The goal of an Eagle Scout project is to make a lasting impact on the local community. BSA Scout Kevin Morrow’s project made an impact beyond U.S. borders.
A parishioner of St. John Neumann Church in Reston and a member of Boy Scout Troop 124, Morrow created a set of 14 Stations of the Cross to send to his home church’s sister parish Niño Jesús Church in Manta, Ecuador. Morrow also added a personal touch to his project — he delivered the stations in person.
Since Morrow was a young child, his family has supported St. John Neumann’s social justice initiative and the parish twinning program with Niño Jesús. When the program began in 2006, the St. John Neumann staff initially used fundraisers such as car washes and raffles to support the Ecuadorian parish. Now, St. John Neumann supports three of the 23 Niño Jesús chapels and funds the Niño Jesús Scholarship to provide financial support to students in Manta. With children about to go off to college, the Morrow family made a trip to visit the parish last month.
Months before the project, while talking about the new Amor Divino chapel for Niño Jesús with parish Hispanic Coordinator Celia Sandoval, Morrow began to think of Eagle projects that he could deliver on his family’s trip. After coordination between Sandoval and Father Roque Bisognin, pastor of Niño Jesús, they decided on a simple set of stations: 14 crosses with the station number burned into the center. With 69 volunteers, including 12 fellow scouts, Morrow ultimately accumulated more than 309 volunteer hours for his project.
During the construction phase, Morrow and several scouts crafted the crosses over the course of several weekends in a troop leader’s woodshop. Morrow also created stations booklets and asked 14 ministries at St. John Neumann to write a reflection for each station. To translate the English reflections into Spanish, Morrow’s project coach Jay Edison contributed more than 50 hours to the project, helping Morrow create English, Spanish and bilingual versions of the booklets.
Edison said that Morrow spent much time reflecting and discerning the route his project would take. While the project fostered community both in the U.S. and in Ecuador, Edison said, “Ultimately, it’s the Scout’s journey, personal development and maturation along the way that matter.”
Oblate Father Joseph T. Brennan, pastor of the Reston parish, blessed the crosses before they were delivered. On the trip to Niño Jesús, the Morrows invited several parishioners and coordinators, including former parishioners Patricia Holley and Deacon Dennis Holley, who initially selected Niño Jesús for the parish twinning program. Sandoval and Flor Graves, the original translator between the two parishes, both served as translators on the trip.
On Good Friday, parishioners of St. John Neumann joined Niño Jesús parishioners in a living Stations of the Cross procession. Morrow asked for each station to be carried into the church by a Niño Jesús parishioner, according to Patricia Holley. “He selected people of all ages, and it became so real to all of them that he shared this experience with each of them.”
During the installation, 15 youths from the parish helped Morrow hang the crosses in the Amor Divino chapel. “When someone was introducing my project, afterward a bunch of kids came up to me and were telling me that they were actually scouts in the Ecuadorian program. That was a great connection I wasn’t expecting to make,” Morrow said.
Not only did Morrow’s project help to strengthen the relationship between the two parishes, Father Brennan reflected, but “it also brought together different ministries in the parish to help prepare the crosses and to write the reflections for the different stations.”
Morrow left one cross at St. John Neumann to represent the connection between the two parishes. St. John Neumann Director of Outreach Jo-Ann Duggan said that in the future, the Reston parish will use portions of Morrow’s project during stations.
“Not only will these Stations of the Cross be prayed by the people at Niño Jesús, but they will also be used during Lent when we pray the stations on Fridays at St. John Neumann,” Duggan said. “It may be possible that we will be praying the stations in Reston at the same time they are being prayed by our friends in Manta.”
Morrow thought of his project as simple, “but the fact that it meant so much to them that I had done this, that moment was helpful to me understanding how many people I touched in some way.”
