Honoring his country and benefiting the surrounding community, Diamond Bar High School senior Collin Yong has just recently received the boy scout rank of Eagle Scout, by constructing and donating flag retirement boxes for his final project.

A member of local Troop 737, Yong first participated in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) when he was in the first grade, after his parents signed him up for Cub Scouts. In his senior year of high school, he began looking toward the completion of his journey in BSA by planning his Eagle Scout project, a large-scale service project that is required to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

“When coming up with a project I was looking for something that would be sustainable and would be useful,” Yong said. “In the past, the troop would collect flags here and there, only from people we knew. The boxes would allow community members to retire their flags instead of throwing them away.”

As with any project of such scale, Yong’s process required significant planning and deliberation before it could be worked upon and finalized.

“First, I had to come up with a proposal and get approval from the beneficiary and from my troop, then I had to set up a fundraiser,” Yong said. “After that, I had to plan and get the construction of my flag collection boxes together.”

In total, Yong constructed three flag collection boxes and placed them in three locations: Fire Station 61, Fire Station 120 and Walnut City Hall.

In order to become an Eagle Scout, BSA members must earn at least 21 merit badges, obtainable through demonstrations of various skills. Introduced in 1911, Eagle Scout is the highest rank in the program and has been earned by over two million scouts.

“In anything you do, there will always be challenges. One challenge that I ran into was coordinating all the help that I received,” Yong said. “I definitely had help from my troop, scout master, and family to reach the end goal.”