One of the many requirements that scouts of Scouting America must complete is the infamous Eagle Project. Junior Madeline Sheng-Williams wrapped up her project a few weeks ago. Her project included a trash clean up of the Oakland estuary area and an audit of the data they collected.
The Eagle Project is a project that all Life Scouts must complete in order to become an Eagle Scout. The project consists of a proposal idea that must be first approved. The idea behind this project is that it supports a community and develops an aspiring Eagle Scout’s leadership skills.
“Essentially, it was a lot of work,” said Sheng-Williams. Her plan was to gather as many people as possible to help her with her mission. “I knew that going in [that] I wanted it to be really big and impactful. So I decided to do a paddle clean up, where we went on paddle crafts… out in the Oakland estuary,” she said.
Sheng-William’s dedication and care for the environment led her to selecting a paddle clean up. Specifically, Sheng-Williams mentioned that it was “because I sailed there. I see the trash there all the time, so it’s personal to me.” Her project, along with many similar initiatives by Eagle Scouts, have helped to keep our county and natural habitat clean for future generations to use.
Junior Daria Gudkova, a friend and helper of Sheng-Williams, was more than happy to help with cleaning up the waters. “I think it was really fun, and I was glad that I could help her with that project, and I think she was very glad to have me there.” Eagle projects rely on the surrounding community for support to be completed, so Gudkova was a welcome addition to the project.
After the estuary clean-up Sheng-Williams and her team met up in Alameda where they sorted the garbage and collected data about what they had picked up. After data collection, the team properly disposed of the garbage. “We just finished the audit of the data, where we recorded what kinds of garbage it was. We were only measuring things larger than 2.5 centimeters in size, macro garbage… Now we’re going to send the data off.”
The data collected was then sent to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA)’s Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP). According to their website, this program’s mission is to “investigate and prevent the adverse impacts of marine debris.” A culmination of citizen science and the association’s scientific knowledge, MDMAP publishes received data into a national database and interactive map that the public has access to. With projects much like Sheng-Williams’, MDMAP’s website cites that they have so far “supported over 360 marine debris removal projects and removed more than 45,000 metric tons of marine debris” from “coasts, the ocean, and Great Lakes.”
This project did not come without its challenges. Sheng-Williams shared how a culmination of weather issues and proposal setbacks forced her to make adjustments to her project. “The Eagle Proposal process is really long and complicated. There’s a lot of back and forth between project coaches, scout masters, [and] beneficiaries,” she said. “The night before what was supposed to be my project didn’t end up working, because the weather hadn’t been cooperating,” Sheng-Williams added.
Regardless of the challenges, Sheng-Williams was able to persevere. Her project didn’t end up happening as initially planned; however, she said, “we still went out and cleaned up on land [like a] regular run of the mill, beach cleanup.”
Sheng-Williams’ project will undeniably have a significant impact on the community. “It’s very local,” said Sheng-Williams. “I really hope that the people who hear about it get interested. I know a lot of people go rowing and sailing and Oakland’s really close to us,” she added.
Sheng-Williams is determined to continue to help the environment through similar efforts. “The marine debris monitoring assessment project isn’t actually over, just because my Eagle Project is. We only did a tiny fraction of the rest of the project, so we still have 30 more sections to go collect garbage and data from,” she said. “I’m going to keep working on it.”
