By Sofia Celis Avellaneda
For anyone who doesn’t know about the Eagle Scouts award, they may not understand the excitement of getting the Eagle Scout Project of the Year award. Jacob Young, a 17-year-old Newsome student and member of Boy Scout Troop 61 who has worked extremely hard, earned the award for his bat house, which can house up to 3,000 bats. Young started as a Cub Scout when he was 5, joined the Boy Scouts at 10 and finally became an Eagle Scout at 17.
According to Young, “My favorite memory would have to be my time on the Appalachian Trial with my troop’s hiking crew”.
Along with joining the Scouts, there were many challenges. Prior to his award, Young hit some obstacles along the way with his bat house.
“The main obstacle would be my Eagle project being several hours away for the manual labor part of it,” Young stated.
Young built his bat house for a nonprofit, The Future of Hunting in Florida, using around $3,500, which he himself raised for the project. Other than this award, Young told us that he has earned many other awards.
Young said, “Beyond Eagle Scout and National Eagle Project awards, I’ve earned quite a few. The most stand-out one would be the four-star religious award,” which he surely worked just as hard on.
When asked if he had any advice for new kids joining the Eagle Scouts, Young said, “There’s a lot of advice I could give, but the one I think is most important is to take the time to learn about what they are doing. When I started out, I rushed through things and didn’t get much of the early ranks. The ranks build off of each other and teach many important life skills.”
Congratulations to Young for receiving such an amazing award. For more information about Troop 61, visit www.bstroop61.com.
