Eagle Scout project
Of all the boys who enter the Boys Scouts, only about 4 percent of them earn the coveted Eagle Scout designation, the highest rank a scout can achieve.
Among them is John Martin of Cape Coral, who worked his way up the scouting chain from the age of six to become the best of the best.
Martin fulfilled the requirements that include earning at least 21 merit badges, demonstrating an ideal attitude based upon the Scout Oath and Law, service, and leadership.
The key component of becoming an Eagle Scout is an extensive service project that the Scout plans, organizes, leads and manages. For Martin, it was creating a bulletin board at Rotary Park, an organization he is very active in.
“They always have things for Eagle Scouts to do as projects, and I did something that will not only help the public but also last for years to come,” Martin said. “I can come back and see it’s still here.”
The bulletin board was constructed last May, and is for anyone interested in putting out information for the public. When Martin asked what needed to be done, that was the first thing the club members said they needed.
Of course, it’s not as simple as nailing a cork board to a tree. Martin had to acquire the funds, which he did with a GoFundMe account, find the people to do the work, budget it, manage it, make sure it’s on time and within the budget and produce a report on it.
That report and all the paperwork is then submitted to the Boy Scouts of America, which decides if the project is beneficial to the community and if it is deemed worthy of an Eagle Scout.
“The price was about $700 and we pretty much got it done in three weekends. We went under budget and donated the rest of the money to Rotary,” Martin said. “I probably put in about 50 hours myself and several months to put it together. I’m happy how it turned out.”
Martin said he originally had a much larger bulletin board in mind, but city permitting and other issues forced the project to be scaled down.
Martin just graduated from Bishop Verot High School this May and will attend Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach in the fall. He hopes to achieve a masters in aeronautical engineering and a minor in finance.
He would also like to earn an internship with Boeing or another major company. With an Eagle Scout designation on his resume, companies could be banging down the doors for Martin’s services.
“I’m sure it will open a lot of doors for me down the road. I’m only 18 and I just got it, so it hasn’t opened doors yet, but it will,” Martin said.