Senior Mike Maruk just earned the title of Eagle Scout. The Echo sat down with him to ask him some questions about the process.

Echo: How did you become and Eagle Scout?

Maruk: Well, if you start from the beginning, I joined Scouts in first grade. And kinda stuck with it ever since. I did it since I lived in New York and then I moved over here and I found a new troop in Pittsfield. I strayed doing stuff with them, you know camping and other fun stuff. But to become an Eagle Scout the thing I needed to do was my project, like mine for example was, I poured concrete into the Laston Field dugouts. They were originally rock and dirt and all that, so I kind of cleaned everything up and made it really nice. Community service, basically.

E: What sort of benefits does your project bring to your community?

M: Many of the people from Lanesborough really like that its solid ground now in the dugout. The other thing with the concrete is that I also put in stone dust in the batters cage so they don’t scrape their cleats. I haven’t asked any of the players but they said it looked pretty nice when I was working on it. I guess they’ll enjoy it this year.

E: How long did your project take?

M: It took two weekends, actually. It was like a week spread apart. Not too long.

E: What are your responsibilities for the Troop now as an Eagle Scout?

M: As of the moment, not a lot. But prior to that, I had a lot of previous positions where I was like the Assistant to the main leader of the troop. I forget the name but I think it was ASPL, for Assistant Senior Patrol Leader.

E: What sort of stuff did you organize in that position?

M: In that, we’d go to meetings every first Sunday of the month and we’d talk about what we were going to plan out that month for Scouts: all the fun games we’d do and the campouts we’d do and all that.

E: What were some of your favorite games?

M: There’s a whole lot. There’s one where you just spin a rope around and jump over it. That’s the one that we’d be playing mostly. There’s also one called Hide the Pickle or something where you hide a rag in part of the room where nobody can see it and then you have to find it. And then there’s another one where a person sits on a chair in the middle of the room and a person has to sneak under the chair and grab like keys or something from a tin bucket.

E: Were you proud of your role?

M: Yeah. I mean, I still enjoy Scouts. There’s not a part of it that I would regret ever.

E: What would you say to other Scouts who want to become Eagle Scouts?

M; You definitely want to start early. Think of a project that’s, you know, easy for you and benefits your community or someone’s community. There’s tons of paperwork you have to fill out, so again, start early. Try to be organized – that’s key.