Keith Draper, 17, and his sister Sarah, 16, are two Caribou natives who have both earned the highest honors throughout the Scouting community. Keith earned his Eagle Scout Badge on Sept. 8, 2013, while Sarah received her Gold Award — the Girl Scouts’ equivalent to an Eagle Badge — along with eight other girls, at an award ceremony in Augusta, on April 12 of this year.
The two Scouts are the children of Mark and Claudette Draper. Both of them have dedicated a great deal of time and effort over the years, as they reached the ultimate milestone of an Eagle Badge and a Gold Award. The Gold Award represents the organization’s highest achievement and recognizes girls in grades 9 through 12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through sustainable and measurable “Take Action” projects, while the Eagle badge is a similar achievement for Boy Scouts, with both having to complete a community service-type project in order to qualify for the award.
Through the Girl Scouts’ action projects, each Scout is tasked with performing their own individual project, much like the Boy Scouts and their required Eagle Scout project. Sarah decided to dedicate her efforts to the Bread of Life soup kitchen in Caribou. She built three garden boxes outside the soup kitchen, affording them a new space to grow their own produce. Sarah also supplied the soup kitchen with a number of pot plants which the soup kitchen can use to continue their plantings during the winter.
“I did receive help from my dad. He ran the saw because I wasn’t really comfortable using it,” said Sarah. “’It took us about three hours over the course of two days to build the boxes and now, the soup kitchen can grow their own fresh produce all year round.”
Sarah explained that earning the Gold Award was a very special achievement for her. She has been involved with Scouting for over 10 years now, she added.
“It was really special,” said Sarah. “It’s the highest achievement I could receive as a Girl Scout, so it was pretty important to me.”
Keith is currently a member of Troop 184 in Caribou. He became a Scout when he was in first grade. His father got him interested in Scouting. Keith found earning his cycling badge to be the most challenging out of the 46 he has earned.
A total of 21 badges must be earned in order to become an Eagle Scout. There are 10 that are mandatory, including first aid, citizenship and camping badges, and the remainder are at the Scout’s discretion.
“I rode in Ride Aroostook twice,” Draper said. “That was really hard. You have to do a lot for that badge.”
No badge was more important to Draper than that of his Eagle Scout. To earn the prestigious badge, Keith devoted 110 hours to a project at the Caribou Historical Society. He spearheaded the project of building a nature trail and picnic area at the Historical Society site.
“They have some nature trails at the Historical Society, so we helped to resurface some of those trails,” said Keith. “We made trail signs and cleared out some downed trees too.”
When asked how much time and effort were put in to the project, Keith explained that including all the work and planning the project took about two months.
“Part of the requirement for the project is assembling your own crew to help work on it with you,” Keith said. “One of the hardest parts of the project was finding friends and family to help.”
Earning the Eagle Scout badge was important to Keith, as he explained that it would have been quite unsatisfying to spend 10 years in the Scouts without finishing with an Eagle badge.
“It was important for me,” said Keith. “After 10 years, I really wanted to complete the process and follow through all the way to the end. That was always the goal.”
As a recent graduate of Caribou High School, Draper plans to attend the University of Maine at Fort Kent in the fall, while Sarah will soon be entering her junior year at Caribou High School.
