BRIAN BENNETT's EAGLE SCOUT TRAIL Version: 3.0 Effective: 05-Aug-2005 Text File: A008a.TXT Image Folder: A008 ******************************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the recording contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the following USGenWeb coordinator with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula - nn8nn (visit above website) SCGenWeb "Golden Corner" Project Coordinator Anderson: http://www.sciway3.net/scgenweb/anderson-county/ Oconee: http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html Pickens: http://www.rootsweb.com/~scpicke2/ ******************************************************************************** o----------o TO SOAR WITH EAGLES The rank of Eagle Scout is the highest rank that can be earned within the Boy Scouts of America organization. It requires considerable perseverance to get there, and only can be achieved through commitment and hard work! Once achieved, the Eagle Scout is recognized by his peers and community as having achieved something very significant - something few individuals achieve during their lifetime. It's interesting to note that there are numerous college scholarships available just for Eagle Scouts. Eagle Scout rank requirements: * Must be active in a position of responsibility within his troop and patrol * for at least 6 months as a Life Scout. * Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath and Law in his every day * life. * Earn a total of 21 required merit badges - 10 more than he already has. * Scouts having a permanent physical or mental disability, are allowed to * fulfill this requirement by using alternate merit badge types. * While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in an * approved service project. * Successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review. The Path to Becoming an Eagle Scout is often a daunting task for many Scouts. This is the point-in-time when the Eagle starts asking questions of his peers and researching what other Eagles have done in the past. Basically an Eagle Scout Service Project is any project which benefits their local community and must be for a non-profit organization. Many a service project dies at this stage or is significantly altered in order to better comply with project guidelines. Eagle Projects are an exercise in organization, leadership and record keeping. If the Scout is lacking in any of these skills, it will become readily apparent as his project progresses. However, peer guidance is always available to the Scout. This troop leader can help the Scout choose a project, determine what needs to be done in the planning stage, and help get the write-up ready for district approval. After a possible project has been chosen, it is time to begin the detail planning and the initial write-up, which will be submitted for approval. * Project Description * Who Will Benefit * Planning Details * Construction Plans, Drawings & Designs * Materials Needed * Tools Needed * Work Schedule * Scout & Adult Helpers * Financial Cost Estimate * Fund Raising Plan * Transportation Needed Once project approval has been given, the hard work has just begun. During the project, the Scout must keep very good notes on everything that done. They will cover what work was done, who did the work, and how much time they spent doing it. As well as materials, supplies, tools, money spent, etc. The taking of photographs during each project phase is also suggested. Once the physical work has been completed, it's time to do the paperwork. It's amazing how many Scouts will do outstanding projects, only to let the paperwork languish for months. Some Eagle Scout candidates never get to their write-up and graduate out of Scouting as Life Scouts. Sad but true. When the project is "formally" finished, some Scouts feel that they should have done things differently. By documenting what went right, what went wrong, and what should be changed helps to put the entire project experience in perspective. It's this experience that will help guide future Eagle candidates towards achieving their Eagle Scout goal. It's this perspective that will help the new Eagle achieve all his goals in life. The B.S.A. Blue Ridge Council serves 8 South Carolina counties that includes Oconee. * Over 14,700 registered Scouts * Over 3,400 adult volunteers * 470 Packs, Troops & Posts It's interesting to note: * Of any one hundred boys who become Scouts, it must be confessed that * thirty will normally drop out in their first year. Perhaps this may be * regarded as a failure, but later in life, all of these will remember that * they had been in Scouting and will speak well of the program. * Of the one hundred, only rarely will one ever appear before a juvenile * court judge. Twelve of the one hundred will be from families that belong * to no church. Through Scouting, these twelve and many of their families * will be brought into contact with a church and will continue to be active * all their lives. Six of the 100 will become pastors. * Each of the one hundred will learn something from Scouting, and all will * develop hobbies that will add interest throughout the rest of their lives. * Approximately one-half will serve in the military and in varying degrees, * profit from their Scout training. At least one will use it to save another * person's life, and many may credit it for saving their own. * Four of the one hundred will reach the Eagle Scout rank, and at least one will later say that he valued his Eagle above his college degree. Many * will find their future vocation through merit badge work and Scouting * contacts. Seventeen of the one hundred boys will become adult leaders and * will give leadership to thousands of additional boys. * One in four boys in America will become Scouts, but it is interesting to * know that of the leaders of this nation in business, religion and * politics, three out of four were Scouts. o----------o Upstate Edition- Saturday, Nov. 6, 2004 Independent-Mail ABANDONED CEMETERY GETS HELP By Emily Huigens It has been 163 years since Matthew Clark was buried. Today, the Revolutionary War soldier's grave is one of many that sits hidden in vegetation. It features one of the few grave stones vandals in the Asbury Clark cemetery haven't toppled. The adjoining church fell victim to an arsonist several years ago, leaving the cemetery without caretakers or anyone to repair the vandal's damage. But the cemetery has an advocate in a 16-year old boy willing to take on its cleanup and repair effort. As part of his quest to become an Eagle Scout, Brian Bennett, a D. W. Daniel High School junior, is leading a cleanup of the cemetery. The cleanup starts today. "It feels good to help people," he said. "The older families that are still alive, they can't really do much for it anymore. It feels pretty good to make it a little easier for them to keep up with it and get it really under control." Beverly Peoples lives in Raleigh, NC and has relatives buried in the Asbury Clark cemetery. In 1998, she traveled to Anderson to take inventory of who is buried there, and discovered that Mr. Clark founded the church and cemetery. Today she will join the Scouts in their effort to restore the burial ground to its former state. The group of volunteers will meet at 8:30 am at Fort Hill Presbyterian Church, and work all day at the cemetery. Upstate Edition-Sunday, Nov. 7, 2004 Independent-Mail Crystal Boyles BOY SCOUTS BEGIN CEMETERY CLEANUP Brian Bennett thought cleaning up an old, overgrown and abandoned cemetery might be kind of cool. So he chose to clean the Asbury Clark Cemetery for his Eagle Scout project. The cemetery was a mass of shoulder-high weeds, vandalized gravestones and 9- foot tall pine trees. At 9:00 am Saturday, Brian, 16, and members of his Clemson Boy Scout Troop 235 began the cleanup process at the cemetery on Asbury Park road, right outside the park gates. "We went in as a mob," he said as he looked around the cleared, slightly muddy ground at the end of the day. Axes, chainsaws, rakes and clippers worked until almost 4 pm as the 15 troop members and five adults cleaned. "It's starting to get easier now," said Chris Grahn, 15, as he chopped roots out of the ground with an ax. "After two hours you get used to it." Scouts had to sign up to work with Brian, and Steward Bodell, 12 was one of the volunteers. "I wanted to come out so he wouldn't have so much on his shoulders," he said. As part of becoming an Eagle Scout, Brian has to prove his leadership to get the job done, and that includes setting up work days and getting troop members to volunteer, Scoutmaster Vic Shelburne said. Brian said he'd like to put up a fence along the cemetery's front and add a sign to mark it, but that's going to take more work and more volunteers. o----------o TODAY I AM AN EAGLE The Old Ones tell of the nest Of the sacred bird called the Eagle Home for her eaglets sits high, Touching the sky. A mother sits proud and defiant, She has little ones who will soon leave her, She worries; The morning has come, The Mysterious One's rays warm her children's faces. Today one will fly or fall: A flap of wings, a screech of power, He leaps, he is gone. His head does not look back There is sadness behind. He flies east his wings flapping power, He passes his cousins of the air, HE HAS BECOME AN EAGLE (Poem By: Howard Rainer, Taos-Creek Troop) By: Paul Kankula o----------o