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| Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet Colby Conroy took the Eagle Scout Oath on Oct. 21 during his Eagle Scout Ceremony. After being ceremoniously presented with his Eagle Scout Award, the entire room applauded the young man, including his mother, Vickie, and his father, Ralph. |
By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
WOODLAND — A Boy Scout since the seventh grade, Colby Conroy of Woodland was presented with his Eagle Scout Award on Oct. 21 with much applause and congratulations.
The 18-year-old son of Ralph and Vickie Conroy first ventured into Scouts as a seventh-grader who wanted to participate in the fun outdoor activities, like camping, shooting and hiking.
Now, Conroy says scouting serves as more of an opportunity to develop his personality and character as an adult, while setting up a foundation of the traits and attributes he’ll want to pass on to his children.
“Scouting is a brotherhood, and you learn a lot of life skills you can use in everyday life, even when you’re an adult,” Conroy said.
Conroy first set his sights on earning the renowned award a few years ago, while attending his best friend’s Eagle Scout award ceremony as a sophomore in high school. At the time, was kind of growing out of Scouting.
“He was my best friend and my role model, and that’s really when I thought that I had to go and finish what I started,” Conroy explained.
But when Conroy approached Scoutmaster Jeff Robertson with the ambitious Eagle Scout project of completely revamping the baseball/softball field of the Woodland Consolidated School (along with the soccer bleachers and the basketball hoops), Robertson admitted he was a bit concerned.
“It was a big, multifaceted project — a tremendous investment of time and people to do that, and it was a very big undertaking,” Robertson said.
“But he was passionate about the school, the school system and their needs — and his passion far outweighed the work,” Roberson added.
Even before Conroy had a solidified Eagle Scout project idea, he knew it would involve the Woodland Consolidated School in some way.
“This is where I grew up and this was the school that really taught me everything that I knew about who I am and developed my character,” Conroy said. “I really wanted to give back to the school.”
Growing up playing Little League on that Woodland field and then umpiring Little League games as a teenager, Conroy knew the general sentiment about the old diamond.
“A lot of the coaches felt that the Woodland baseball field was sub par to all the others, so that’s why I felt that the field would be a good project to choose,” he explained. “It was something that I wanted to do and something that the community needed, and it would be in place to help all the children in the community.”
Conroy and a slew of dedicated volunteers literally tore up the infield.
The dug up all the sod around the base paths to make them straight, then dug up all the clay under the pitcher’s mound a batter’s box and replaced it with new clay and topsoil.
Once they’d revamped the field, Conroy and his crew of volunteers started working on the field-adjacent projects.
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| Contributed photo Woodland Troop 186 Leader Tony Peterson presents new Eagle Scout Colby Conroy with his Eagle Scout Pin during a ceremony on Oct. 21 at the Woodland Consolidated School. |
“The benches [in the dugouts] were wobbly and weren’t really safe for children to sit on, so we built new benches and hat racks, because kids lose their hats all the time,” Conroy said. “Also, some of the boards on the soccer field bleachers were loose and the paint was coming off, so we repaired them, sanded them down and put new paint on them.”
Going for the three-sport trifecta, Colby’s project descended on the basketball field.
“I took the backboards and hoops off, grinded down all the paint so it was just bare metal and repainted them,” he explained. To top it off, they even bought new nets for the freshly painted hoops.
To accomplish the community-oriented Eagle Scout project, Conroy had the support of many community volunteers.
Little league parents turned out full force to support Conroy’s endeavor, to the extend that tearing up the field and laying down new clay and topsoil took just about a day.
Conroy said it was nice to see everybody in the community come together for the project, but giving the orders instead of taking them was a new experience for the teen.
“It was different stepping out,” he described. “Normally, I’m a worker in one of these projects, and I was the foreman — It was a different role with leadership.”
Aside from earning the highest honor awarded through the Boy Scouts of America, Conroy has without a doubt learned that a good deed is its own reward.
“You hear people talk about the field, and some people know who did it but others come to the field to watch a game and they’re like ‘wow, this looks really good,’” Conroy described. “You don’t have to say anything, you just feel good about it.”
Of course the first time he heard someone talking about the labor intensive Eagle Scout project, he was pretty excited.
“I was at one of my friends’ birthday parties and his family was talking about how they’d went to watch their niece and nephew play and they were saying ‘Have you seen the field lately? It looks so good!’ and I was like ‘I did that! It was me!’” Conroy said with a big smile.
As apparent through his Eagle Scout project and the resulting award, Conroy enjoys helping people — so much so, that the 18-year-old plans to study nursing in college.
“Colby’s a fine young man, and will be a fine representative of our society for many years to come,” Robertson said.
During the Eagle Scout Award ceremony on Oct. 21, Conroy was also honored with the presentation of a Legislative Sentiment from State Reps. Bernard Ayotte and Peter Edgecomb.
