Hutchins Completes Eagle Scout Project at Ellsworth Elementary-Middle School

Thanks to Eagle Scout Candidate Will Hutchins along with volunteers and the community involvement, the Ellsworth Elementary-Middle School has new baseball dugouts ready for the Spring 2019 season.

In his pursuit of earning his Eagle Scout rank, Will Hutchins planned, led and organized fundraisers, gathered local business donations and coordinated a lot of volunteers to help build the dugouts for his school community.

Will has said since he was a Tiger Cub that he wanted to build baseball dugouts for his Eagle Scout project.  Will chose to build dugouts for the Ellsworth Elementary Middle School because there was a need in his school community.  Will knew the importance of having dugouts for baseball players. Baseball dugouts provide weather protection, safety from foul balls, provide team unity and offer an opportunity for equipment organization during the games.

Utilizing the generosity and volunteer hours of local businesses, family, friends, scouts, school staff and community members, Will organized and led many fundraisers since March 2018 to fund the construction of his dugouts. He held a spaghetti dinner, car wash, Darlings Ice Cream for a Cause ice cream truck, lobster roll lunch, Sip n’ Swirl Paint & Design class and a back to school teacher lunch to help raise money.  Will raised $12,336.35 from these fundraisers, donations, material contributions and valuable service time. He had $330.61 remaining and donated the money to Ellsworth Elementary Middle School to put towards future softball dugouts.

Will learned a lot of skills doing his Eagle Project. This project has taught him how to plan, coordinate and communicate with other people. Will had a total of 118 personal volunteer hours through fundraising and the build of the project. He had 13 Boy Scout volunteers throughout this project with 226 volunteer hours.  There were 7 Boy Scout adult volunteers who contributed 161 volunteer hours. There were also 39 youth and adult volunteers not associated with Boy Scouts who volunteered 787 hours towards his fundraising efforts and dugout build. In total, there were 1,192 volunteer hours.

On his path to his Eagle Scout rank, Will has also earned 39 merit badges, including the 21 Eagle Scout required merit badges. Will is a member of the Order of the Arrow and has earned his Brotherhood Membership through Pamola Lodge 211 in the Katahdin Area Council. The final steps Will has to finish in order to earn his Eagle Scout rank are to have an Eagle Scout Board of Review through the Kathadin Area Council in Orono and send his final Eagle Scout paperwork to nationals.

Will Hutchins is a member of Boy Scout Troop #86 from Ellsworth. He is an eighth grader at Ellsworth Elementary Middle School.  Will has been involved with scouting since he was a tiger cub in Pack #86. He is the son of Lisa and Fred Backman of Winter Harbor.