Eagle Scout Candidate Designs Web Page For Troop 270

By Jeff White

Newtown High School senior Adam Secola admits that he didn’t know that much about web page design before he decided to base his Merit Badge project on it. Luckily, he learns quickly.

Adam, 16, has finished his most recent merit badge project, which he undertook to fulfill the requirements for the Eagle Scout rank in Boy Scouts of America, a rank he hopes to obtain in the next few weeks. Although an Eagle Scout has to amass 21 such badges, Adam is considerably ahead of the game: he has 27 of them.

There are five ranks before that of Eagle Scout: Scout, Second Class Scout, First Class Scout, Star Scout, Life Scout, and finally Eagle Scout. For Adam, scouts have been a way of life since he joined troop 270 back in the sixth grade.

“It’s a good way to get to know people, learn skills, and show leadership,” he says.

Although he opted to revamp the landscaping around his church, Christ the King Lutheran, for his Eagle Scout project, for his latest merit badge effort Adam looked for a way to reach out and communicate with his community.

Reaching out, in this case, meant establishing a web page designed to give Newtown residents a better view of the various adventures in which boy scouts participate throughout a typical year. To that end, Adam established a web page linked to Troop 270’s web site that includes pasted photos from different “High Adventure” troop trips throughout the year.

Currently, there are 25 photos available for browsing at t270.tripod.com/adventure/highadventure.html.

Although Adam recalls that he did not know much about Web design when he started the program, he “jumped in” anyway, and asked many questions as he progressed. With the help of a few of his teachers, he soon mastered the fundamental techniques of linking and HTML.

“I’ve gotten some good feedback,” he confides. “Now I feel like I can make any web page. It’s no longer a mystery to me.

“If people want to know about scouts and see what we do, they can check out this page and see what we are involved in,” he adds.

Asked if he would miss scouts once he receives his Eagle Scout title, Adam says, frankly, no. After all, he explains, scouting is a lifelong activity. “It’s nice to know that I’ve finished something; I’ve been working on it for a long time.”

Adam will take the lessons learned from his years as a scout to Pittsburgh in the fall, where he plans to study architecture at that city’s university.