PORT ST. LUCIE \u2013 The City Council here lauded a 15-year-old Eagle Scout candidate for her submariner presentation she\u2019s designing and planning to place in a city park at the southeast corner of Crosstown Parkway and Floresta Boulevard as a tribute to her late grandfather who served in the U.S. Navy as a submariner.<\/p>\n
Parks & Recreation Director Brad Keen kicked off the presentation that evening during the Sept. 28 Council meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is indeed my pleasure to stand before you and introduce a young lady who is actively seeking to earn the highest award that Scouting offers,\u201d he said. \u201cAstronauts, presidents and CEOs across the country have also earned this very prestigious award. For many, many years, it\u2019s been a personal pleasure of mine to be able to work with local Eagle Scout candidates and help bring their Eagle Award to reality. Tonight is my distinct pleasure to introduce a local Eagle Scout candidate, Miss Erika Wilson.<\/p>\n
Wilson, a member of Troop 4402, began her presentation with a brief description of herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a part of Scouting for seven years,\u201d she said. \u201cI joined as a Bear in Cub Scouts and then joined my troop in 2022. Currently, I\u2019m the quartermaster and a life scout in my troop. I\u2019m 15 years old and was born at the hospital in Stuart and raised in Port St. Lucie. My hobbies consist of cars, art, camping and shooting. I attend Somerset College Preparatory Academy and I\u2019m a sophomore in high school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson then turned her attention to her Eagle Scout project she\u2019s titled The Silent Memorial.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy project is on the USS Nautilus,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt is a memorial plaque containing information about the ship\u2019s accomplishments, the history behind its production, its first captain and mission as a naval submarine. My why for my project on the Nautilus is because my grandfather had passed away in May of 2026. He was in the navy for 20 years and worked on four different submarines.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the cheers and applause died down in the Chambers, Keen added a final tidbit of information.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiss Wilson is proposing to place her project at our city park that is the U.S. Submarine Veterans Park,\u201d he told the Council. \u201cIt\u2019s an appropriate place, it\u2019s an appropriate project and Parks & Recreation supports it fully.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Shannon Martin was the first Council member to comment afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing what you\u2019re planning to do,\u201d she said. \u201cYou should be very proud. I\u2019m very sorry you lost your grandfather, but what an amazing tribute it is to him and to your entire family. I think it\u2019s going to be wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilman Anthony Bonna acknowledged that Erika had made an impression upon him in a prior meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the opportunity to serve on the Eagle Board locally for a little while [and] interviewed a lot of potential Eagle Scouts,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I first got in touch with Ms. Wilson, I was very impressed. A lot of these projects start out with the parents really laying down the groundwork and asking most of the questions. Erika was very hands-on and knows what she\u2019s doing with this project. I know you\u2019re going to do great on this. Thank you to all of the adults who are helping you along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
For her part, Vice-Mayor Jolien Caraballo lives near the park in question and told Wilson she walks its pathway regularly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited,\u201d she said. \u201cI can tell you that was the intent of that park from the people that wanted to dedicate it. When the submariners came to the Council about it, they really wanted a place to call their own. With the fact that you\u2019re adding onto that for them, I can only imagine their excitement. You\u2019re very impressive and I think you\u2019re going to knock it out of the park.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan spoke of the special place the U.S. Submarine Veterans Park has in her heart because her own father was a submariner.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad was a retired Navy submariner,\u201d she said. \u201cWe all know they were instrumental in getting that area for the U.S. Submarine vets. So, congratulations and what a great honor. It\u2019ll go on forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilman David Pickett touted Wilson\u2019s decision to place her Eagle Project in one of the city\u2019s memorial parks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really nice that you\u2019re doing this project, especially putting it into a memorial park,\u201d he said. \u201cTo have something done here locally by our youth is very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilman Pickett closed out the presentation with a question for Erika.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many badges do you have?\u201d he asked of the Scouting badges peppering her uniform.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe 36 or 38,\u201d she answered.<\/p>\n
Once again, the Chambers thundered with applause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2013 The City Council here lauded a 15-year-old Eagle Scout candidate for her submariner presentation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-425829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-st_lucie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}