The Texas Southwest Council, headquartered in San Angelo, has awarded Del Rio Eagle Scout Benjamin Rawald of Troop 280 the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal, Scouting's highest conservation award.
Rawald is the first scout to earn this award in the 109-year history of the Texas Southwest Council, and only 1,100 scouts have achieved this honor since the awards were created in 1914, according to a press release. 5200 Opc Drum
Rawald designed and facilitated four major conservation projects, including multiple countywide plastic-bag cleanups. His coordination with the City of Del Rio’s Recycling Coordinator resulted in an enduring plastic-bag reprocessing program.
He also spearheaded a printer-toner recycling project with the Laughlin Air Force Base Operations Group, resulting in the collection and return of 11,970 toners cartridges, fusers, and drums in coordination with Xerox, Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Epson, and Cannon.
Rawald's third project involved a wetland-reclamation project designed to increase water retention, and improve wildlife conditions in a bioswale, after constructing a two-hundred-foot feeder canal.
Rawald said his fourth effort was a personal favorite, because the Milkweed for Monarchs project benefits the thousands of butterflies that migrate through Val Verde County.
Inspired by a National Geographic article outlining the decline in monarchs due to insufficient milkweed, Rawald researched an unorthodox gardening method to create seed balls that do not require sowing with the help of a Sul Ross University biology professor.
C4010 Opc Drum Rawald then taught youth in two counties how to make and spread over 15,000 seed balls (that’s 150-200 thousand milkweed seeds) over the last three years. Rawald individually completed more than 2,800 hours of conservation service while supervising more than 8,600 hours of service by volunteers since 2016.