Harrison Scout builds garden at senior center

HARRISON TOWNSHIP — On the road to becoming an Eagle Scout, members of the Boy Scouts of America give back to their communities. For Harrison Township Scout Milan Edwards, giving back came in the form of helping seniors.

On June 10, Edwards and other Scouts from Troop 1407, based in St. Clair Shores, took to the Harrison Township Senior Center and spent the day building amenities for its garden. The group of Scouts built standing flower planters, swivel-back benches, wall planters and a sign for the garden.

“Additionally, thanks to the Central Macomb Optimist Club, we donated a bike rack for them,” said Edwards, 16.

The road to Edwards’ Eagle Scout project began when he joined the Scouts as a fourth grader.

“It looked fun and interesting and just different, I suppose, because there was nothing quite like it around,” Edwards said. “It was also the people there as well, which were really welcoming and fun to be around.”

He kept with the organization through middle school and into high school, finding friendship among those who remained with the troop through camping trips and other activities. One fateful trip took Troop 1407 down to Indiana where everything went terribly wrong.

“It was a disaster from the start,” Edwards said. “A tornado had come in the day before and closed off the road access, so we slept in a church. Throughout the whole week we were there, it was rainy and muddy, but we made the most of it from just having fun, experiencing the merit badges and making our own ways to pass the time and enjoy it. It was still an overall fun camp despite the sheer amount of rain and mud.”

Edwards originally planned on doing a project for veterans, but the inability to form plans and receive permissions led him to shifting his focus toward helping seniors.

“We ultimately went up to the senior center, which was asking for help with their garden area,” Edwards said. “We decided to pick that and help them the best way we could.”

Plans began to come into place in 2022 and were put on hold due to winter. Building the standing planters proved to be one of the hardest parts of the project, but Edwards was able to get some help.

“Their first garden consisted of five large standing flower beds of an intricate design, which were actually a previous Eagle project that someone had donated there and built themselves,” Edwards said. “They wanted us trying to replicate them as best as possible and produce two more, which we ultimately were able to do almost exactly thanks to a former Scout leader named Larry Shock … We reached out to him to gain some guidance on how we were going about building.”

An Eagle Scout from Troop 209, based at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, named Michael Sherako built the original planters. A marker crediting Edwards’ and Sherako’s work is attached to the garden’s new sign.

With the project behind him, Edwards’ road to Eagle does not have too much longer to go. At age 16, he has plenty of time to get the rank, and he’s using that time to go for full honors.

“After I do all the paperwork, I’m going to do several extra merit badges to earn something called an Eagle Palm,” Edwards said. “An Eagle Palm is sort of like a next rank for the Eagle Scouts. It’s a metal pin and there’s different levels depending on how many extra merit badges you do. For five extra, it’s a bronze palm, for 10, it’s a (golden) palm, and I believe 15 marks a (silver) palm. I have to complete two more and I should earn all three of my palms.”

Edwards plans to maintain a role within Troop 1407 even after he becomes an Eagle Scout.

“I may come back as a junior leader at some point to help the new Scouts along their way to becoming Eagle Scouts,” Edwards said.

Helping younger members of Troop 1407 achieve Eagle is part of Edwards’ goal to help further the troop’s record of awarding an average of two Scouts with the BSA’s highest rank since 1955.