Six Southborough Scouts achieve rank of Eagle

Above: Stephanos Bacon, Christopher McKay and Benjamin Willis are three of Southborough’s newest Eagle Scouts (contributed photo)

Something I have long suspected was recently confirmed: Southborough has a lot of Eagle Scouts. Fifteen Southborough scouts have achieved the rank of Eagle in the past five years (well above the national average), including six this year alone.

Stephanos Bacon, Christopher McKay and Benjamin Willis were recognized in a formal ceremony on Sunday, June 12 at Pilgrim Church. Three other Scouts, Patrick Andrews, Ryan Moran and Michael Rea, also earned their Eagle award in Troop 1 this past year. All grew up in Southborough, and all have been active in the Troop together for many years.

The rank of Eagle Scout is the highest achievement in the Boy Scouts of America. Candidates need to earn 21 merit badges and successfully lead a community service project of 200 hours or more. Achieving the rank of Eagle generally requires five or more years of effort.

Here are the Eagle Service projects undertaken by the latest crop of scouts:

• Steph cleared invasive plants, planted wildflowers and rebuilt a landmark wall at the Breakneck Hill Preservation, a Southborough Open Land Foundation property.
• Ben built a hiker’s bridge crossing a stream on the Bay Circuit Trail in Framingham near the Southborough border.
• Chris restored the Town Pound behind the Town House.
• Pat restored the patio and landscaped the backyard of the Southborough Senior Center
• Ryan cleared and restored an 18th/19th century Catholic cemetery in Hopkinton (Southborough didn’t allow Catholics to be buried in town at the time).
• Mike outfitted the inside of an emergency trailer for use by the Southborough Fire Department.

The Eagle Scouts passed along their thanks to the many local businesses that contributed materials and resources to their projects, saying the support of the business community was instrumental to accomplishing the final projects needed to achieve the Eagle rank.