As the temperature climbed towards 90 degrees around midday Saturday, eight teenage boys lifted and placed cement bricks, carefully layering them to form a low wall behind Wrightsville Beach’s public safety building.
The boys, a group of rising ninth graders, are members of Boy Scout Troop 13 and they spent the steamy summer day stacking bricks to help their friend Harrison Spicuzza complete his Eagle Scout service project.
All scouts must perform a service project to reach Eagle Scout rank, and Spicuzza wanted his project to benefit Wrightsville Beach because he lives nearby. He approached parks and recreation program supervisor Katie Ryan earlier this year to find out if there were any projects the town needed completed.
His timing was excellent. Wrightsville Beach Fire Department workers had just approached Ryan the day before to ask if the town could build a retaining wall behind their facility. Every time it rained, they said, water flooded off the roof and dragged mulch and debris into the drain.
“The Fire Department said [a wall] would save money and time in maintaining and cleaning the area each month,” Spicuzza said.
He created a project proposal and presented it to the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen for approval during the board’s May 12 meeting. He flicked through a PowerPoint presentation as town leaders, staff and community members looked on.
The 15-year-old admitted to being nervous at first, but Mayor Bill Blair and the other board members praised him and approved his project unanimously.
Spicuzza then created a lengthy project plan, in which he detailed all aspects of the project. He gathered tools like wheelbarrows, shovels, levels, rakes and gloves. He bought bricks from Home Depot and spent hours watching tutorial videos on the company’s website.
He enlisted the assistance of his troop, because troop members typically help each other during the execution phase of their respective Eagle projects. Spicuzza’s mother, Chris Spicuzza, was impressed to see seven or eight scouts brave the heat to help her son. But only the most committed scouts—about four percent of those who start as children—advance to the Eagle Scout rank, Spicuzza’s troop members agreed.
Spicuzza became a Cub Scout in first grade. Of the 11 boys in his original troop, only three are still enrolled.
“A lot of people quit,” he explained. At each of the seven ranks, they must earn badges and pass tests. It’s time consuming, but Spicuzza has managed to balance his scout commitments with Lacrosse practice, surfing and homework.
After he completes his service project, he must pass one final test, which his mother described as an oral quiz lasting well over an hour in which he must demonstrate his knowledge of skills like treating snake bites, navigating through the woods and tying knots.
Children need to learn those types of hands-on skills, said local masonry business owner Donald James, a friend of the Spicuzza family who volunteered to help the scouts build the retaining wall.
“We have to take our skills that we as adults have, and teach them to our kids,” said James, who learned masonry from his father. “We need to do more projects like this with kids.”
The boys, each of them clutching a cement block, gathered around James while he demonstrated how to use a level to stack the blocks evenly and where to squirt the glue to give the wall stability. The scouts pulled up weeds and spread mulch to make the project an aesthetic improvement, as well.
They worked until about 1 p.m., when the air became too sweltering, and made plans to complete the project Sunday.
While the Eagle projects teach manual skills, Spicuzza’s mother said, she’s also seen her son develop confidence and organization.
“And leadership,” she added, noting that the scouts are also good friends, so it’s challenging for each one, in turn, to step into the leadership role while the others follow directions.
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