| | Published December 22nd, 2021
| New Troop 237 Eagle Scouts
| | | Submitted by Jodi Kaelle |  | | Troop 237 Eagle Scouts, from left: Luke Franklin, Luke Lewis, Andrew Stern, Marcus Erickson, Ben Guthrie and Ryan Kaelle. Photo provided |
Scout Troop 237 of Orinda announced that Marcus Erickson, Luke Franklin, Ben Guthrie, Ryan Kaelle, Luke Lewis and Andrew Stern have achieved Scouting's highest rank of Eagle Scout and will celebrate their Eagle Court of Honor at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022, at the Orinda Community Church. All six Eagle Scouts live in Orinda and are in the Class of 2023 attending Miramonte High School.
To become an Eagle, the candidate must earn a minimum of 21 merit badges, including 13 Eagle-required badges, demonstrate leadership and Scout spirit, and successfully complete an Eagle service project benefiting the community. Their Eagle Scout projects ranged from helping our area schools, a youth center, a church and Moraga/Orinda town AEDs.
Their Eagle Scout service projects are as follows: Erickson built a large bench for the outdoor classroom in the garden of learning at Glorietta Elementary School. A total of eight scouts and two adults participated, volunteering a total of 37 hours. Franklin's Eagle Scout project was the result of a summer spent volunteering at the Oakland Police Activities League youth center in East Oakland. In addition to collecting used books, Luke organized a book drive at Flashlight Books and Orinda Books where he placed "buy a book, donate a book" boxes which collected new books over several weeks. His project involved three Scouts who collectively completed 72.5 hours of work collecting, organizing, and delivering 370 books to the youth center serving disadvantaged youth in East Oakland.
The Orinda Community Church's outdoor common area was in need of long overdue repairs, so?Guthrie led a team of 26 volunteers who contributed a combined total of 170 volunteer hours over multiple weekends to refurbish many areas. Fixing this area has made it safer to use for the church, elderly and kids from the preschool located on site.
Kaelle partnered with the Lamorinda Community Emergency Response Team (Lamorinda CERT), Contra Costa County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and the American Medical Response agency (AMR) to update all Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) across the towns of Moraga and Orinda. Over 75 AEDs were logged and updated throughout Moraga and Orinda in commercial settings. The project allowed the towns of Moraga and Orinda to apply for "HeartSafe" designation status with the American Heart Association.
The Wagner Ranch Nature Area (WRNA) is a nature preserve and historic site in Orinda offering hands-on experiential, environmental education to Orinda school children. Lewis worked with naturalist, Toris Jagger, and built and installed Amphibian Boards in the WRNA which create a safe habitat for many creatures and provide students the ability to study these animals.
Stern's Eagle project was refurbishing his elementary school's garden and adding a bee and butterfly garden. The Del Rey Garden had been planted many years ago and was overgrown and run down. Andrew, his family and six Scouts from Troop 237 worked over four weekends and logged over 50 hours.
This group of newly confirmed Eagle Scouts wants to thank the Scout leaders, community, parents and fellow Scouts who have helped them along their journey to achieve this rank and honor. |
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA