Of the more than a million registered Scouts in the country today, only 4% of them will ever earn the highest rank, Eagle Scout. Notice I say “earn,” not “reach.” There is nothing automatic about it. You have to want it. You have to work for it. You have to earn it.
Troop 116 will help every Scout work their way up to First Class. Beyond that, through Star and Life and beyond, we will support you every way we can on your Eagle Quest. But you have to do it yourself.
The road to Eagle is a hard one. It requires commitment and demands dedication. Yes, there are a bunch of merit badges to earn, but the Big Kahuna is the Eagle Scout Project, something that will benefit the community and display the candidate’s leadership abilities beyond just their duties within the troop.
This is not meant to be an official advancement document (they keep that here). Committee Chair Tom Finley has all the official information and is the official Troop 116 go-to for all things advancement– and Eagle-related. This is more of a “What is the Eagle Project, anyway?” starter kit to get you going thinking about it.
Here’s the official requirement.
“While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community. (The project must benefit an organization other than the Boy Scouts of America.) A project proposal must be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, your Scoutmaster and unit committee, and the council or district before you start. You must use the Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook, BSA publication No. 512-927, in meeting this requirement. (To learn more about the Eagle Scout service project, see the Guide to Advancement, topics 9.0.2.0 through 9.0.2.16.) “
Here’s what it means.
What is involved in an Eagle Project?
The two primary elements of any Eagle Scout project are:
- It has to help others
- It has to emphasize and display leadership
The candidate needs to come up with, plan, pitch, and organize the entire thing.
They need to coordinate with the community organization the project benefits.
They need to secure any and all plans and permissions from local authorities.
They need to coordinate any necessary fundraising or donations of material, time, equipment, and/or expertise.
They need to consult with whatever experts are needed (architects, contractors, carpenters, rangers, librarians, non-profit experts).
Most importantly, they need to rally other people to pitch in—troop members, obviously, but also family and friends and other members of the community.
And they need to be in charge, every step of the way.
What should an Eagle Project be?
Ideally, it should be something you’ve always noticed some sector of your community lacks, or have heard that it needs. This is your chance to fill that need, to patch that gap in society.
“Community” is pretty broad. It can be municipal (we’ve done projects for schools, libraries, fire stations, and lots of parks), or organizational (church/synagogue, area non-profits, local clubs and volunteer outfits). It can just be a loosely-knit community of which you are a part—climbers or bird watchers, cultural or affinity groups.
(The one thing it cannot be, ironically, is Scouting America. It has to benefit something outside of Scouting. Also, obviously, it cannot be for a profit-seeking institution—though there is some wiggle room for things like museums and other businesses that serve the community.)
It also has to be a one-and-done (no ongoing maintenance), and cannot be purely fundraising.
If you can’t think of anything offhand, don’t worry. That’s the case for most candidates at first. Ask for advice. Investigate opportunities. Often it’s simplest to pick a community you want to help, go to its institutional body, and ask what they need.
I find it actually helps a lot to picture it purely practically, based on the ideal scope of a good Eagle Project: not too small, not too big. It has to be something that will have an impact, but of a reasonable size you can reasonably expect to accomplish.
SA is careful to state there is no official minimum number of hours or level of work required, which is lovely and legally sound, but kinda unhelpful. So to ballpark: Try to find something that takes a solid 15–30 hours of planning, and then a day or two of hands-on work that can be performed by 20–30 people putting in at least a half day each.
- Pro tip: Don’t be too intimidated. Planning hours include absolutely everything you do to move the project forward: Reading and filling out the workbook, discussing things with your leaders and others, coordinating with the beneficiaries, researching stuff online, sitting at some boring zoning board meeting for the permits, making phone calls and sending emails, driving to the hardware store for lumber… everything. Those 15–30 hours add up quickly, and know that the rest of your troop will show up to put in their time. Just remember to log every minute you spend working on the project. Start that log before you even have a project lined up and keep track of it all. Bonus: good training if you ned up in a career with billagle hours.
All the important information, details, fine print, and helpful stuff is in the Official Eagle Workbook).
A few past 116 Eagle Project for inspiration:
- Collecting books for a new library after Wyncote Academy burned down.
- Completely reorganizing and sorting supplies for a homebuilding/restoration charity.
- Creating a safe space for neurodivergent students in an elementary school, including building and crafting the furniture, tactile elements, and other objects.
- Landscaping for local libraries, churches, synagogues. (Some favorites: building a contemplative labyrinth out of bricks in a churchyard, and the time we actually got to work on a Frank LLoyd Wright building—albeit in Beth Shalom’s basement.)
- Building, maintaining, and signposting hiking and running trails.
- Rebuilding a fire company’s shed and fence after they were destroyed by Superstorm Sandy.
- Many, many, many projects to improve or beautify local parks.
- Collecting clothes for the homeless.
- Building and installing bat boxes and owl nesting boxes.
- Digging and pouring a footing for a ship container storage unit at a church.
- Creating portable housing units for geriatric feral cats. (Has to be my favorite project title of all time.)