Side view of the pit.
Looking into the pit.
Overall view.
Posted on 08/01/2012 6:24:23 AM PDT by giant sable
One hundred years ago on Aug. 1, Arthur Eldred, a 17-year-old Boy Scout from Long Island, became the first person to earn the Eagle Scout rank. Eldred, tall, quiet and with a shock of dark hair, had joined scouting largely at the behest of his widowed mother, who hoped it would give some structure to his life. Yet as Eagle Scouts would continue to do throughout the next century, Eldred caught the scouting world by surprise. He was the first of an extraordinary new cohort of young men who were to prove very different from the classic 13-year-old Boy Scout in short pants.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
We have. We have five younger sons, so we'll be in Boy Scouts for a long, long time. I told Bill that, since he has broken family tradition by not joining the military, he has to start a new tradition of every boy's being an Eagle Scout, starting with all his brothers, and then moving on to nephews, his children, grandchildren, and so on.
Sent the link to our District Office and they sent it out District wide.
Not an Eagle, but I’ve spent 22 years as an adult leader/volunteer.
Our son is wrapping up his Eagle application and will have his Eagle BoR in Sep.
His Eagle project was a flag retirement ceremony venue at our local veteran’s home. A fire pit surrounded by 7 flag poles.
Words can’t express how proud we are of him.
Great idea! I wonder if any of our local VFW posts would like something similar. Our #2 son is already planning his project, paving and landscaping for the parks department, but there are always boys needing ideas.
The VFW’s, KoC’s, Rotary and AL’s in our area were all over it and donated a bundle of $. If it’s not a veteran’s home, look at doing one at a VFW, AL or local park.
Our area is overrun with used flags needing to be retired, this will get a lot of use.
When I get some pics uploaded to the web, I’ll post some. Soon.
Congratulations to you and your #1 and #2 sons.
Side view of the pit.
Looking into the pit.
Overall view.
That looks great, and clearly he learned some masonry skills!
Our church has a basic ring-of-stones firepit at our picnic pavilion, and the Knights, Scouts, and VFW do flag retirements a couple of times a year. We also have ceremonies at our campouts fairly often. However, it would be neat to have a site like the one your son has built.
Our county parks department has budget problems, as so many places do, and this has resulted in their having projects that need to be done, with money for supplies, but no money for workers. It’s a great deal for Scouts and others who need to do community service.
Thanks...learning the masonry so he could lead it was his toughest challenge.
This project is actually spinning off other projects in that spot. A walkway to the area is being planned, a pergola/patio cover, landscaping, etc. So there will be at least 3 more Eagle projects as a result of this one.
For its intended use, the pit is a bit over engineered, but we did it that way so that all the workers could get a pretty good idea on what masonry work was about.
The internal fire brick was the hardest, the dimensions didn’t quite come out the way he intended due to the block, so we were playing a bit of Tetris with the bricks that line the walls.
LOL - learning experiences! My oldest boy built a kiosk with storage cubicles and an information board at a county park, and the first day, they put the support poles in the wrong place, so they had to re-plan the roof because the whole thing was bigger than anticipated.
#3 son is only 10, so once #2 finishes his project this year, we'll have a long break.
Ouch! I can only imagine how much work that was to re-plan the roof.
We got through the bricks ok, had to cut more than we had planned, but it still looks ok, like an Eagle Scout project.
Enjoy the “time off”...;^)
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