Brandon Williams of Boy Scout Troop Four was recently awarded the coveted Eagle Scout Badge in a ceremony held at the sanctuary of Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Brandon is a junior at Rome High School.

For his civic project, Brandon designed a unique project, plots for a community vegetable and flower garden that consisted of ten raised fertilized beds with ready access to water. To complete the project, he requested use of a vacant lot that belonged to Westminster Presbyterian Church. He collected much of the needed equipment through local donations.

By the spring of 2012, the beds were in use by members of the local community, Westminster Christian Academy and Westminster Presbyterian Church for its Summer Feeding Program.

The only cost to the users was a nominal annual fee to reimburse for the water used for the beds. Brandon says that the project taught him the importance of organizing a multi-step project well, and he also learned the need for a leader to monitor and supervise the whole project to keep people on task.

Doing a project on this scale plus all the other Eagle requirements is daunting for most Boy Scouts, but Brandon had an additional obstacle.

For nearly two years, he struggled with ulcerative colitis, a condition that required numerous doctor appointments and two surgeries at Children’s at Scottish Rite in Atlanta.

Both surgeries were successful, but required long recuperative periods and the need to catch up with schoolwork.

“I knew that I could trust the doctors. God was with me the whole time,” Brandon said. “I could feel his presence throughout all the treatments.”

Brandon intends to go on to college where he hopes to pursue a field of study that keeps him outdoors.