Hernando teens near Eagle Scout rank after community projects

Two Hernando County teenagers are on the verge of Scouting America’s highest youth rank after projects that left visible benefits in two very different places: a conservation cemetery in Alachua County and a Brooksville nonprofit serving veterans. William Thomas and Aiden Passarella, both 15, have finished the work for their Eagle Scout projects, with only the final paperwork still pending.

Passarella, a Springstead High School student and member of Troop 433, built and installed 20 red-cedar benches at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery after noticing rotting benches while visiting his late grandparents’ gravesite. He designed the benches so they fit together without glue, screws or nails, describing the system as “kind of like Legos.” The cemetery funded the project, and Passarella assembled his own team to complete it. Because Prairie Creek is a 93-acre conservation cemetery and preserve, and Alachua County describes it as a 94-acre natural burial ground within Prairie Creek Preserve, the bench replacement mattered not only for comfort but for preserving the site’s natural setting.

Thomas’s project centered on outdoor beautification for K9 Partners for Patriots in Brooksville, where Rob White serves as chief operating officer. The nonprofit matches veterans with rescue dogs and provides hands-on training, and its Brooksville site is part of a larger long-term effort to build a service-dog training facility. The work Thomas completed will be used in a place where veterans and staff gather daily, making the impact immediate rather than symbolic.

The two teens’ work lands in a Scouting tradition that has carried weight for more than a century. Scouting America describes Eagle Scout as the highest award available to youth members, and the rank has existed since 1911. Council guidance says the trail from Life Scout to Eagle requires project approval, review of a fundraising plan and a board of review. Scouting sources say more than 2.5 million youth have earned the rank, while only about 4 percent of Scouts reach it.

For Hernando County, the projects show a practical side of youth leadership that is easy to see and hard to dismiss. One preserves a quiet burial ground where families return to remember loved ones. The other strengthens a Brooksville nonprofit that works with veterans and rescue dogs. In both cases, the boys identified a need, organized volunteers and delivered something that will keep serving the community long after the paperwork is finished.