Boy Scout Mylin Zimmerman recently led a group of 20 volunteers in creating trails in the Clearview Forest. The project fulfilled the service project requirement needed to help him achieve his goal of obtaining Eagle Scout rank.

Seventeen-year-old Zimmerman, who will be a senior at Tech High School this fall, has been a member of Boy Scout Troop 14 since he was a fifth-grader. 

Eagle scout service projects give scouts the chance to demonstrate leadership while performing a community service project. It’s the culmination of a scout’s leadership training and takes considerable effort to achieve.

The requirements are intensive, and include earning 21 merit badges, planning, developing and leading others in a community service project and serving in a leadership position. Zimmerman has been patrol leader for nearly the entire time he’s been a boy scout, and is currently his troop’s guide. 

While volunteering at Clearview’s annual Cinco de Mayo Family Fiesta event last year, Zimmerman met Clearview teacher and forest committee volunteer Andrea Coulter. She worked with him to develop ideas that would benefit Clearview Forest that he could use for his Eagle Scout service project.

“Mylin created four trails for the community and Clearview students to explore,” said Coulter. “The work he put into marking the trails and creating a map is a wonderful resource.”

After submitting a proposal and receiving approval on the project from the local Boy Scout Council, Zimmerman researched and planned the steps involved in creating the trails.

The day of the project, he led 20 adults, scouts and volunteers in creating the trails, which included trimming tree branches to make room for people to travel them.

“I had to resist helping,” he said. “I’ve always been the type to get in and do what needs to be done.”

Each of the four trails were then marked with wooden posts painted vibrant neon colors to help identify and separate them from one another. Zimmerman also created a map of the trails with help from a DNR officer.

Along with the trails and map, he created a pamphlet teachers can use as a lesson plan, which includes local animal species that are endangered due to environmental issues, as well as a list of trees students can check off as they’re found. There is also an area for them to take notes on what they learned. 

Zimmerman has spent nearly 130 hours in the project from start to finish.

“I highly encourage anyone who has the chance to join Boy Scouts,” he said. “You gain a lot of leadership skills, and it helps to reinforce good morals. 

With the completion of his Eagle Scout service project, Zimmerman only needs to receive the two recommendation letters he is waiting for to be awarded Eagle rank.