Community Corner
Eagle Scout Honored at Brighton City Council Meeting
Oliver Nelsen completed a community service project at the Howell Nature Center in order to earn an Eagle Scout rank with Troop 350.
Brighton High School Senior Oliver Nelsen is the latest boy scout in Troop 350 to earn the rank of Eagle Scout -- the highest rank a boy scout can earn.
Nelsen's achievement was honored at the City Council meeting Thursday night, where he received a Mayoral Proclimation from Brighton Mayor Jim Muzzin.
To earn an Eagle Scout rank, a boy scout must earn 21 merit badges, serve six months in a troop leadership position and plan and develop a community service project.
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Nelsen's service project involved adding security features to the Howell Nature Center in the form of a road gate, a farm gate and adding a steel lid to the donation box.
"Somebody had been breaking into the box and stealing the money, so I covered it with a steel lid so there was no way for anybody with a crow bar to get into it without making a lot of noise," Nelsen said.
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The donation box was a top priority for the center because it had lost several thousand dollars over several years due to theft, Nelsen said. The new road gate will prevent people from going into the restricted area where the animals rehabilitate while the farm gate will discourage people from entering after hours.
Nelsen has been a boy scout since the fifth grade.
"I wanted to become an Eagle Scout because I want to attend a service academy and Eagle Scout looks really good on the application," Nelsen said. "And it's fun. You don't get to do a lot of the stuff you do with scouts outside of scouts."
Nelsen's mother, Amy Nelsen, said she was extremely proud of her son.
"A couple of times it was getting to the point where he would say, 'I don't know if I want to keep doing this,' but he just really stuck with it," she said. "I'm just really proud of him and his 'stick to it' attitude more than anything. He finished something he started. That's going to stand up well the rest of his life. He's not a quitter."
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