MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- One local teen is hoping to achieve what Neil Armstrong and Steven Spielberg have accomplished, the title of Eagle Scout, by giving back to Camp Pendleton.
Fourteen-year-old Cameron R. Keith is building the base’s first handicap accessible duck hunting blind with help from the local community and his fellow Scouts to benefit those injured in combat.
“Most disabled former duck hunters believe they will never be able to hunt again,” said Michael J. Tucker, wildlife technician, Game Warden Office, Camp Pendleton. “But after Cameron installs this duck blind they will have a first class opportunity to hunt.”
Traditional duck blinds are small portable huts near a body of water with an opening to fire from. Keith is making the structure larger and more permanent by using cement for portions of the foundation and ramp.
The current Life Scout plans to have the blind in place near Lake O’Neill by Oct. 3, expecting to invest more than 150 hours into the project before the Oct. 24 duck season opening.
“When I was a child, my father and I helped my uncle with his Eagle project,” said Keith with Boy Scout Troop 789, Camp Pendleton. “Ever since then I have wanted to be a Boy Scout and to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.”
Keith began drafting the volunteer project in May after approaching Camp Pendleton’s Game Warden Office for ideas.
“Earlier in the year I read an article about a similar facility installed at one of the East Coast installations and thought that was something we might be able to do,” said Tucker.
After going door to door for months, Keith received all the lumber and monetary donations needed to complete the project from local businesses and the community.
“I think you would be shocked at everything Cameron has had to put together,” said Lt. Col. Kent J. Keith, Cameron’s father and Staff Judge Advocate for Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. “Helping Cameron with the labor is easy, but his willingness to put on his Boy Scout uniform and approach strangers for donation’s showed a lot of initiative.”
Work on the project continues as Keith and members of his troop painted and assembled the facility at Pendleton’s Game Warden Office, Aug. 29.
“This project will allow those in a wheelchair to become more independent,” said Tucker. “Wheelchair bound duck hunters who never thought they would hunt again will now have the ability to get back out there.”
After the project is finished Keith will have the opportunity to submit his finished project to the Eagle Scout Board of Review.
“I look up to my older brother,” said Ryan J. Keith, Cameron’s younger brother and fellow Scout. “It’s amazing how far we have come, and if anyone deserves Eagle its Cameron.”