Scouts honor Freshman for helping vets

Ryan Fitzgerald, ’19 who received his Eagle Scout award. Ryan, a civil engineering student, earned his award by holding a city-wide fundraiser to collect toiletries for veterans.

A member of the SUNY Poly Class of 2019 recently received a prestigious honor from the Boy Scouts of America.

For the first time, the Boy Scouts of America – Revolutionary Council presented the Eagle Scout Project of the Year Award.

Eagle Scout is the highest advancement rank in Boy Scouting.

The Council identified several Eagle Scout Projects that they felt exemplified the best of Scouting’s positive impact on their three-county area, and after a rigorous review process, selected the project spearheaded by Ryan Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald, a Freshman pursuing an interest in Civil Engineering at SUNY Poly in Utica, displayed what the Council said demonstrated “the highest levels of leadership abilities and service to others…involving significant investment of time and effort, and providing lasting value to the community.”

For the project, Fitzgerald, a member of Boy Scout Troop 115 in Utica led efforts to help those who have served our country and are currently in need themselves. Under his leadership, many other scouts as well as adults, worked to collect various toiletry items for the Central New York Veterans’ Outreach Center in downtown Utica.

Fitzgerald organized Scouts from his troop along with others to go door-to-door collecting these items as well as setting up donation boxes in churches and other locations throughout the community for continued collections.

All together, Fitzgerald and his colleagues put in more than 260 hours of their time to ward this effort, collecting more than 4,000 items for veterans within our communities.

Fitzgerald was honored at the 2015 Boy Scout Leadership dinner at the Yahnundasis Golf Club in New Hartford his past Fall.