East Eagle Scout Helps Maintain Scarlets’ Records and Pride
East student Matt Buchacker looks up at the Scarlets’ restored swimming record wall, a project that helped him earn his Eagle Scout honor.
East junior Matt Buchacker was asked recently if he’d heard the old saying, “No good deed goes unpunished.” No, he hadn’t. He’s too good a scout and scouts are, “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent,” not cynical.
But he quickly understood why it came to someone’s mind in the wake of the broken arm he sustained at football practice after completing his Eagle Scout service project in the school natatorium. Bad enough that he’s been ruled out for the year on the gridiron. He may be facing surgery that would cost him the swimming season, too.
He deserves better.
“Yeah, I wasn’t gonna play football this year but I came on toward the end of last season,” Matt said. “It kinda stinks because swimming is my main sport and I trained really hard all summer.”
Matt’s been a boy scout since second grade, longer than he’s been either a linebacker or a freestyler.
“I enjoy scouting,” he said. “I like helping people and being outdoors.”
When it came time to devise the project that would earn him scouting’s highest rank his first idea was an outdoorsy one that revolved around his fondness for fly fishing with his grandfather. But then another notion came to him. He spends a lot of time in the pool at East and he couldn’t help but notice that the boards on the wall listing the school’s top five times in each of the boys’ and girls’ swimming events had gotten shabby. They were hard to read and not uniform. There were gaps. Records are made to be broken, but not in that sense. He proposed to replace them; to rewrite the record book, literally.
His scoutmasters, one of whom is Windsor Elementary Principal Scott Nichols, endorsed the proposal. His swim coach, Dustin Cassler, certainly approved. So did his teammates, some of whom even said they’d help. And when Matt was researching the best ways and means of building the new boards, so did students in East’s Tech Ed workshop who helped identify the materials best suited for durability in a chlorinated environment. Besides the design and labor phases of the project there were costs. Matt fundraised nearly $600 to underwrite those.
The school motto at East is, “For the Service of Humanity.” The scouting oath is, in part, “To help other people at all times…” So Matt’s restoration of the swimming plaques honors two of the primary influences in his young and promising life. But he is not the first scout to earn his Eagle’s wings by giving back to the Scarlet swimming program. And he won’t be the last. Some years ago another scout, Charles Hughes, built some storage containers for gear and equipment. And one of Matt’s current teammates, fellow scout Zach Cort, is planning to repaint the natatorium bleachers. If this keeps up the boys’ swim team may become informally known as the Scarlet Eagles or the Scarlet Scouts.
There’s nothing in life or the scouting creed that promises good fortune. But Matt’s got some coming to him. Hopefully he’ll be on the starting block at the first home meet of the swimming season in front of a big crowd. If you’re there, look closely and you’ll see the name BUCHACKER listed as part of the five fastest 200 yard freestyle unit in school history.
What you won’t see are the initials MB down in the corner because the artist neglected to sign his work. Scouts are humble, too.
