Utah teen Legion's Eagle Scout of the Year
A South Jordan, Utah, student has been named The American Legion’s 2009 Eagle Scout of the Year. Brad P. Jencks, 18, a senior at Bingham High School, earned the award and a college scholarship worth $10,000.The award recognizes Jencks’ practical citizenship at school, Scouting, and his commitment to community service. For his Eagle Scout project, Jencks led an effort to restore the Bingham City Cemetery. With the help of volunteers, he cleared garbage, weeds and sagebrush from the 8-acre site. He also repaired vandalized headstones, replaced and installed others, and photographed and recorded GPS readings for hundreds of headstones, entering the information into a database. As a result, people from all over the world have identified ancestors from 30 countries and 38 states buried there. The Utah State Historical Society now has Jencks’ collected data, and a number of war veterans’ graves have been identified for appropriate honors. Initially expecting to do a 100-hour project, Jencks completed 2,790 hours of work. Jencks is a recipient of the Utah Top High School Volunteer Prudential Spirit of Community Award, the Save Our History National Honors Award from the History Channel, Roots Television Documentary Award, four Presidential Volunteer Gold Service Awards, the U.S. Presidential Volunteer Lifetime Service Award and four National Youth Leadership Outstanding Service Awards from Boy Scouts of America. Jencks will study chemistry and biology at Honors College. After graduation, he plans to attend dental school and become an oral maxillofacial surgeon. The American Legion also awarded $2,500 scholarships to John J. Register of Austin, Minn., John D. Dreyzehner of Abington, Va., and Joe Phillips of Fond du Lac, Wis. The Legion has supported Scouting since its first national convention in 1919. Legion posts sponsor more than 2,700 Scouting units, serving more than 71,500 young people at a cost of more than $1.7 million.