As a member of Boy Scouts of America, Michael Clark, senior, always knew he wanted to give back to the MHS community. So when his final task before becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest level of boy scouts, called for a community service project, he wasn’t hesitant to ask around.

“I went to Dr. Ramsey, I asked him what the school needed, and he said that we were in need of replacement benches, so I said okay, and I agreed to do benches for the school,” Clark said.

After his project was approved by the board of review, he started building in October. About 85 man hours, which is two months’ worth of work on Sundays, went into building the benches. Clark worked with about eight members of his troop and four adults. The finished benches will be utilized in the MHS loading dock, fulfilling one of Clark’s purposes behind his project.

“Marquette’s been a pretty big part of my life for the past four years, so I felt that it was only appropriate to give something back that I can leave when I leave this school in May, that will be here hopefully for five, 10 years,” Clark said.

The community project is supposed to demonstrate leadership of the scout said Clark. He was expected to write about how his projects showed leadership as well.

Praveen Bagavandoss, senior, is a currently a Life Scout. He possessed a similar idea of what the community project is supposed to convey.

“An Eagle Scouts project is supposed to show leadership and is supposed to be a project that benefits your community, and in which, to do it, you have to show leadership,” Bagavandoss said.

Bagavandoss’ community project also benefited MHS.

“The project I did was for a program called Terracycle, where we’re now implementing the recycling of chip bags at Marquette with those bins you see around the Commons,” Bagavandoss said.”

Like Clark, Bagavandoss also stated that one of the most important aspects of their projects was the sustainability factor.

“They’re not going to disappear as soon as the Eagle Scout disappears,” Bagavandoss said.

Though Bagavandoss is not quite an Eagle scout yet, Clark became an Eagle Scout on Jan. 11, after completing his project, holding six months of a leadership position, and attaining a certain number and type of merit badges, thereby reaching the highest level Boy Scouts has to offer.

Fellow Eagle scout Dalton Loos, senior, said he supports finishing Boy Scouts until one is an Eagle because it’s so rare.

“There’s not many eagles out there, so if you meet one you kind of know you’re similar to them,” Loos said. “It helps with a lot of different jobs or colleges.”

For his project, Loos built one legged stools to help special needs kids in Pond Elementary practice balance and focus in school. He said doing community projects helps scouts give back, learn from the experience, and feel good once they’ve helped others.

“It develops your leadership because you have to plan everything, you have to lead your friends or people you don’t know in your project,” Loos said.

Dr. Dan Ramsey, Senior Assistant Principal is an Eagle Scout as well. When he was in high school, his community project was for the Humane Society. Ramsey said it was a point of pride for him to get to work with the Eagle Scouts and help them do something to give back to their school and community.

“It’s a great, cooperative relationship,” Ramsey said. “The school benefits, the prospective eagle scouts benefit. They get to complete their projects, and we’re always really excited when we have scouts who want to work with us.”