Eagle Projects - what did your son (or you) do?

[libraryfreak]

My son is a freshman and just completed his Life Rank project. He got $130 donated, plus coordinated 5 people for a total of 17 man hours on the project. I am very proud of him. Now its time to think of an Eagle. I've googled it, but came back with literally thousands of projects. I'd like to give him some suggestions, but maybe I'd be overstepping my boundaries. What is the etiquette on that? Am I able to offer suggestions? Should I stay totally out of the picture?

If the consensus is that I should let him do it all on his own, could you at least tell me the pros and cons of your project so I have some idea of the mistakes he might make?

How much did your project cost, how much did you get donated (any big donors out there?), how much manpower did your project require... what didn't you anticipate, what would you of done differently... how long did it take...

Thanks for your help.

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

My DS is just starting his Eagle Project so I don't have a lot of details of cost, time, etc. His project is to put chess tables in the local park.

My suggestion to you is to encourage your DS to find something that he loves, or inspires him and go with that. My DS loves chess.

One of our scouts is setting up a memorial Pavillian for a Child that was killed by a drunk driver. He was good friends with the boy that was killed. I don't remember the details but I believe others could add to the memorial if they had lost a loved one.

another scout was very involved in his church and he helped renovate parts of the church.

So I guess I would brainstorm with him things that he loves, inspire him, move him, or things he would want to help out with. That would make the project more meaningful to him.

good luck!

 

[Geoff_M]

Our oldest son earned his Eagle just before departing for the National Jamboree this summer. His project was to refurbish a roller hockey rink at a near by city park. The rink was a bare concrete 1/2 sized rink with small street-sized goals. He painted the curbing yellow, painted creases, painted face-off circles, and painted a BSA logo at "center ice". He also anchored full-sized goals. He had to raise around $600 for the cost of the project. It was 100% his idea. He organized two fundraisers to earn the money. To carry out the project, it took about 5 people the better part of a day. I think he had about 150 man-hours in the project of his and volunteer time.

I've been a Scoutmaster for about 15 years. It's OK to suggest project ideas to your son, and it's OK to offer a certain amount of unsolicited advice. Your son can also ask you for all the advice he wants. However, the decisions need to be your son's. Remember that the propose of the project is for your son to be able to demonstrate the leadership skills that he's learned in his years in Scouting.

 

[onelilspark]

My younger brother cleaned the gravestones at our church for his Eagle project.

 

[basketkat]

My husband built dog cages for the local animal shelter...
BIL1 Made bird houses/feeders along the walking trail in our town...
BIL2 Built picnic tables for the park
BIL3 Built a concession stand for the soccer field
BIL4 Built a shelter at the park/soccer field.

They had all of the materials donated. Your son should pick something he is excited about that will benefit his community. Local businesses will be more than willing to offer their goods/cash ha!

Being an Eagle scout is a great honor, and has brought my husband many opportunities above and beyond scouting.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Geoff_M]

Oh, and I and a number of troop mates clear invasive species of plants from a county park in 1979 for my Eagle project!

 

[DareTooDream]

There are some neat projects mentioned here!

One of my sons made 8 wood benches (3 seaters with arms) for a church camp out of the city. A friend of mine told me he had a project - she knew before me! He hadn't been looking very long. He just happened to be talking with someone involved in the camp - it wasn't an official "do you need anything done" talk...... He had lots of assistance from Scouts - over 200 hours. They were all excited about getting to use power tools - of course he had to prepare quite the safety talk before hand. He was fortunate to get everything donated - lots of wood, little bit of hardware, and some stain. He also got breakfast and lunch donated. He had to make lots of visits to places to get donations. One place gave all the wood, but the rest was little here little there.

My second son made sign stands for an organization that hosts a huge book sale every year (proceeds are donated to 3 local charities). I don't remember the particulars but somehow his project came about while he was Scouting For Food. It was perfect for him because he loves to read. He was also excited because it required using metal and none of the projects he had helped with had done that - it was different. The organization kind of had an idea of what they wanted. They had been using yardstick type sticks in concrete in small coffee cans. On top of the sticks they would put a sign for each section/classification of books. The signs were regular sheets of paper in plastic sleeves just slid over the top of the stick. The problem was the cans were heavy and awkward to store for the other 363 days of the year. The design ended up being kind of like two metal bookends, placed back to back, with the yardstick type stick in between, with like metal rivets? (can't think of what it was exactly) to hold the metal together. They could store much easier than the cans, and the sticks could slide out for easier storage as well. The organization wanted as many as he could make, they said they would be happy with whatever (knowing the 500 they needed would probably not happen). He was able to get 500 sticks done - cut, sanded, etc. and they got 250 of the metal stands done. He also was fortunate to get everything donated. He lucked out and wasn't even looking for a donation when he was having a conversation with a woman at a party we were at. Turns out her son worked for a metal company. He donated all the galvanized steel. DS did make a pretty big error that resulted in some wasted steel. Again, the Scouts were excited about helping because it was out of the norm....and power tools were involved! He had something like 250 hours I think....

Sorry, I rambled on quite a bit!

 

[bettyann29]

I personally have no experience with this, but my father was a Boy Scout Leader for many many years and I grew up around Boy Scouts..

One thing that I recently looked into just for myself to do is called New Eyes For the Needy.. Basically you can do a drive where you get people to donate their old prescription glasses, prescription sunglasses or regular glasses and you send them in and they distribute to needy people who need them here in the US..

If interested all you need to do is google it and they will send you a packet with all the information..

I think this is a great cause!

Good luck in whatever he does..

 

[aprilgail2]

My friends son wrote letters to all family, neighbors and friends asking for donations to help him buy the suplies for his project and then he spent many weekends building and installing bat houses and benches at a local golf course on the beach.

 

[donac]

As the mother of 2 Eagle Scouts , a former troop committee chair and wife of a guy who was Scoutmaster and now approves Eagle projects I have to make some comments.

No Scout does it on his own. There is nothing wrong with mom and dad helping. BUT the scout does the work, the parents are just there to help out and follow orders and maybe nag a bit when things got slowly.

You need to be supportive. Very few scouts become Eagles without the support of their parents.

Good luck. It is a perfect time to do it. My older son waited until the summer before senior year so he was writing his final report and then applying for colleges. Younger son did is after sophomore year and we were a lot more relaxed.

 

[christineann]

My nephew's Eagle Scout project was to landscape the local animal shelter, gather donations for the shelter and to erect a flagpole. We are very proud of him!

 

[Ceila]

My son is First Class, but he's helped with a few Eagle projects. One boy helped spruce up our local dog park, one boy worked with our local VFW to collect old flags and retire them properly, and next month another boy will be making prosthetic hands for children who have lost them due land mines, etc. I have no idea how he learned about this, but my son is really excited to help with this.

Best of luck to your Scout!! Please update us when he chooses a project - it's so much fun to see what everyone has done!

 

[minkydog]

DNephew built picnic tables for a community park. I think he raised the money for through his church, which is very supportive of all Scouting. His dad helped him acquire the materials and put them together, but DNephew had to go to the local board for permission and present his plans and get his permits himself.

 

[geffric]

As Mom of an Eagle and one working on his project, plus Troop committee and Eagle cordinator.. I am very proud of all of the scouts that make Eagle ..

My oldest son's project was to make a trail in a nature center including building a bridge, sign posts, measuring and remarking all trails.. All of his material was donated by landscapers and home centers in the town, the wood was recycled from a backyard patio of one of our neighbors, dirt, and gravel was donated by a landscaper that was an eagle scout.. he had 15 scouts and 5 friends plus parents help him..

Second DS's project is totally differnet; he is making an emergency and first aid kits for the township senior center; he is making about 200 kits. He needed to raise funds to buy ponchos, water, CPR masks, etc. He also had donations from the local hospital and doctors of bandages, ice packs etc..He had the scouts come to our house on Friday and make cookies, brownies and cakes using a box oven outside and the oven inside. He had 2 groups come over at different times to teach them cooking skills. He also had help from the parents to bake other things. He arranged with Walmart to let him sell the baked goods at the WalMart front door. He had made a poster of the project and of the Troop. He raised $1200. If there is money left over, he will donate to the Senior Center to provide food for the meals on wheels program and adult daycare. He had 25 scouts and 10 friends help him..
Our high school requires service hours from SOS ( Service Over Self) and NHS, so both boys had volunteers from those organizations help them as well..

Remember that an Eagle project is about project management and and for the scout to design and run the project, make the calls, write the letters He will talk about his eagle project for the rest of his life, so it is important for him to select the project that he has a passion about.. All eagle projects have a portion that goes wrong, the scout then decides how to manage things and make other arrangements... no project is perfect, but a learning experience for the scout and a chance for him to show leadership and management skills..