The Boy Scouts of America has stood for over a century. Only 5% of scouts ever achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. Nonetheless, junior William Conover, achieved it.

Boy Scouts of America’s statement says that the purpose is to prepare young boys to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.

Along with living by the Scout Law: A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

After years of dedication, Conover finally accomplished his life goal to become an Eagle Scout with the help friends, family and the community.

“It feels relieving, just getting all the work done,” Conover said, “I’ve been through tiger to eagle scouts since I was a little kid.”

Accomplishing the Eagle rank is not something that you do overnight, but something one has to work on for many years with dedication and commitment. Each rank has certain skills a scout has to master before moving on to complete the next rank, such as personal care, indoor sustainability, outdoor survival, and the ability to work with and lead others. Until the skills are mastered within each rank he may not move on.

“I had to get a total of 21 merit badges,” Conover said. “Almost all of them have to be eagle related merit badges, community service hours, have leadership quality, and completing an eagle scout project.”

Being a Scout, Conover dedicated his time to the community and completed a total of 341 community service hours. Providing service and fulfilling the part of the Scout Oath “to help other people at all times” is one of the primary parts of being a scout. This helped Conover accomplish and excel in his Eagle Scout project.

While these service projects make an impact on the boys, they also benefit the community itself and the people in it.

Conover decided that for his eagle scout service project he was going to renetwork the entire VFW, which is a chartered local entity of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States of America. The members are engaged in fundraising activities such as bingo, dances, and hall rental in order to engage in charitable activity in the community, in support of needy and disabled veterans and their families.

“The longest cable we ran was like 3,000 feet all the way down from the bunkroom to the hubroom where the main switch is,” Conover said.” We had a total of 31 people help and it took a total of 246 hours and 2 days.”

It is the kind of dedication Eagle Scouts demonstrate.

“It’s really worth it,” Conover said. “[Becoming an Eagle Scout] helped me become a better person [and] be a leader, more productive, and committed.”