Eagle Project Ideas for an Injured Scout

[Sturgen 10]

We just had a life scout in our troop break his back, he was in the process of planning his eagle project and now for obvious reasons he may have to change his project a bit, any suggestions on potential projects, most likely he will hand over the organization he is working with right now to another older scout, so that he may have a project less physically labor intensive for the leader. He was going to be doing construction of heavy tables and bike racks out of steel and 4x4s for a local low income housing units run by a non-prof. Seeing as he will most likely be on bedrest for quite a while followed by very limited physical activity he will most likely not be able to complete this project by the time the non-prof would like their tables and bike racks.

[Bob White 20]

I am very sorry to hear of his serious injury but, it should not hinder his ability to finish his project if he was doing it according to the requirements. His physicaL ability to do the work is irrelevant if he was doing the planing and the leading as the requirement states, and not the doing of the work itself.

 

He should stil be able to give directions, solve problems, and evaluate progress. That is what the candidates responsibilty is during the project.

 

I recommend he stays with the project.

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

To keep the system from overloading, I will not give BW another thumbs-up for giving good information.

 

One note of caution, ask the physician for any limitations the young man may have. He may have some type of environmental and/or stress related barriers that should be addressed before continuing.

 

He may well be able to lead the project but from his bed or a wheelchair or using communication devices. He may not be able to physically be on the job site or do the work himself but he may be able to delegate the work and evaluate the progress. Whatever he does needs to be within his present restrictions given by his doctor.

 

FB

[mk9750 11]

I also agree with Bob. Planning and giving leadership to a project is easier if the candidate can be on site and managing the project, but in no way is it required. Quite the contrary, were I to sit on the young man's Eagle Board of Review, it is likely I would find extra reason to admire the job he did if he could manage it from off site.

 

One of our Eagle Scout's projects was done in three stages. The biggest part of the project was done on a Saturday while he was in a car riding to Massachusetts for his grandfather's funeral. His cell phone bill was quite high, but he directed 80% of the projected, and delegated the rest of the management to another Scout. It came off famously.

 

Encourage your Scout to see if he can make this work. He may suprise himself.

 

Mark

[Proud Eagle 13]

I must say I fully agree with all of the other posts thus far, particularly Bob White and Fuzzy Bear.

 

Pay very close attention to the requirements. If he is able to do planning, provide leadership, and evaluate the progress of the project within his current physical/mental limits I would say go for it. However, since leadership is the key element the BOR wants to see from the project, make certain that some other person doesn't end up with the job delegated to them in its entirety. If the only answer he can provide to the Board when they ask "how did you provide leadership? how did you plan? how did you evaluate? how did you manage?" is "I delageted all that to Johny" it will not survive scrutiny.

 

If he is not up to it determine if it would be best to:

1. post pone the project

2. hand it off to another aspiring scout (remember they will get in a bind if it is already planned, "what planning did you do?", "Bob planned it before he broke his back")

3. turn it into a troop service project

[Sturgen 10]

My main concern is that most of his planning has basically been working with the organization and finding out what they want, he as yet to look at supplies, samples, or done any of the pricing. If that had already been done I would have no concerns, he could definitely finish the project then. Its looking like my brother, who is also working on his eagle project, will end up giving him a hand.