Since Alex was 9 years old, it was one of his life long goals to become an Eagle Scout. The Eagle rank is Scouting’s highest award, and is the most difficult rank to obtain:http://www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets/EagleScouts.aspx. He is only 12 years old but he is already working on his Eagle rank!
In order to achieve this rank, one must complete a set of requirements. The most challenging of the requirements is the Eagle Leadership Service Project.
Alex’s Eagle Leadership Service Project
An Eagle Project can be big or small, have a long term effect or be a one time use. He wanted 3 things for his Eagle Project: (1) Help a community that needs things instead of want things. (2) Do something that will benefit children, and (3) Do something that will have long term impact.
It was hard to find a project that fit the three criteria. Took me months! Then one evening, while having dinner wiht the founder of the Summit Schools Organization, she recommended that Alex speaks to one of her high school teachers who started a non-profit organization called the Hidden Road Initiative. This organization helps children in small rural villages in Armenia. After speaking with the HRI founder, he knew he found my project.
His Eagle project is to help the children in a little village in Armenia called Akhpradzor. Akhpradzor has a population of 400, and 75 are children. It is about a 5-hour car ride from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, and there is only 1 road to the village. This road is closed 6 months a year because of the large amount of snow.
The principal has a very long list of what is important for the students in the school. The top four on the list are fixing the fence, build a playground, outhouse, and a library. These are priorities because the school has no playground, no library, no bathroom (kids have to run home or go outside), and the fence is rusted and sections are broken.
This is the village.This is the front of the school.
The plan: He is going to Akhpradzor in July for two weeks to help build the library, outhouse, playground, and fix the fence. In order for this project to be successful, he needs to raise at least $8,000 to buy all the materials, supplies, and school books.
Please help me help my little host brother help these kids in Akhpradzor, Armenia.