Ashton Raymer ‘20 does environmental project to earn Eagle Scout rank
Farragut Junior Ashton Raymer earned his Eagle Scout rank this past June. Only 4% of scouts are granted this rank (including famed moonwalking astronaut and Farragut alumnus Charles Duke [Brig Gen, USAF, Ret.]), and it takes a couple of years of hard work and commitment to complete. Eagle Scouts are required to complete a community service project, and Ashton chose to work with Boyd Hill Nature Preserve Park to build and install trash can receptacles.
“It doesn’t sound too glamorous at first,” Ashton said, “But they’ve had a lot of problems with litter on the trails in the past, so they really needed them. I hate seeing litter everywhere, so that’s why I chose that project.”
The trash can receptacles are wooden boxes built around the trash cans on the trails. They are put in place so animals can’t get into the trash and so nothing will blow away.
“I built five receptacles,” Ashton said. “It took around six hours to actually build and install them, and I had a lot of people both from Farragut and from my Boy Scout Troop 219 come out to help me. It was a great way for them to get service hours.”
Ashton has been in scouts since he was in 2nd grade, starting off in Cub Scouts and working his way up to his current rank.
“My troop does a lot of work with Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. If you go there you’ll see plaques everywhere, saying ‘This was an Eagle Scout project’. Everything there was built up by the Boy Scouts.”
At Farragut, Ashton is an active student. He plays Lacrosse, is involved in the Scuba Club, the Drill Team, and Interact (a service organization for high school students who desire to volunteer their time and aid school and community, sponsored by the Rotary Club), and he was recently promoted to the rank of Regimental Training Officer in the Admiral Farragut Academy corps of cadets. “I don’t know where I want to go for college or what I want to do yet,” he says, “But I’m setting myself up to be able to go anywhere.”