Maybe you’ve seen platoons of Boy Scouts cutting trails through the woods, or groups of Girl Scouts selling cookies. These days, they’re all part of one organization, Scouting America, which has roots that extend to 1908, when the original Boy Scout movement was founded by British cavalry officer Lord Robert Baden-Powell. One of the duties of an Eagle Scout, which is the highest ranking in the Scouting organization, is to complete an Eagle project that benefits the community.
The Scouting motto is “Be Prepared,” and Scout Law includes 12 precepts. Among other qualities, a Scout should be trustworthy, loyal, brave, cheerful and kind. A Scout should also be helpful, and that’s the main motivation for the Eagle project.
“Many of the Eagle projects I have seen are either small or incredibly easy,” writes Eagle Scout Jeremy Bullock on Quora. “However, in my years as a Scout, I have seen quite a few large projects that are rather impressive, some of which I have worked on myself.”
Let’s find out more about Bullock’s project as well as some other inspirational and award-winning Eagle projects.
A Handicap Ramp
Bullock’s Eagle project was to build a large handicap ramp for a local Masonic lodge. The project took him about two years to complete, so it wasn’t a small project, nor was it easy, as anyone who has built one would know. To satisfy code, a handicap ramp must have adequate support and a gentle enough angle to allow helpers to push wheelchairs uphill and prevent wheelchairs from losing control going downhill.
Bullock financed the project himself by selling engraved bricks. To commemorate the project, he set the bricks in cement at the end of the ramp.
A Mobile Food Pantry
Jackson Davis, of Troop 77 in Port Richey, FL, noticed that the local food pantry distributing frozen food and canned goods to low-income families and people experiencing homelessness needed help. The personal cars being used to bring food to the distribution point in a parking lot weren’t big enough to feed everyone. What they really needed was a bus, and Davis devoted his Eagle project to securing one.
Working on it for two years, and raising $16,000 in the process, Davis transformed an old school bus into a mobile food pantry. Since then, the bus has serviced thousands of people. His efforts earned him the 2023 Glenn A. and Melinda W. Adams National Eagle Scout Service Project of the Year (ESSPY) Award.
A Tiny House
Tim Maron from Eagle Scout Troop 300 of Hobbie, PA decided to build a tiny house for his Eagle project, and it earned him the 2020 ESSPY Award for the Northeast Region. Maron, who has grandfathers, uncles, and cousins who have served in the military, said he wanted to give back to veterans who had served selflessly only to come home to poverty and homelessness.
Tim funded the project through community donations and a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation’s Veteran WINS program. Once the necessary $55,000 was secured, he supervised a team of volunteers composed of Scouts and Scout leaders from the community, Wells Fargo and local contractors. It was a big job, but he says that doing it for a cause in which he believes made it much easier. Plus, he learned a lot about what goes into constructing a house in the process.
Food for Haiti
Jamesly Jesse of Troop 85 in Moweaqua, IL, won the 2025 ESSPY award by raising more than $35,400 to buy food for the hungry in Haiti, his country of birth. He raised the money by giving presentations to 10 community organizations and producing a video which, he says, proved very helpful. He then organized volunteers to pack over 100,000 meals of rice, beans, dried vegetables and other nutrients to ship to Haiti.
When he was two years old, James survived the catastrophic 2010 Haiti earthquake that killed 220,000 people, including his parents. He spent the next year in a makeshift hospital before being adopted by an American couple who brought him to Illinois. The motivation for his Eagle project was to give back to the food-insecure Haitian people, especially those in the hospital in Milot, Haiti, where he was nursed back to health.
A Playground and Meditation Area for a Women’s Rehab Center
Apara Sai Jella, a member of girls’ Troop 36 in Danville, CA became the first female Eagle Scout to receive the ESSPY award in 2022 when she oversaw financing and construction of an outdoor meditation area at Project Pride, a women’s residential rehab center in Oakland, CA. The purpose of her Eagle project was to give women a place to relax and be with their children during rehab.
Apara raised money with a GoFundMe page, researched and bought the materials she needed, and organized a crew of 25 volunteers. Together, they built both a meditation area, which consisted of new sod, a garden and a gravel circle, and a playground that featured a mural, wooden benches constructed by the crew, and painted hopscotch and racetrack games. Women at the center were very appreciative and sent her written letters of gratitude. Thanking her family and friends who helped her, Apara said: “More than ‘my Eagle project,’ this is ‘our Eagle project.’”
Sources
- Quora: What is the most impressive Eagle Scout Service Project you’ve heard of?; (2019)
- Scouting Magazine – Aaron on Scouting: Eagle Projects of the Year; (2026)
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