Three young men from the East Brainerd and the North Georgia area earned and received the high honors of Eagle Scout.  Blake DeLay of Ringgold and Quinn Denton and Callan Richardson of Chattanooga performed hours of service to better the community.

Blake, son of Hardy and Ramona DeLay, chose as his eagle project to work with the Catoosa County fire department and the Red Cross, to install smoke alarms to those in need.  Blake said that his favorite part of the project was "being able to see how many people now have fire alarms and they now have a higher chance of surviving if a house fire does occur." He also stated that the reason he chose this project was because “it is really important to me that people are safe if a house fire occurs since my grandparents home burned and, if it were not for their dog, they would have died." 

Quinn, son of Doug and Tasha Denton, chose to build "Buddy Benches" for Westview Elementary School.  A "Buddy Bench" is a bench on a playground where kids can sit if they don’t have anyone to play with and, ideally, another student sees them and asks them to play with them.  It can also be used as a place to meet up with friends at recess that are in different classes. Quinn saw a news-clip about how a school in another state was using "Buddy Benches" and decided to ask the principal at Westview if he could build some. He thought they would be a good addition to the school. He said, "I didn’t know how to build a bench before. So it was fun to learn how to do that." He also learned how to organize an activity and that it is important to have a plan when leading a project. Quinn also enjoyed being a part of the morning announcements at Westview Elementary so that he could explain what the "Buddy Benches" were to the students.  His younger siblings that attend the school have seen kids use them at recess.

Callan, son of Tim and Tanya Richardson, acted on a need from a scout leader. The challenge was to clear and clean up an old forgotten cemetery. The cleanup will benefit local families that have ancestors buried there, by allowing them to safely visit the graves. Callan said his favorite part of the project was all the support and physical help that people were willing to provide. Over 40 people came to clear underbrush.  Callan learned from this experience how challenging it is to coordinate several different projects simultaneously and plan enough lead time to schedule workers/volunteers for certain portions of the overall project.  But he was glad he did it and was able to help the community.  

Blake, Quinn and Callan are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Boy Scout Troop 3, Brainerd ward.  Doug Denton served as scout master.  Their court of honor was held at the LDS chapel at 3067 Ooltewah Ringgold Road.