Eagle Scout Project

Preserving History through Cemetery Revitalization

On February 17, 2024, I revitalized 3 family cemeteries located in my local community of Myrtle Grove, North Carolina. I had noticed that 2 of the 3 cemeteries were overgrown with underbrush and the fence was covered in a creeper vine. My team of volunteers and I cleared the underbrush and removed all the debris (3 dumpsters full), which allowed me to uncover the graves so they can be seen and cared for. I cleaned and repaired several of the gravestones, placed 5 birdhouses in the existing trees to provide shelter for local birds, placed flags at each of 4 veterans' gravestones, and erected a permanent sign for the cemetery with the family names.

On February 18, 2024 on findagrave.com, I confirmed all graves were listed for each of the 3 cemeteries. I uploaded pictures of all gravestones for each memorial and added 2 memorials for graves that had not been documented on the site. I also made 11 suggested edits to memorials that had previously been documented, which were approved by the "memorial manager" on the site. The suggested edits included marking one veteran as such, adding information from the gravestone inscriptions, and moving the burial location of 2 memorials to their correct location within the 3 cemeteries. On the Find A Grave site, the 3 cemeteries are listed as:

Bonham Family Cemetery, Myrtle Grove, NC
Bryan Family Cemetery, Masonboro, NC
Johnson Family Cemetery, Myrtle Grove, NC

Eagle project timeline:

The project was selected on March 15, 2023.
The beneficiary, New Hanover County Adopt-A-Cemetery program, was contacted and a site meeting was scheduled for April 4, 2023. Approval was received to conduct the project from the County representative during the meeting and the "Navigating the Eagle Scout Service Project" documentation was provided to the County representative at that time.
The project proposal was submitted for approval to Troop 72 on April 14, 2023 and signed as approved on July 6, 2023.
The project proposal was submitted for approval to the New Hanover County Adopt-A-Cemetery program beneficiary on July 6, 2023 and signed as approved on July 21, 2023.
The project proposal was submitted for approval to the Daniel Boone Council of the BSA on July 21, 2023 and signed as approved on September 5, 2023. The approved project proposal was received via email on October 5, 2023.
The project plan was completed between December 2023 and January 2024 and the project service date was scheduled for February 17, 2024.
The project was conducted on February 17 and 18, 2024.
The Eagle Scout Service Project Report was submitted to the Daniel Boone Council Eagle Chairman and the Eagle Board of Review was scheduled for Saturday, May 18, 2024.
The Eagle Scout Board of Review was conducted on May 18, 2024 and I successfully passed.
The final paperwork was submitted to the Daniel Boone Council office on May 21, 2024 for submission to the National BSA office for final approval.
The final approval of Eagle Scout rank was received from the National BSA office on August 6, 2024 as awarded on May 18, 2024.
My Eagle Court of Honor was held on Saturday, October 26, 2024 at Skyland United Methodist Church in Asheville, NC where I swore to live by the Eagle Scout Promise.
My Eagle Scout project was been nominated by my Eagle Board of Review members for the 2024 Eagle Scout Project of the Year for the Daniel Boone Council of the Boy Scouts of America. My project placed 5th out of 16 nominations within the Council.