The path in life for Kaitlyn Schilling is no ordinary journey. As she achieved the highest rank in scouting, this young lady also has transformed a system for honoring American flags across this base in the process.
She moved here as part of a military family, leaving her old school as well as the Scouts BSA (formerly called the Boy Scouts of America) troop she and her older sister Kyla enjoyed while living in Michigan. They soon found Troop 55 in Crosswicks near her on-base home, and Kaitlyn became a scout again.
“Scouting was something that I was really interested in, especially because of when I grew up mainly in Hawaii and spent a lot of time outside,” Kaitlyn explained.
Eagle Scout remains the ultimate rank in Scouting, and Kaitlyn began to set her sights on this goal, but there’s an additional challenge to achieve it – a Scout must conceive of and complete a special project with a community purpose.
In her quest to find a project, she explored the base for ideas, noticing something mysterious at the Army Reserve’s 99th Readiness Division headquarters building – in the lobby was an old wooden box sitting there quietly, all by its lonesome.
Kaitlyn found out it was a “Flag Retirement Collection Box” placed by a local Scout troop years earlier. Unfortunately, that troop dissolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon the first closer look inside the old box, it was discovered that it still had old flags in it as there hadn’t been anyone maintaining it.
Her Eagle Scout project became to revive this concept and expand it further to serve the entire base community.
“People drop off their old flags that need to be retired properly, and then we take them,” said Kaitlyn. Unserviceable American flags are dropped into the slot at the top of the box, then delivered to their proper disposal.
After refurbishing this box, Kaitlyn placed newly built boxes at additional base facilities including the 99th’s Area Maintenance Support Activity 21 and the Army Reserve’s 78th Training Division headquarters, strategically expanding into a growing network of six boxes.
“Just realizing how many people have flags that need to be retired, I didn’t even know the boxes were a thing until I was looking around for my Eagle project, she said, “So, being able to make more boxes to make it more available and accessible was really interesting.”
Kaitlyn described how her appreciation for the American flag has grown since first watching a flag retirement ceremony.
“It was very interesting in how much thought was going into the whole process of burning it and how much effort they would put into teaching the kids how to properly do it and how to be respectful doing it,” she said. “I think it’s something that more people should be aware of.”
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in Scouts BSA. Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank.
“I got some advice from my sister Kyla, who is also an Eagle Scout. I had a lot of help from my family; they came to our sessions when we built the new boxes,” Kaitlyn said.
Kaitlyn had the honor of becoming the first female to achieve Eagle Scout for Troop 55.
“I felt pretty good about doing the project because it also took a lot to get to the point of needing an Eagle project,” she explained, “I think it was an added bonus being the first woman in my troop to complete an Eagle project and even attempt to start one.”
All of this while maintaining her studies as a high-school honor student, having recently been admitted to Rutgers University for next year.
“I liked being able to have the knowledge that not many people do have,” Kaitlyn said of Scouting. “It also just feels like something that’s very important to know. I feel like more people should kind of get that knowledge.”
