By Audrey McKenzie
Staff Writer
It can take a boy scout between 150 and 300 hours of hard work to earn an Eagle Scout Award, the highest and most prestigious honor that the program bestows. According to scouts who have undertaken this project, it requires an incredible amount of time, effort, patience, dedication, and hard work.
“Getting the Eagle Scout Award was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. Having to organize so many different things all at once was extremely difficult. It’s almost like running your own business,” junior Chris Bickel said.
Junior Charlie McQuitty recently completed his Eagle Scout Award project. After considering his project, McQuitty chose to build a slide, a storage cabinet and a bookcase for a children’s clinic in Long Beach. He also collected over 500 books to donate to the clinic.
He chose to complete his project at the John Tracy Clinic, a clinic that provides parent-centered services to young children with hearing loss. McQuitty and his family attended this clinic when he was a child. Some of their services include education for children, family resources and parent education and support.
When McQuitty was in the early stages of planning, he decided he wanted to do something that other Eagle Scouts had not done before.
“I thought I should do something for them since they did so much for me when I was little. I’m just glad that I could do something in return,” McQuitty said.
Before McQuitty could begin planning his Eagle Scout project, he had to receive six ‘scout’ ranks: Scout, Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, 1st Class, Star and Life.
“For each different rank I had to get additional merit badges. Each rank took around six months to complete. It took me three years to receive all six ranks and to get to the point where I could start my project,” McQuitty said.
Once McQuitty decided what to do for his project, he had to get it approved by his troop members, his scoutmaster and a district advisor. He began once the project was approved. Before undertaking the building portion, however, McQuitty had to collect books for the shelter. He amassed over 500.
“I had to categorize all of the books and make sure they were checked for quality. I also had to put library labels inside each book so that they could be checked out by the children,” McQuitty said.
After collecting and organizing the books, he began the building portion of his project, He purchased lumber, screws and other supplies, but some parts for the slide were donated by McQuitty’s friends. Others helped him make the furniture once he bagan work within the clinic.
“We assembled the slide in the back of the building, in a play area for the children that previously included little bikes, a sandpit and a children’s house for the kids to play in. We put all of the books in the bookcase that we built for the kids to be able to check out and read,” McQuitty said.
McQuitty said that all of the hours of planning and organizing this project taught him valuable organizational skills and how to effectively work with volunteers.
McQuitty said that one of the greatest things he got out of doing this project was how to work with other people in a positive way, helping them to work effectively and cooperatively with him and the other other members of the project team.
“The whole leadership experience I got out of doing this project was extremely rewarding,” McQuitty said.
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