Eagle Scout project honors veterans buried in Crandon Lakeside Cemetery

An Eagle Service Project, the culmination of a Scout’s commitment to an intensive advancement program, must demonstrate leadership of others while benefitting the scout’s community, school or another non-profit organization.  It is estimated that Eagle Projects contribute approximately 3 million hours of community service every year.

Local veteran’s-service organizations have loyally marked the graves of servicemen at Lakeside for many years but the lists they use to locate the graves are incomplete, inaccurate and confusing.  With the guidance of local UW-Madison Division of Extension Positive Youth Development Educator and Historical Society president, Michelle Gobert, Bradley reviewed those outdated materials and lead family members and his fellow Scouts from Crandon Troop 649 in confirming and correcting information on-site.  He then developed an online database that includes the block and lot location of each veteran.

The main point of Bradley’s presentation was that his project is not a finished product, rather it provides a base for more information and corrections to the existing list.  “There are actually people that are on the list who don’t belong there and a LOT who should be on the list but are not”, he said.  The Society is hoping to schedule some organized efforts to continue Bradley’s work.  In the meantime, we encourage the public to visit the site.  Visitors can search for friends and family members and will find a form on which they can provide additions and corrections.

Searching the database is easy. The database is online and veterans are listed by lot number but can be easily searched by last name.  While the primary goal of the list is to provide a more accurate and complete tool for locating graves, the database has future potential to store biographies, obituaries and other documents pertaining these brave men and women.  The database also includes a suggestion form for capturing information that may be missing from the database. Please direct any questions about the project and/or the database to Michelle at 715-478-7797 or forestctyhistory@gmail.com

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