Eagle Scout project salutes military branches
Russell Albin at the Welcome Park war memorial project he completed for his Eagle Scout badge.
A Columbia Falls Boy Scout has created an attractive war memorial display at the Columbia Falls Welcome Park near Super 1 Foods.
Russell Albin, 18, completed the project with help from fellow scouts and local businesses that recognizes the five main branches of the military — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.
Albin said it was a challenging project because they did most of the work in the winter, including forming and pouring the concrete pillars. Local American Legion posts provided the large medallions for the project and SmartLam provided a bench at the park.
Albin said that all told, he spent about 60 hours on the project. Albin is currently the assistant manager at the city pool and later this year he hopes to get a job with Burlington Northern Santa Fe. He graduated from Columbia Falls a few weeks ago. He already has welding certifications he received from the high school’s running start program, which gives high school students the opportunity to get college credits. He said in the long term, he’s like to work on track maintenance or as a diesel mechanic for the railroad.
His advice for Eagle Scouts working on their final projects is simple.
“Don’t procrastinate,” he said. “Get it done.”
He said he finished the memorial project just three weeks before his 18th birthday, which is the cutoff for Eagle Scouts.