07/24/2023
Boy Scout Troop 53 is pleased to announce that two of its members have achieved the rank of Eagle Scout this year! Torsten Brickley and Murray Copps have been with Troop 53 since 2016 and worked steadily over six years to earn the highest rank in Boy Scouts – Eagle Scout. To become an Eagle Scout, a scout must earn at least 21 challenging merit badges and demonstrate leadership and community service by organizing and carrying out an Eagle Project.
Torsten Brickley’s Eagle Project was blazing and documenting walking trails at Washburn Park in Marion. He mapped the trails, color-coding each different trail, and led his crew painting marks on the trees along each trail. The project also included registering the trails on the popular hiking app AllTrails and making a color map of the park outlining the trails for the kiosk at the entrance. In addition to helping to keep trail users from getting lost, this project has increased awareness about the park as a natural resource and a place for exercise.
Murray Copps’ Eagle Project was building and installing swallow houses in two marshes around the center of Mattapoisett. He led his crew in building the houses from scratch and installing them on posts dug into the marsh. The boxes provide habitat for the birds to encourage nesting for the declining swallow population. The swallows eat a significant number of mosquitos every day and could potentially reduce the mosquito population and thus our risk of contracting mosquito-borne illnesses.
Torsten and Murray are recent graduates of ORR, ran cross country and indoor and outdoor track all four years, and were both captains of these teams. Torsten is attending Clarkson University in the fall to study Engineering and Murray is attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to study Computer Science. Both of them will also be running competitively on their college cross country and track teams.
Congratulations to Torsten and Murray!
