By: Dean Vaglia | Macomb Chronicle | Published September 3, 2025
MACOMB TOWNSHIP — Most people cannot say they have accomplished much before entering high school. Matthew Majchrzak Jr., incoming Dakota High School ninth grader, has plenty more than the average teen to boast about.
Majchrzak, at age 14, is an Eagle Scout. Active in Troop 248, Majchrzak achieved Eagle on July 8 and is scheduled to have his court of honor ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 13.
The road that Majchrzak took to get to his Eagle status was a long one, beginning in his elementary school days when a recruiter from Cub Scouts Pack 149 visited his first grade class.
“I decided, ‘Why not?” Majchrzak said. “I wasn’t doing anything. I wasn’t in any sports and wasn’t really involved with anything, so I signed up and I went and liked it, so I kept doing it and I got to do some pretty cool things.”
Over the course of his Scouting journey Majchrzak participated in a number of “pretty cool things,” ranging from spending the night at the Toledo Zoo twice, lodging in the Frankenmuth “Scout house” and staying overnight at the USS Edson in Bay City. Majchrzak cherished his time at summer camps, being particularly fond of a 2024 trip to Cole Canoe Base.
“I took a lot of really cool badges that time, and I came home with 10. I was pretty proud about that,” Majchrzak said.
Along with the trips and excursions he was able to take part in, Majchrzak found learning new things while getting to be with his friends to be more than enough reason to remain in Scouting.
“I just found it fun hanging out with my friends, and I wanted to learn stuff about life because (Scouting) teaches you a lot of life skills,” Majchrzak said. “I learned how to cook some stuff in Scouts; I learned how to camp and properly do a bunch of stuff. It was just a cool way to do something fun with my friends.”
As part of achieving the Eagle Scout rank, Majchrzak underwent his Eagle Scout project from September 2024 to April 2025. The projects see Scouts give back to their community in some way, and Majchrzak knew exactly who he wanted to help with his project.
“My sister goes to Glen Peters, which is a school for kids with special needs,” Majchrzak said. “I just knew from the start, when I needed to start thinking about it, that I wanted to do something for that school. I went and I talked with them, and they gave me multiple choices, and I ultimately settled on building storage cubbies.”
Building the cubbies was an all-hands-on deck affair. Majchrzak received help on the project from members of both the boy’s Troop 248 and girl’s Troop 1248. The Scouts assembled, painted and mounted the cubbies at the school.
“(The Glen Peters School staff) were really happy about it,” Majchrzak said. “I thought it was a lot of fun to assemble and build, and their reactions to it were pretty good.”
With Eagle Scout rank in hand (minus the court of honor ceremony) and a whole high school career’s worth of eligible Scouting years ahead of him, Majchrzak has no plans on leaving the organization just yet. He plans on sticking around to work on as many merit badges as he can, and he intends to take part in Venture Scouting and Sea Scouting.
His years in Scouting have led to Majchrzak picking up a number of achievements including membership in the Order of the Arrow.
“It’s very fun,” Majchrzak said of his Scouting experience. “I recommend it to everybody to at least try it out. I know not everyone sticks with it. But I think it’s really good because I learned a lot from it.”