately need to talk to him and work with him as your sponsor, not the janitor. Once you find the right person, call to explain your idea and make an appointment to discuss the project in detail.

Meet with the representative at the project site - When you meet with the sponsoring organization’s representative (the person who can authorize your work), review the Eagle Scout project requirement, describe your project idea, explain how it would work and start discussing your plan. The representative will help you understand the organization’s needs, highlight constraints and possible problems, provide ideas about how to simplify or expand the project to make it more valuable, and refer you to people who can help. Be sure that before leaving you have a common understanding of exactly what will be done, how it will be done, and when the various steps will happen. If it is not possible to agree on all of these details, be sure you leave with an agreement on how and when you will complete this important planning discussion.

Take the “before” pictures - Many projects involve some sort of physical change to the project site, for example, new shelves, painted walls, newly planted trees, etc. If you project fits into this category, be sure to take photographs of the way the site looked before you started working on your project. You will include these in your project workbook which will be read by the Eagle board of review. The best time to take these pictures is when you first meet with the organization’s representative at the site.

Think about how you would do the project - Your meeting at the site will get you thinking more deeply about all of the steps that you’ll need to complete your project. Start writing these steps down, in the order in which they must occur. Focus on all of the specific actions that need to be taken, not just the end result. For example, the task “paint the wall” needs to be broken down into several tasks such as 1) get the paint, 2) move the furniture and put down drop cloths, 3) scrape the old paint off the wall, 4) fill the holes with spackling compound, 5) sand the wall, 6) paint the wall with primer, 7) paint the wall with the finish coat, and 8) clean up.

Think about the people, materials and tools needed to do a good job - Once you have a basic idea of what steps will be needed to complete your project, it will become clearer how long the project might take (both absolute number of man-hours and the number of weeks it will take to complete all of the steps), the materials required (such as paint, wood, glue, etc.), and the tools you will need. Keep in mind that Scouts are not permitted to use power tools, but adult helpers can under certain circumstances. If the materials needed will be expensive, you will also need to begin thinking about how you will raise the money to buy them or who might donate them. Ogilvies has in the past been very generous about donating materials for Eagle Scout projects, but you should ask the Troop’s adult leaders before approaching them to donate materials.

Ask for help - Perhaps this goes without saying, but you should be sure to ask for as much help as you need throughout your entire project, and then ask for more help. Asking for help is not just what to do when things start going wrong; it’s part of the process and necessary for completing your project successfully.

Get an Eagle Service Project Workbook - The Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook must be used in working on the project. This can be the printed booklet or the downloadable version available at http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/eagleproject/dload.html. It is strongly recommended that you use the downloadable RTF (Rich Text Format) version. This version allows you to fill in your Eagle Project information on your computer’s word processor so that you can later spell check the document, and make changes without a complete re-write. You can then print your project proposal, get the required signatures, and then later add the final write-up to the same document.

Start keeping track of your time - When you first opened your Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, you probably noticed that the final write-up requires you to state the number of hours you spent on your project, divided into hours you spent planning the project and hours you spent carrying out the project. It also asks you to list the hours spent by scouts and other individuals helping you execute the project. You should start keeping track of all of these hours now, ideally in two time charts. The first chart should track your time, for example with each row representing a day spent working on the project and the columns including important data such as the date, the specific tasks you did on that date, and the amount of time spent on each task. The other chart should track the time spent by others on your project, with the names of the individuals, what they did on each date and the amount of time each person spent on each task that day.

Write up the project in the workbook - The Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook starts by asking you to describe the project you plan to do. This description will generally be 2-3 paragraphs long, or perhaps a half page of typewritten prose. The workbook also asks you to identify the group that will benefit (name, address, and telephone number) and to describe how the project will benefit the group. This description of the benefits might be a few sentences long to as much as a paragraph long, depending on your project. You also need to provide the date you discussed the project with your Scoutmaster and the name and telephone number of the representative of the group that will benefit from the project. The workbook then asks you to:

Plan your work by describing the present condition, the method, materials to be used, project helpers, and a time schedule for carrying out the project. Describe any safety hazards you might face, and explain how you will ensure the safety of those carrying out the project. If appropriate, include photographs of the area before you begin your project. Providing before-and-after photographs of your project area can give a clear example of your effort.

These project details are likely to take several paragraphs (4-6) to describe fully.

Ask your parents and the troop’s adult leaders to review your write-up - When you complete your write-up of the project description and the planning details, show it to you parents and to a few of the troop’s adult leaders. They will help ensure that the project is well conceived, adequately planned and clearly described for the members of the council’s Eagle board of review to approve.

Show your workbook to the organization’s representative - After you have made the necessary changes and corrections to your write-up, show it to the representative of the organization who will benefit from the project. It is often easiest to fax or e-mail this document and to ask the person to call you with any comments or suggestions.

Get your workbook signed - Your Scoutmaster, Troop Committee, and council or district advancement committee must approve your project idea before the project is started. The workbook has lines for each of their signatures. The Scoutmaster and Troop Committee Chairman’s signatures can usually be secured at one of our regular troop meetings. You can make another visit to the organization representative to get his/her signature, or simply fax a blank signature page, ask him/her to sign it and fax it back to you. Attach this fax to your proposal and write “see attached page” on the line above the Scoutmaster’s signature on the main signature page.

Send your workbook to the council for approval - Once you have the signed approval of the first three people mentioned above in your workbook, make a copy of your workbook and take or mail your entire original workbook to the council office to obtain the final approval. The Council’s address is: Knox Trail Council, 490 Union Avenue, Framingham, MA 01702. Workbooks are generally processed at the council office on Wednesday mornings. The council will return your workbook by mail once your project has been approved, with the signature of the chairman of the council Eagle board of review, who is currently Larry Belden. Please allow 2-3 weeks (from the Wednesday after your project is received by the council) for review and approval of your project before you plan to start work on it.

Wait for approval - Do not begin working on your project until you have the signed original back from the council. This is a technicality, but an important one: your final write-up asks for the date on which you began your project and this date should not be before the date on which the council advancement committee chairman signed your workbook to approve the project. If you do not receive your workbook back in the mail with the approval signature within about 3 weeks, call the council office at (508) 872-6551 and ask for the advancement chairman, who is currently John Fortini, to see where the process stands.

STEP 3: DO THE PROJECT

When the council has approved your project -- and not until then -- you can begin working on it. You will need to expand on the plan you included in your project proposal, line up your helpers, and lead their efforts. Part of this challenge is management -- ensuring that the necessary materials and people are at the right place at the right time, and that everyone knows what to do. Part of it is coaching -- helping everyone understand how to do what you’re asking and motivating them to do their best work. And part of it is troubleshooting -- planning ahead for all of the possible problems that could arise, preventing them where you can and fixing them where you can’t prevent them.

Continue keeping track of your time - Remember to continue keeping track of the time that you and others spend on the project. It’s a lot easier to keep track to all of these hours along the way than it is to reconstruct these time logs at the end when you need to complete your project write-up. Also remember that your job is to plan and lead the project, not to do it yourself. When you complete your project and review your time logs, the majority of your time should show up as planning, and the hours spent by your helpers actually working on the project should be far greater than the hours you spent working on the project yourself.

Expand your plan; put together a calendar and materials list - Your project proposal included a few paragraphs on “planning details” including the method, materials to be used, project helpers, and a time schedule for carrying out the project. Now you need to expand on that plan so that you and your helpers will know exactly what needs to be done when and by whom. You might find it helpful to get a calendar (e.g., one page per month) and write down all of the specific tasks on specific dates, so you’ll know which tasks need to happen in what order. This calendar will also help you tell whether you are running ahead or behind your schedule. You also need to get very specific about the materials and tools you will need, how you will pay for them or have them donated, and when and where you will get them. For example, if you building wooden signs, you should calculate how much wood of each size you need, how many boxes of screws and nails, how many sheets of sandpaper, how many hammers (depending on the number of helpers you expect) and so on. You will also need to consider the meals, snacks, beverages, permission slips, driving instructions and everything else needed to make your project run smoothly and make your helpers feel happy that they agreed to participate.

Line up your helpers - There are many ways to line up your helpers. For scouts, make a few announcements at our weekly troop meetings, write up a paragraph to include in the troops weekly E-News, send out your own e-mail message to everyone in the troop and call people on the phone. If you’re running a town-wide book drive or video collection, write up a brief article for the Town Crier and get it to them in time for the issue in which you’d like it to appear. Give them a photo of yourself (smiling) in your scout uniform with books or videos as props, to help get the idea across. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. If you’re trying to involve members of your church parish, ask your pastor to put a paragraph that you’ve written into the parish newsletter and to make an announcement for you on Sunday morning. (Be sure to attend the church service that morning, so you can answer any questions). Use e-mail and phone calls extensively, but be very specific and very reasonable in what you are asking people to do. Your helpers should not have to think or plan or acquire any of their own materials or tools, because you already did all of that for them. They should simply have to show up and follow your directions.

Line up your materials, tools food and water - The materials and tools necessary to complete your project need to be in place when your helpers arrive on the scene. Even if you will be asking them to help you transport these items to the project site, you should have arranged for everything ahead of time. You can try to arrange to have the materials donated or to raise money to purchase the necessary materials, but it would be best to discuss this item with your Scoutmaster before you begin. Even if the required materials are available around your house and you can borrow the needed tools, be sure to ask your parents first.

Separately, think about the food, beverages and other amenities that your helpers will need while they’re working on the project. Put yourself in their shoes and think about what you would like to have while you’re working -- snacks, lunch, water, a bathroom, music...you get the idea. Make sure that it all will be there.

Think about what could go wrong and plan for possible problems - Assume that everything that could go wrong will go wrong (Murphy’s Law) and Be Prepared. What if people show up at the wrong place or the wrong time? What if some of the critical materials are missing? What if it rains? What if someone gets hurt while they’re working on the project? (Don’t forget a first aid kit, but also plan for larger emergencies). Try to think of everything you can and prevent as much of it as possible. Make plans for how you might handle the things you can’t prevent.

Prepare a handout telling people where they need to be, when they need to be there and what they will be doing - Although you announced your project at a troop meeting, put a paragraph in the E-News and/or church newsletter, and maybe even talked to people individually, they’ll still have a lot of questions. Consider putting together a handout or a long e-mail message that explains your project in detail, so that even someone who had never met you and never heard of your project would know exactly what you’re doing and exactly how they could help if they wanted to.

Confirm that your helpers will be there - A day or two ahead of each major event on your project calendar, call (or e-mail) everyone who has committed to participate and reconfirm that they will be there to help. Ask them if they have any questions and answer any that arise. If anyone asks you a question you can’t answer, tell the person that you don’t know the answer but that you’ll find out and get right back to him or her. Then do just that, as one of your top priorities.

Confirm that the materials, tools, food and water will be there - Similarly, a day or two before you actually need the materials, tools, food and so forth, call the sources of supply to make sure that everything you need will be at the right place on time.

Make sure you have everything else you’re going to need - After you have reconfirmed the helpers, materials, tools and food, sit down and try to think trough exactly how the project event will proceed. Try to think about other things you will need -- permission slips, drivers, driving instructions, a first aid kit, a cellular phone, important phone numbers, your own rain gear and work gloves, and so forth -- and make sure that you will have them ready.

Lead the project - When your helpers show up at the project site, they will be looking to you to tell them exactly what to do. They’ll want to know who is working in which group, what materials and tools to use, how you want the project done, where the bathroom is, when you plan to break for lunch, when you expect the day’s work to end, what to do if there is a problem and everything else you’ve planned so carefully. When everyone else is hard at work, then you too can start your particular task. But you’ll have to take frequent breaks to supervise everyone’s effort and help solve any problems that might have come up. If someone isn’t doing what you asked, try to help them understand how important it is that everyone do their part. If someone is trying hard, but isn’t doing a very good job, try to help them improve by teaching them how to do it better. Use the leadership skills you’ve developed, trying to serve, coach and inspire. Set a good example and keep a positive attitude, even if things don’t go exactly as you expected, since your attitude will set the tone for the entire group.

Take notes on what happened, who helped and what changed - Look ahead to the project write-up. You’ll be asked to describe what actually happened, who helped, what changed and why. Stop to take notes often during the project so that you can make an accurate final report in your workbook.

Take the “during” and “after” pictures - Recall that if your project involves some sort of physical change to the project site (e.g., new shelves, painted walls, newly planted trees, etc.) that you will want to include pictures before, during and after the project in your workbook. If this is the case, you should have taken some photos when you first met with the organization representative to discuss the project. (If you forgot to do that, go to the site the day before the project and take them then). When you stop to take notes during the project, also take a few pictures of your helpers working. Then take a few more at the end of the day, before you leave. Try to take pictures of the same areas, from the same angles as you took before the project was started so that the comparison is very clear.

Clean up - Don’t forget to pick up all of the trash, drop cloths, spare materials, water bottles, tools, etc. before you leave. The only thing different about the site after your project should be your project itself -- newly planted trees, painted walls, bookshelves full of books, or whatever -- nothing that reminds people of the process that you and your helpers used to complete the project, and certainly nothing that the sponsoring organization will have to worry about after you leave.

Thank everyone for helping - You will undoubtedly remember to thank all of your friends individually for helping you with your project before they leave for the day. But don’t forget to thank the representative of the sponsoring organization for letting you do the project, the suppliers of the materials and food for their donations, the adults for driving and lending the necessary tools, and everyone else involved in the project. Then, a day or two after the project, send each of them an e-mail message or mail them a short note thanking them again. You couldn’t have done it without all of their help and support.

STEP 4: WRITE IT UP

The final step is to go back to your Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook (the very same one you used to get your project approved in the first place) and complete your write-up. The good news is that there’s much less to write after the project is completed than there was to get the project approved.

Get a letter from the project representative - Although it is not an official requirement, the Knox Trail Council asks you to include a letter from the Eagle project supervisor (the representative from the church, school, nature center, etc. that the project benefited) in your finished workbook. It should state that the project was carried out to their satisfaction, and should be on their letterhead. If the project supervisor is on site when you are completing you project, you should be sure to ask for the letter toward the end of the day, when the project is nearly completed but before you leave.

Finish writing up your project in your workbook - The section of the workbook on “Carrying Out the Project” first asks you to:

Record the progress of your project. Keep a record of how much time you spend planning and carrying out the project. List who besides yourself worked on the project, the days they worked, the number of hours they worked each day, and the total length of time others assisted on the project.

Since you have been keeping accurate time logs along the way (right?) this just means typing up your logs and adding up the hours. Include the charts themselves in an understandable format. The workbook next asks you to:

If appropriate, list the type and cost of any materials required to complete the project. If your original project plan changes at any time, be sure and document what the change was and the reason for the changes.

Again, since you were taking good notes while the project unfolded (right?) you just need to summarize what happened, what ended up being different from your plan and why the changes occurred. The material list is just that, a list, with costs and the sources. The discussion of the changes could be only a few sentences to a few paragraphs long.

Write up a project summary - Although this is an extra item requested by the Knox Trail Council and is not required as part of the workbook, it is extremely easy to provide. Assuming that you used the RTF format of the workbook, as was strongly suggested, just copy and paste all of the descriptive paragraphs into a new document. Then edit it down to no more than a page, adding a sentence here or there to summarize the information in your workbook that wasn’t in paragraph form (e.g., the type and cost of materials, the hours that you and others spent working on the project, how happy the sponsoring organization was, etc.) This should tell what your project was about, who it was done for, how it was accomplished, and how you demonstrated leadership.

Ask your parents for comments and make the necessary revisions - When you have completed your workbook and the one-page project summary, show them to you parents or other adults for their comments and suggestions. Make the necessary changes and print out a final copy.

Get your completed workbook signed - Once you’re satisfied with your workbook, sign and date the last page and then get your Scoutmaster to do the same. The workbook also asks for the signature of the representative of the church, school or community organization. Assuming you obtained the completion letter requested by the council, it is sufficient to write on that line “see attached letter” and to attach the letter.

Hand in your workbook with your Eagle Scout application - Now, make a few copies of your finished workbook, complete with all of your “before, during and after” photos. Put the original in an envelope and put it in a safe place. You will submit it with your completed Eagle Scout Rank Application after all of your other requirements are completed.

Good work!

EXAMPLES OF EAGLE SCOUT PROJECTS

Examples provided in the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook

• Made trays to fasten to wheelchairs for veterans with disabilities at a Veterans Administration hospital.

• Collected used books and distributed them to people in the community who wanted and needed, but could not afford, books.

• Built a sturdy footbridge across a brook to make a safe shortcut for children between their homes and school.

• Collected and repaired used toys and gave them to a home for children with disabilities.

• Organized and operated a bicycle safety campaign. This involved a written safety test, equipment safety check, and a skills contest in a bike rodeo.

• Surveyed the remains of an old Spanish mission and prepared an accurate map relating it to the present church.

• Built a "tot lot" in a big city neighborhood and set up a schedule for Boy Scouts to help run it.

• Set up a community study center for children who needed a place to do schoolwork.

• Trained fellow students as audiovisual aides for their school. Arranged for more than 200 hours of audiovisual work.

• Prepared plans for a footbridge on a trail in a national forest. Worked with rangers to learn the skills necessary to build the structure, gathered materials and tools, and then directed a Scout work group to do the construction.

Examples provided by the Knox Trail Council

• Soccer rebound board for athletic field

• Sign for church

• Sand, prime and paint pavilion owned by civic organization

• Construct nature trail

• Clean and paint fire hydrants

• Rebuild handicap ramp, construct new handicap ramp

• Catalogue locations of veterans’ graves in town cemeteries

• Repair and paint walls in church rooms

• Collect furniture, clothes and food

• Recruit foster homes

• Restoration of town baseball fields

• Clean up around town pond; build signs

• Build cross country skiing and running course

• Design and build display case for church

• Build bookcase for sponsoring activity

Examples of recent Troop 157 projects

• Built a covered sign board for the center of town

• Conducted a used book drive for children’s books; installed the books and previously collected toys and games in a daycare center for homeless children

• Painted the bleachers next to the Weston High School football field

• Conducted a food drive for the pantry at the Brooks School Apartments

• Built shelves at the Brooks School Apartments for food from various food drives

• Restored and landscaped the Sunset Lookout on Highland Street

• Developed an educational course for children at the Golden Ball Tavern

• Planted perennial flowers on the town green

• Collected used videos and installed them in a shelter for homeless AIDS patients

• Educated the town on non-lethal ways to control beavers and led the local debate on how to address a specific local beaver problem

• Painted classrooms at a daycare center for homeless children

• Collected used eyeglasses to be refurbished for those in need

• And…your project goes here!