Eagle Scout project starts, ends at cemetery

An Eagle Scout project recently came full circle for an Eagle Scout hopeful, a cemetery and a local nonprofit organization.

Boy Scout Hunter Lowe noticed while he was helping to place Christmas wreaths at the Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery last year that the birdhouses on trees surrounding the cemetery were not in good shape.

“The old houses were rotten and falling off the trees,” he said. “They didn’t look too nice.”

Now a 10th-grader, the member of Boy Scout Troop 703 took that as inspiration for his Eagle Scout project. He would build and install 13 birdhouses to replace the ones that were falling apart.

“I figured it would be really nice to do it for them,” he said of the cemetery on Milners Road.

Hunter, who wants to join the U.S. Marine Corps, completed the project in about seven months from the planning stages to installation of the birdhouses.

He received a donation from the Pilot Club to purchase the cedar for the birdhouses and promised that any money left over would go to the Horton Wreath Society, which annually raises money to purchase the wreaths he had been setting out when he first got the idea for the project.

“I was impressed that he picked the cemetery for his Eagle Scout project,” said Jeanne Banks, chair of the Horton Wreath Society. “Then, it was a surprise when he said if there’s any money left, it will go to the Wreath Society.”

Lowe said he was obtained the materials from Yukon Lumber at a discounted rate, so he was able to donate about $250 to the Wreath Society.

“That was the biggest part of the project,” he said.

Banks said the donation meant a lot for the Wreath Society, which has to raise more money each year to buy wreaths for more graves.

“His $250 check — you don’t get many of those, and you certainly don’t get them from young people,” Banks said. “He’s such an outstanding young man.”

Hunter is the son of Elizabeth and Sidney Lowe. His older sister, Heather, received her Girl Scout Gold Award a few years ago.

“I’m very lucky to have two wonderful kids,” Elizabeth Lowe said.

To join Hunter in donating to the Wreath Society, make checks out to the Wreath Society and send to SunTrust Bank, 123 N. Main St., Suffolk, VA 23434.

This year’s wreath-laying will be held on Dec. 10 at 9:30 a.m. A ceremony will follow at 11:30 a.m.

For more information, visit www.hortonwreathsociety.webs.com.