The Eagle designation is the highest achievement in Scouting America, with approximately 4% of Scouts attaining it. To earn the Eagle rank, Scouts must complete a minimum of 21 merit badges, lead a community service project, hold multiple troop leadership positions and perform community service, including their capstone Eagle Project.
A senior at The Nueva School, Skye Calegari-Buster’s Eagle Scout service project was born out of a desire to help reconnect East Palo Alto with its agricultural roots, while increasing access to produce. His project beneficiary was Fresh Approach, a nonprofit organization that runs East Palo Alto’s only community garden. Skye built a gathering space, including three large brick planters, that functions as a crucial “pollinator pavilion.” His team also built a planter irrigation system, installed a stone fountain and set up a metal bench on which gardeners and volunteers can rest, connect and contemplate the garden.
Olivia Fritsch, a senior at Mountain View High School, organized a dance donation drive to support underserved youth through the arts. More than 300 dancewear pieces were collected, carefully cleaned, and sorted by type and condition. The dancewear was distributed to five organizations across the United States, including A Step Beyond, Simply Destinee, Everybody Dance LA!, Free 2 Be Me and Dance Fairies, which provide dance opportunities to children in low-income areas and those with neurological disorders. Through this project, children from underserved communities are able to access the necessary attire to experience joy, self-expression and physical activity through dance.
Christopher Klinker, a senior on Los Altos High’s varsity baseball team, combined his passion for baseball with a service project for Los Altos Little League. His project involved demolishing and rebuilding a baseball scorer’s booth at Purissima Fields. Christopher especially enjoyed collaborating with his project advisors, his grandfather and his Eagle Scout father. He also enlisted friends and family to sand, measure and saw, dig, pour concrete, assemble, paint and varnish. Christopher is especially gratified that he will be able to see people using his booth when he goes to Purissima to watch his younger brother Nicholas’ Little League games this spring.
Will Schreiber, a Mountain View High School senior and former Little League baseball player, decided to reconstruct a shed for the Mountain View Los Altos Girls Softball League whose equipment shed had been decimated by termites and dry rot. Will and his team deconstructed the existing shed, replaced the deteriorated supporting studs, cut and fitted new exterior walls and trim, created custom large shelving and organization units for the softball equipment, and painted the entire shed. He is pleased to see his team’s hard work appreciated by the League and is especially gratified to know that it has made the volunteer coaches’ work a little easier. Will’s Eagle Project aligns with his plan to study mechanical engineering in the fall.
Srinikash Venkatasalapathi wanted to give back to his elementary school by renovating its school garden. He found the abandoned garden to be dilapidated and in need of lots of work like plucking out the overgrown weeds and repainting the fences. Over the course of six or seven weekends, he led groups of scouts who helped accomplish the task. The final result was a thriving garden with an irrigation system, enabling the students at Dilworth Elementary to use the garden alongside the science curriculum giving them hands-on experience. Moreover, the special needs program now cooks the vegetables they grow in the garden. The garden is back to life.
In his Eagle project, Lazar Vujkovic helped build 25 frames which will be used to display materials reflecting Mountain View High School’s theater history. These materials come from old high school newspapers, yearbook photographs and interviews Lazar gathered and conducted. Lazar looks forward to continuing to help Mountain View’s Theater Department in its goal to make a museum that displays all the eras of Mountain View’s theater history, which will be in the theater’s side hallway.
Audrey Yee, a junior at Los Altos High School, initiated a cultural exchange program between youths in the United States and South Africa, aiming to reduce the digital divide. She organized and hosted a series of online cultural exchange meetings to provide cross-cultural experiences for disadvantaged South African youths. Funds were raised to purchase devices and cellular data plans for these online exchanges. The participants discussed various topics, including cultural myths, regional festivals, sports, food and community emergency response teams. Through these cultural exchanges, these youths can practice communication skills, learn to interact with other cultures, and get more exposure to technology.
For more information on Troop 33, visit troop33.org.
