Eagle Scout candidates are tasked with completing a comprehensive service project for their communities before qualifying for the prestigious Boy Scouts of America award, and for Matthew Wilson ’26, it was a given that his project would benefit FGR.
“He really loves the school,” his mother, Jennifer Wilson, says. Matthew was happy at his K-8 school, she says, but has blossomed at Father Gabriel Richard. “He just feels like this is his place.”
With his Eagle Scout candidacy approaching, Matthew met with principal Chris Dotson in August 2023 to make the plans for a project that would contribute something valuable to FGR’s facilities. Dotson was happy to accept Matthew’s proposal to create an outdoor Stations of the Cross along the path behind the school building.
The hardest part for sophomore Matthew was all the organizing required. Eagle Scout candidates are responsible for leading all aspects of the project; raising funds, deciding on plans, obtaining materials, and arranging labor. Between August 2023 and his project’s completion in February 2024, Matthew dedicated many hours to the work. He was inspired by his vision for the Stations: “I thought that creating a Stations that the whole school could pray with would be nice, and I thought putting them outside would add to that.” [The school has a set of Stations of the Cross in the chapel, but Matthew’s set is considerably larger, with more space for those praying to spread out and move with each Station.]
This kind of community-minded initiative might be unusual in someone his age, but Matthew has been prepared for it by ten years as a Scout, beginning in Cubs in first grade and bridging to Boy Scouts in fifth grade. Matthew and his parents, Jennifer and Jason, are very involved in Troop 374, which is chartered with the Knights of Columbus in Plymouth. Jennifer serves as troop treasurer, and Jason is the charter organization representative, while Matthew himself is the troop scribe, keeping track of important information and helping other Scouts remember and complete their various tasks.
Even with this experience, Matthew found it a challenge to get his Eagle project rolling. Fundraising was a little difficult and discouraging at first, until a couple generous donors came through to get them over the $1475 finish line. One of them was the Knights of Columbus, who wanted to support the project due to its distinct Catholic nature. The Knights’ support meant a lot to the family, Matthew’s parents say.
Matthew used the money raised to purchase top-quality materials. Each station features a hand-crafted shadow box with a wood-burned number and a beautiful plate with the picture of the state. As the plates will likely fade over time, they are removable and can be replaced, but right now they are bright and vibrant. As the final decision-maker on all aspects of the project, Matthew chose the Emmerich stations, named after Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, a German nun, mystic, and author of the meditation The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Each plate includes the name of the station along with the beautiful images that are reproductions of paintings by an unknown artist, done in the German style in the late 19th century.
While the plates will eventually need replacing, the shadow boxes are made to last “hopefully forever,” Jason Wilson says, and Matthew chose cedar wood for that purpose. Cedar is naturally weather-resistant, and the boxes were carefully coated in multiple coats of polyurethane by the Scouts themselves. It was a labor of love and a team effort: twenty-plus Scouts and family members from Matthew’s troop helped with the process, for a total of 107 donated man-hours of work.
The fourteen reinforced posts line the northeast side of the paved trail that wraps behind FGR, facing the back of the school. The troop managed to get them into the ground before it froze, on what Matthew’s parents describe as a “very rainy” December 3, 2023. It then took a couple months to prepare all the components and assemble the shadow boxes, and Matthew and his team installed them on February 4, 2024.
“The goal was to get them in before Lent,” Matthew says, and they made it with ten days to spare. On a chilly but sunny Ash Wednesday, Matthew and his parents got to experience what they all agreed was the most rewarding part of the project and its real culmination: the Stations being used for their intended purpose.
After all-school Ash Wednesday Mass, chaplain Father John Vinton, assisted by altar servers David Levine ‘26 and Tommy Kratochwill ’26 (need the name, assuming we want to include the servers’ names), blessed the newly installed stations. He then inaugurated the stations by leading a group – including Matthew, Jennifer, Jason, and about 40 staff and students – in praying the Stations of the Cross. It was a cold day, but Matthew and his parents admit they barely noticed the weather because they were so happy to see the Stations being used in prayer. “It was a blessing to see how many students came out,” Jennifer says.
Matthew isn’t quite an Eagle Scout yet. He still has paperwork to complete, and his Court of Honor likely won’t take place until fall. But as far as FGR is concerned, we’ve already received the full benefit of Matthew’s dedication to his work as a Scout. The group praying the Stations behind the school on Ash Wednesday gave an auspicious beginning to both Lent 2024 and the stations tenure themselves, but the sacramentals are just getting started serving the school. Through many Lents to come, their durable craftsmanship will grace FGR’s back path and give the community a place to grow closer to Christ while commemorating his Passion and death. Matthew will graduate in 2026, but his beautiful, fitting gift will far outlast his time here.