Queen Creek teen’s Eagle Scout project benefits veterans

For the past several years, San Tan Memorial Gardens at Schnepf Farms has used a temporary flagpole made of PVC piping during ceremonies honoring fallen service members and veterans.

“We saw a need and we actually got a lot of feedback during our events from veterans and their families that it would be nice to have a permanent flagpole,” said San Tan Memorial Gardens General Manager Dillon Benavides. “I sent this out to the scouts a couple months ago, and Jett responded pretty quickly and he organized getting a flagpole ordered and raised funds for it and did all the legwork to get it out here and get it installed.”

“Jett” is 15-year-old Queen Creek resident Jett Courtright, who had sought a community project to earn his Eagle Scout rank.

Thanks to Courtright, San Tan Memorial Gardens will have its first permanent flagpole in place when it holds a special service on Veterans Day.

Courtright, a Higley High School 10th-grader, had looked at numerous ventures before settling on the flagpole project.

“I kept my options open, and I saw that American Legion had a project which was at the San Tan Memorial Gardens and they wanted a flagpole installed,” Courtright said. “That piqued my interest.”

Initially, Benavides expected the Boy Scout troop sponsored by the Duane Ellsworth American Legion Post 129, Troop 738 of Queen Creek, to volunteer for the project. But Courtright of Troop 10 from Mesa stepped up first. But he made sure to invite members of Troop 738 to help, along with his fellow Air Force JROTC students from Higley.

“It was cool to see that Troop 738 was out there as well,” Benavides said.

The flagpole wasn’t the only task Courtright accomplished at San Tan Memorial Gardens. Over the two weekends of the main flagpole project, Courtright and his crew of volunteers also cleared out brush and leaves surrounding a section of graves.

“At least like 25 to 30 volunteers who came to my project. I only need about five of them working at the flagpole, so I needed something else for the rest of the volunteers to do,” Courtright said. “I talked to Dillon about it and he said they had a lot of brush that they would like to be cleaned up on the perimeter because people come in to visit their loved and the graves are right there next to the fence with all the brush.”

Courtright oversaw as his team of volunteers filled 112 extra-large black garbage bags with brush and leaves.

Work on the flagpole had to be a bit more precise.

“It went right next to the mausoleum, and the mausoleum is about 14.5 feet tall. I had to measure how tall the flagpole needed to be, and I had to get the measurements of the flags and make sure they’re not hitting the building,” Courtrigh said. “I wanted the flagpole to be taller than the mausoleum, so and I had to get blueprints of the mausoleum, and I had to get exact measurements.”

On the first day, Courtright’s team dug a 3.5-foot-deep hole, 24 inches in diameter. The next day, the volunteers poured concrete into the hole, and the flagpole was installed soon after.

“I did make sure that I had a solar light on the pole, so the flags are able to stay up at night and the solar light will be shining down on the flags,” Courtright said.

A few days after the flagpole was installed, Courtright and his father, Cody Courtright, joined Benavides in raising American and prisoner of war/missing in action flags.

And as it turns out, Courtright wasn’t the only Eagle Scout there.

Benavides became an Eagle Scout around 2010, and Courtright’s father earned his Eagle Scout rank in 1995. Cody Courtright is thrilled his son is following in his footsteps.

“I always thought that maybe I was the only one to make Eagle, and so, he’s carrying on that tradition which I hope he carries on with his kids later on in life,” Cody Courtright said. “It’s really cool because now he’s going to be part of the brotherhood.”

His mother, Cherise Courtright, admitted her son needed a little bit of pushing to get over the finish line.

“He’s been trying to figure out a project for about a year. It’s been stressful to say the least,” she said. “We’ve been on him like, ‘Come on, you got to do this, that, whatnot.’ We’re proud of him for finally getting it done.”

Benavides was also impressed by Courtright and his accomplishments.

“He’s a quiet kid and you can tell he’s learning to come out of his shell,” Benavides said. “It was really neat over the course of a few months to actually see him in a leadership position.”

During the Veterans Day event at San Tan Memorial Gardens, Courtright and his volunteers, including the scouts from Troop 738, will be recognized by local officials.

“It feels really good to see that I’m able to help my own community. I’m able to show leadership and learn from this experience,” Courtright said. “I went to the Memorial Day service that they had, and they were using a PVC pipe with an American flag um strapped to it. I thought they could do better than that.

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.