FAIRFIELD SENIOR STUDENT Rob McCully recently completed an Eagle Scout project in which he installed exercise stations along the walking trail at W.L. Moody Reunion Grounds. Fairfield high school senior student Rob McCully receives the highest rank in Boy Scouts of America this Sunday at an Eagle Court of Honor.

McCully, 18, recently completed requirements for the rank by planning and installing exercise stations at the W.L. Moody Reunion Grounds walking trail.

The rank presentation ceremony is at 4 p.m. at First United Methodist Church which sponsors Troop 668.

Although setting up the walking trail exercise stations took only about 50 hours of labor, utilizing other scouts, the senior student started several months ago developing the project.

He conducted an Internet search and found a company from which he could order the five pieces, which consist of a stretching center, pushup bars, pullup bars, parallel bars, and benches for performing situps and crunches on flat and incline benches.

“Ordering the pieces was much more convenient than having to measure and cut all the wood ourselves,” McCully says.

The stations allow walkers and joggers to increase their exercise routines as they make circuits around the track.

Once the 18-year-old envisioned the project, he put together a Powerpoint presentation to sell the idea to the City of Fairfield. The presentation included 3-D modeling of what the track looked like and how the exercise stations would fit into the landscape.

Council members gave McCully the green light and he completed the installation this fall.

The new Eagle Scout was born in Westchester, Penn., but has lived with his family at Richland- Chambers Reservoir in Freestone county for 12 years.

His father, Bob, is a Delta Airlines pilot and his mother, Carol, is a science aide at Fairfield junior high school.

McCully started his scouting career in Cub Scouts, advanced through all the ranks then moved up to Boy Scouts.

“At first I hated it, but as I got older and learned what scouting meant, I started getting more motivated,” he says.

“It is really something I try to get other kids into,” he adds.

As part of the requirements to earning the Eagle rank, scouts must earn 21 separate merit badges showing familiarity or expertise in a variety of areas which range from hiking to aerospace.

McCully reports that the hardest merit badge he earned was in communications, which required him to research the history of the telephone, mail service, radio and other communications media, then show knowledge of their use.

He notes that the most boring merit badge was for citizenship of the world, for which he wrote a letter to a politician in Scotland and received an acknowlegement of the letter.

Easiest merit badge to earn was swimming—-but McCully lives lakeside and the family enjoys water sports.

The swimming badge led to earning lifeguard certification, which in turn led to a summer job as a lifeguard at Buffalo Trails Scout Ranch in far West Texas—-the scout facility is an hour west of Alpine.

Troop 668 went to summer camp at Buffalo Trails several years ago, at which time McCully earned his lifeguard badge.

He notes that the troop members could not decide where to go for summer camp, so they researched several scouting facilities and decided on Buffalo Trails.

“It had a huge variety of badges that you couldn’t earn at other camps,” McCully says.

For example, the camp is located in the bottom of a canyon and offers a climbing merit badge and horseback riding.

McCully worked last summer as a lifeguard at Buffalo Trails and plans to go back again next year.

The 18-year-old says the meaning of scouting, an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others, hit home last summer when a young scout introduced the lifeguard to his parents as his “big brother.”

He also participated in a retirement of the United States flag ceremony that held special meaning.

“I realized what it meant for all the people in my family who fought so that we can have what we have,” McCully says.

At FHS, the senior student plays trombone in the Grand Band from Eagle Land, is trombone section leader, and has made All-Region band for four years. This year he earned a tryout for All- State band next month.

He has been accepted to Baylor University, where he will major in computer hardware engineering and minor in music, and has been awarded a $34,000 scholarship.

“If I can, I’m going for a double major,” he notes.

The student particpates in water activites with his family at Richland- Chambers and also has learned from his father how to fly an airplane, acting as co-pilot on family trips.

McCully points out, though, that although he knows how to fly, he has not earned a pilot’s license.

He also notes that he has been too busy to get a driver’s license, but hopes to fix that soon.

In addition to his parents, McCully’s family consists of sister Andy, 14, and brother Matthew, 12.