Elijah Grogg with Scout Leaders Erin Archer (left) and Tom Eberhart (right) after his meeting with the Eagle Scout Board of Review and officially becoming an Eagle Scout. (Submitted photo)

EAST LIVERPOOL — Elijah Grogg, 18, a senior at East Liverpool High School and a member of Boy Scout Troop 2041, officially became an Eagle Scout following his meeting with Board of Review on Nov. 17.

Although he has earned the rank of Eagle Scout, he has not yet received the award as that takes time to process after the Board of Review’s approval.

To earn his rank of Eagle Scout, Elijah, with help from family and friends, restored the headstones of 400 veterans interred at Riverview Cemetery.

The idea of cleaning the veterans’ headstones actually came to him after his original project idea fell through due to a timing issue.

He then spent about three days searching for another project, but nothing was clicking with him. He was struggling to find an idea that would work for the area or within the amount of time he had or the amount of help he had.

He said he was starting to feel kind of defeated about not being able to come up with a project, but when he and his dad were on their way to Walmart he looked out the car window and saw the section of the cemetery with all the veteran graves and he recalled thinking that the graves looked old and resembled a cartoon cemetery, with ivy growing and cracked headstones. He started to wonder what he could do to help fix that, and from there it snowballed into a full Eagle Scout project.

Elijah noted that he went into his project with relatively low hopes, because he likes to set his expectations low and then be happily surprised. He said he went in expecting that it was going to be 14 hours of him and his dad Roberto sitting there and maybe cleaning 50 graves by the time the project was finished.

“We had so many people come out and so much support from the community,” Elijah said. “Our original goal was around 300 (stones), but we ended up recounting the plot where they were and added in a couple of extra to round it up to 400.”

A lot of the people who showed up to help him saw about it on Facebook or heard about it from a friend and decided to come help.

With approximately 40 people showing up over a two-day period to help him, Elijah quickly learned leadership skills and was able to direct everybody to get the project done.

Once completed, Elijah said he felt a great sense of satisfaction with the work done and is proud of it and proud to have obtained Eagle Scout.

“I’m proud of it. It’s a big honor and I’m very happy that I have been graced with this honor,” Elijah said. “I’m going to do my best to try to uphold the ideas of Eagle Scouts.”

Elijah received assistance from Mayor Bobby Smith who provided a donation for supplies from the fund the city received from an anonymous donor to help with civic projects. Elijah estimated the project cost approximately $1,100, with the majority of that coming from the city’s donation.

“It’s one of those awards that doesn’t immediately change your life. It’s not like you have a badge that you wear all the time; it stays on your scout uniform,” Elijah said. “Like there will be times I’ll entirely forget that I’m an Eagle Scout and I’ll just be sitting there and playing video and games, and it will be like, ‘oh, hey, I’m an Eagle Scout now,’ and it’s very fun to be able to realize that.”

Elijah said when he is working with the Cub Scouts in Pack 43, which has a whole bunch of good kids, it does feel like there is a little more pressure to be the good role model and it can be challenging when talking to Cub Scouts who are younger kids, because to them Eagle Scout, an award they will be almost an adult when they go to earn it seems miles away.

“When I look back though, it’s not nearly as long as it seems,” Elijah said.

He views his Eagle award as a massive honor and wants to inspire younger scouts to pursue the award because he knows they will gain a lot from not just the award, but the experience one has to go through to earn the award.

When asked what was next for him, Elijah responded, “College is the big wrench in things. If I could stay here and work with the troop and the kids, I know it would be very fun, but life doesn’t always do what is fun. I’m going to go off to college and cross my fingers that there is a troop somewhere there where I can help out with as an adult and be an example to the next generation that this is doable and worth pursuing.”

Currently Elijah is trying to decide between attending the University of Akron or Union of Mount Union for a degree in mechanical engineering.