 | | | From left: Liam Glynn, Walker Lambert, and Evan Drager. Photos provided | | | | | | Boy Scout Troop 303 in Orinda inducted three new Eagle Scouts - Liam Glynn, Evan Draeger and Walker Lambert - at an Eagle Court of Honor March 17 at St. Stephens Church in Orinda. To earn this highest advancement rank in Scouting, Scouts must fulfill requirements in the areas of leadership, service, and outdoor skills, complete at least 21 merit badges and organize and lead a service project benefiting his community. These three Miramonte High School seniors joined the less than 4 percent of all scouts who achieve Eagle Rank.
For his Eagle Scout project, Glynn refurbished a stairway and railing at Orinda Oaks Park. The project included 12 Scouts who contributed over 160 volunteer hours and included planning, materials sourcing, budgeting, city approvals, excavating 31 steps over a 70-linear-foot area, prepping the area and reinstalling new steps/dirt, and sanding/painting related handrails. The project improved safety and accessibility to the park, while educating the young Scouts about construction, restoration through hands on learning.
Draeger planned and built a 16-foot by 4-foot footbridge over Wagner Creek in the Wagner Ranch Nature Area. The project involved 17 Scouts and 184 volunteer hours. Work included bridge design, site preparation, staining, bridge assembly, and final installation of the bridge and railings. It provided the Scout volunteers the opportunity to learn how to paint and use a variety of tools. This ADA-compliant bridge provides year-round access to historically-important parts of the Nature Area. It also affords, for the first time, equal access to mobility-challenged individuals.
Lambert designed and directed the installation of an automated irrigation system with a water efficient, solar-sync controller for the garden beds at his former elementary school, Wagner Ranch for his Eagle service project. This project included 19 Scouts and 178 volunteer hours spent digging 350 feet of 12- to 18-inch-deep trenches, connecting, laying and burying irrigation pipes and elbows, and attaching fittings and drip lines for eight beds and planting areas. This project will allow the garden beds, used for math and science lessons for grades K-5, to grow and flourish year-round while greatly reducing teacher and parent volunteer time spent watering.
Among the special guests in attendance at this Eagle Court of Honor were Orinda's Vice Mayor Inga Miller, who presented each Scout with a proclamation declaring a special day to be designated in their honor and Steve Adams, committee chair from Boys Scout Troop 514 in Monument, Colo. Adams began the celebration with a presentation about the history of "United States Space Shuttle Challenger Flag" which he brought with him from Colorado. This flag was originally ordered by William Tolbert for his Troop from the Valley Forge Flag Company who had arranged for the flag to be flown briefly over the United States Capitol building in Washington, on Jan. 25, 1985. It was submitted to the NASA Johnson Space Center by the 2d Space Wing, for flight on a space shuttle. On Jan. 28, 1986, it was carried in the "official flight kit" of the Challenger space shuttle on its last flight. It was sealed in plastic and was next to some souvenir medallions being flown by one of the astronauts. As the Challenger wreckage was brought up from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, rescuers found this flag, still in its sealed plastic bag, intact and completely unscathed. The souvenir medallions had melted into a single lump.
Troop 514 is still in possession of the Challenger flag. They continue to display it for certain special public events and Eagle Courts of Honor. This special flag was used in the opening and closing of the Eagle Court with the presentation and retiring of the colors by Troop 303 Color Guard: Malcolm Tom, Graham Berger, Aidan Young, Alex Meckes and Nicolai Bell.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA