Scout honors group’s history for Eagle project
Boy Scout Jordan Waitkus installed pedestals with the names and troop numbers of Eagle Scouts who have graduated from the Levittown School District. Credit: Levittown School District
A Levittown student used his Eagle Scout project as an opportunity to honor others who came before him.
Jordan Waitkus, a Boy Scout and junior at MacArthur High School, recently added two pedestals outside the Levittown Memorial Education Center that display the names and troop numbers of 55 Eagle Scouts who have graduated from the center and MacArthur and Division Avenue high schools. The earliest name is from 1968.
In addition, Waitkus planted six trees and 18 bushes with help from family, friends and fellow Scouts along the center’s walkway.
“I was very happy with how it came out,” said Waitkus, 16, a member of Troop 330. “It was a lot of work, but as soon as it started coming together it came out really well.”
Waitkus started by discussing possible project ideas with Levittown Superintendent Tonie McDonald, who has two sons who are Eagle Scouts, and she proposed honoring district graduates who achieved the rank.
The teen then raised roughly $450 to fund the project through a paint night and another fundraiser in which a local Burger King donated 20 percent of its sales over four hours.
A former Scout leader also donated shovels and a wheelbarrow for the landscaping work.
“We’re very proud of Jordan,” MacArthur Principal Joseph Sheehan said. “This is a true testament of his hard work and dedication.”
Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
