Hot about a project like this to keep the kids busy?
Building a tradition: Eagle Scout project helps fly the flag
W ith each post he put in the ground Saturday morning, Garrett Dugle inched closer to a lifetime goal while helping Sahuarita launch a tradition that could endure for decades. Garrett, 17, led a team of at least 40 volunteers over two days as they sunk short steel sleeves into the ground and surrounded them with concrete. The sleeves — 50 of them, roughly 40 yards apart — serve as the foundation for what will be called “Avenue of the Flags,” a joint project with the Madera Sunset Rotary Club in Sahuarita.
For Garrett, the project was the next step — and the biggest — toward getting his Eagle Scout badge.
• The small Rotary club came up with the flag display idea last summer and quickly signed on Garrett’s Boy Scout Troop 301 to help. The club felt an avenue of flags would make a statement for national pride, patriotism and culture.
When he decided to take it on as an Eagle Scout project, Garrett stepped into a world that was a mix of government regulations, budgets, planning, organizing supplies and rounding up volunteers.
Sahuarita’ Avenue of the Flags is much like that in Green Valley, which includes 96 flags stretched roughly from Esperanza Boulevard to Continental Road. Green Valley’s flags recently came under the direction of the Green Valley Council after being managed by a small committee for more than two decades. The Green Valley flags fly nine holidays a year, with service organizations or clubs doing the honors.
Sahuarita’s 50 flags will be placed along both sides of Sahuarita Road, from the road that leads to Town Hall to the entrance to Rancho Sahuarita Marketplace on Rancho Sahuarita Boulevard. Thus far, they are planned to go up five days a year (Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day, Pearl Harbor Day) but the club will consider adding to that as organizations become available to help place them. The goal is for the flags to fly for the first time next month, on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Day.
Rotary set a budget of $3,800, all from donors who will be remembered most likely with a plaque or small stone memorial. The club will continue to seek donations for replacing, cleaning and repairing flags and poles.
“We feel very privileged to work with the Boy Scouts on this,” club president April Clement said.
• On Saturday morning, Garrett, a junior at Sahuarita High School, was busy directing Scouts and volunteers by radio. In all, about four dozen people gave 325 hours during the project, which included plenty of input from town officials.
“I can see people driving down the road and seeing all the flags,” Garrett said, adding that the project gave him an opportunity to learn to plan and lead.
Garrett comes from a busy troop. His was the fifth Eagle Scout project this year out of Troop 301, and he has volunteered on every one of them, including a community garden and a flag retirement ceremony.
The physical labor is done, but Garrett still has plenty of work to do to complete his project. He will prepare a paper, document volunteer hours and other details, and fill out plenty of paperwork. Garrett, who started out as a Tiger Cub in first grade, will find out in January if he has earned the honor of being called an Eagle Scout.
