GREENFIELD — After completing everything needed for an Eagle Scout honor by the end of his senior year of high school, Andy Bostron finally celebrated the achievement with a belated ceremony. 

“You are in a very elite group of people,” Greg Williams of the Boy Scouts of America Western Massachusetts council wrote in a letter read aloud at Bostron’s Eagle Scout ceremony on Saturday. 

Bostron is now living in Ithaca, New York, and in his first year at Cornell University. He completed his Eagle Scout project in December 2021. 

He worked with a team of volunteers to build benches in Highland Park. He ran cross country in the park since his freshman year of high school, and thought that the area could use a place to sit. 

Through his project he learned to make plans, work through the hoops of bureaucracy and present ideas in a clear and succinct way, along with managing a team and using power tools. 

“It feels good to be an Eagle Scout,” Bostron said in an interview after his ceremony. “ I am glad I was able to accomplish my scouting career and come to this achievement. I still have a lot to learn.”

After completing everything needed for the honor, he went away to college, so the ceremony was pushed back to his winter break. This allowed Bostron the opportunity to reflect on his time in the scouts. He said he learned leadership skills that he now uses as a student in higher education.

“When I am in a group project I know what to do. I assign duties and tasks for everyone and get the project going,” Bostron said. 

In Bostron’s ceremony in front of his family, friends, troop and the mayor, he thanked all the people who helped him reach his goal. He said with the COVID-19 pandemic his chances of making Eagle Scout were slim, but with his parent’s support he was able to pull through to make it happen. 

Bostron also thanked his brother, Kris Bostron, for his companionship at the ceremony. Kris Bostron used a metaphor of a staircase to describe the accomplishment of his brother.

“Andy constructed his own staircase using the skills he learned from Boy Scouts to build off his foundation. With every rank advancement and every merit badge he gained another step on the staircase,” Kris Bostron said in a speech. 

Andy Bostron said there were too many good memories of the scouts to pick his favorite. He said he has nothing but fond memories of summer camp where he would swim, do archery, learn skills in a shooting range and hang out with his friends. 

“I would like to congratulate Andy on making Eagle Scout and wish him well in the new world he has opened himself up to as a result of Boy Scouts,”  Kris Bostron concluded.

Bella Levavi can be reached at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com

]]>