Woodbury Teen ‘Hoops It Up’ with Eagle Scout Project

Woodbury Boy Scout Patrick Cusick is likely just weeks away from being named an Eagle Scout after successfully completing quite the construction project.

Cusick, 18, who has been a Woodbury resident for about eight years and is a senior at Great River School in St. Paul, completed an Eagle Scout project that another St. Paul school will hopefully be able to utilize for years to come.

He and a group of volunteers of friends and fellow Scouts constructed a hoop greenhouse that was donated to River’s Edge Academy in St. Paul.

Cusick said he decided to build the greenhouse for his Eagle Scout project after hearing some proposals from teachers.

“Some of them had very specific ideas," he said.

After the idea was set, he spent a solid month planning out the greenhouse, and the work was completed Sept. 16-17, with the help of about a dozen volunteers.

Cusick likely won’t know for a couple of weeks if he’ll be certified as an Eagle Scouts—paperwork needs to be mulled over by a scouting board and his project needs to meet the board’s specifications. But Cusick is hopeful he’ll earn the Boy Scout’s highest ranking.

Cusick’s mother, Kelly, said she is proud of her son for completing the project, and said his involvement with the Scouts over the years has been a positive and rewarding experience.

“For our family, it has been tremendously valuable,” she said. “I cannot overstate my gratitude to the men and women who dedicate a lot of time (to the Boy Scouts).”

Kelly said her son had a little over a year hiatus from the Boy Scouts following 5th grade, but rejoined after his troop invited him to a camping trip in Wisconsin.

“They were like, ‘Hey Pat, come along with us.’ I think they were hoping to persuade him to rejoin. They spent a night in this cave, and when they woke up in the morning, Patrick and another Scout walked over to this fence to watch some goats," she said. "Patrick somehow flipped over the fence and broke his foot.”

Kelly said that might have been the nail in the coffin for anyone thinking of rejoining the Boy Scouts, but it actually had the opposite effect on her son because the troop took such good care of him before he saw a doctor to get his foot treated.

Connections were re-established during that trip, and Cusick has been a part of the Boy Scouts ever since.

“Probably the best thing about being in the Scouting program is it really gives you the chance to try out new things, take responsibility and do something meaningful,” Cusick said. “It’s one of the only programs I can think of that’s like that.”