Since 2013, senior Alex Torres has strived to be the best that he can in his Boy Scout troop. Finally, after three years of commitment, Torres was awarded the Eagle Scout ranking. The Eagle Scout is the highest rank that can be achieved by any Boy Scout. Including Torres, five scouts were awarded an Eagle Scout ranking that night.

Only 5% of all Boy Scouts are awarded the Eagle Scout ranking. It takes multiple years to complete all the tasks needed to be nominated for this ranking. As one of many tasks, Torres had to take personal time to construct a project that would benefit the community. Torres decided to create a greeting station at the Wayland Town Beach. The greeting station was used every day during the summer, and Torres has received multiple rave reviews.

“I spent a year planning and building the project, and I spent about 102 hours on the project.The project had to have some impact on the community. I had to lead the project too, so I couldn’t actually use my hands. I couldn’t build it by myself, so I had to lead a group. In total, I had about 20 volunteers. I sent an email out, and some of my friends helped out,” Torres said.

Torres also had to complete other tasks to receive all of his merit badges. A merit badge can be presented to a Boy Scout when he completes a special project. These badges are token-sized pieces of cloth, metal or plastic but mean so much more.

“In order to get the Eagle Scouts award, besides the project, you have to have five or six recommendation letters from teachers, family, friends or a church if you belong to one,” Torres said. “And you also need to complete certain skill sets, and that’s when you get merit badges. The hardest one would maybe be citizenship in the nation. It closely reflected the system in our school. It was easy to do, but I was in a time crunch so that was the last one I did. It’s basically a question set of what’s a good citizen and what are some civil obligations.”

With his new ranking, Torres is determined to continue with his community service and teach younger scouts the multiple benefits of being in a Boy Scout troop.

“I’m just going to keep volunteering, keep doing community service. It’s one of the things I really like to do. You can only be in the Boy Scouts until you’re 18 years old,” Torres said. “[However], even when I’m done, community service is something I want to do for myself.”

Correction: Torres was one of five Boy Scouts who received the Eagle Scout ranking that night, not one of five Wayland students who received the ranking. We apologize for the error.