Whiz Kid of the Week: David Estep

Whiz Kid’s Name: David Estep, age 18

Whiz Kid’s School: Formerly Fitch High School, now a freshman at the University of Connecticut

Whiz Kid’s Accomplishments: Estep completed his ambitious Eagle Scout Project last year at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Groton. The project required him to draw up plans for a project that would benefit the community, present the plans in detail to a group of Eagle Scout advisers, raise money for the project and complete it before his eighteenth birthday.

Estep decided to expand the church’s memorial garden, which was originally built by his older brother for his own Eagle Scout Project.

“It was a long overlooked portion in the back, and not very many people knew about it,” he says.

The goal of Estep’s project was to make the garden more accessible to the church community by building a pathway to it, continuing to beautify the surrounding area, and drawing attention to the garden by advertising it to the congregation.

“It’s supposed to be a place of togetherness and communal brotherhood,” Estep says. “A place for the congregation to congregate.”

The project took months to complete and many hours of work, both on the garden and administrative duties such as organizing a spaghetti luncheon to raise money for materials.

“It’s a vast undertaking. Some people don’t give it enough time as it needs and they end up falling behind,” Estep says.

Estep broke ground on the expansion last November, and finished several weeks later with the help of about 13 other troop members.

“All in all, we probably spent about 48 hours spread out over several weekend mornings working on the pathway and planting flowers in the garden,” he says.

“It’s definitely an improvement over what it looked like before, but I guess you always have those moments where you can look back and say ‘well maybe we should’ve done this instead,’ but in the moment your decision was the best one you could make,” he says.

Key to his success: “My dad and my scoutmaster helped and supported me throughout the entire project, but my mom was really the one who was there every day pushing me and encouraging me to finish,” Estep says.

Best advice: “During the project I learned that how the people you are working with are going to feel on any given day is extremely variable, and as a leader you have to make so many decisions based upon how to solve problems that people are having,” says Estep.

“I also learned that you have to be willing to get down on the ground and lay the bricks with your own hands rather than delegating it out sometimes.”

Eagle Scout projects are designed to test the leadership skills of those who decide to undertake them.

“Finishing this project was a fitting apex to what was 13 years of scouting,” says Estep.

Know a great kid who made Eagle Scout, or helped your local soccer team take the championship?

Submit your nomination in our comment box below or e-mail the information to deborah.straszheim@patch.com. Be sure to include all of the following information:

●      Nominator's Name

●      Nominator's e-mail

●      Whiz Kid's Name

●      Whiz Kid's Age

●      Whiz Kid's School

●      Whiz Kid's Accomplishment

●      Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness (what made him/her successful?)

 If your nominee is selected, we'll contact you and assign a photographer to take a photo. For questions, e-mail deborah.straszheim@patch.com