Local Eagle Scout Goes Above & Beyond

There are 2.7 million Boy Scouts in America. Only about 7% have earned the Eagle Scout rank (in 2012). Each of them had to complete a service project that benefits the community that averages about 100 hours to complete, in addition to other demanding requisites. Eagle Scout Christopher Clarkin of Charlestown completed four, which likely contributed to him receiving the coveted William T. Hornaday Bronze Medal Award in January.

“I was homeschooled up until the eighth grade,” Chris says. He was looking for an outlet in the community. “[When you’re] not getting out as much as others kids, you just look for things.” He started with the organization a little later than many scouts, participating in the Cub Scouts for a year before graduating to the Boy Scout level, but he clearly made up for lost time in Troop 15.

Chris, currently completing his freshman year at the University of Rhode Island, will be transferring to the lauded United States Military Academy at West Point this fall. He didn’t make it in on his first attempt, but as with the Hornaday award, the most distinguished conservation award in the Boy Scouts of America, Chris has a thing for going the distance. “I’ve always been one to look to the high point and work for that,” he says humbly.

The first of his projects, the one which earned him Eagle Scout status, took place at South Kingstown’s Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge where he helped to clear invasive plants around the wetlands. Next, he worked alongside one of his scoutmasters at the Rhode Island Forest Conservators Organization (RIFCO), a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the state’s woodland resources, to clear a trail and create what he best describes as an “informational walkabout.”

For his next project, he created PVC pipe receptacles at a number of popular fishing areas including Quonochontaug Breachway and Chapman Pond in Westerly. “So people can put fishing line in it,” he says, otherwise, “wildlife can get all tangled up in the plastic.” Lastly, Chris built birdhouses at Ninigret Park’s Frosty Drew Nature Center in Charlestown as part of Nature Weeks, a hands-on educational program for kids.

Though he was honored to receive the Hornaday medal, the first given by the Boy Scouts Narragansett Council since 1994 and only one of 1,100 awarded nationwide since the 1930s, his commitment to environmental conservation has been the real reward. He explains, “The whole point is doing the project – that’s what is the most fulfilling.”