14-year-old becomes Eagle Scout after launching veteran gravesite database
GUTHRIE, Okla. (KFOR) -- Around 1,500 veterans are buried in the Guthrie city cemetery.
Now, a 14-year-old is now considered an Eagle Scout after mapping out where every single one of their headstones is located, so their loved ones can always find them.
"If every cemetery had this, we could honor every veteran," said Andrew Willoughby.
While Willoughby plays trumpet in band or is on the field playing soccer, he's been working to become an Eagle Scout.
"Andrew is 14, which is extremely young for Eagle Scouts. Most of them are 17, 18 years old," said his mother, Shellie Willoughby.
Every Memorial Day, his troop honors veterans at the local cemetery. Four years ago, something happened that bothered Andrew.
"A person came up to me, asked me for a flag because we missed someone," said Andrew.
"And he's like, 'We can't have this. We can't be missing people because they've sacrificed so much for our country,'" said Shellie.
"So, I decided to make a map when I become a Boy Scout," said Willoughby.
Willoughby held on to that dream for four years and made it his Eagle Scout project.
"This one just struck me as something that's a little different. Might take a little more work to pull it off than what the typical one does," said his father, Richard, who also serves as the Assistant Scout Master for Troop #850. "He sets his goals, unlike most kids. He might gripe while he's doing it, but he'll he'll keep plugging at it till he gets there."
His mother, Shellie, who is a professional map maker for the city, helped with the project. She said the software company Esri also awarded her son a scholarship and a special license to make the website.
"The project was to map out the cemetery and use Guthrie's database to use the satellite information to set out the whole area and map it," said Willoughby.
It took two months to make the website.
After presenting the project to several organizations, Willoughby gathered enough volunteers to help map out the cemetery.
"It makes it so much simpler and you can find someone easier," said Willoughby.
There are 11,000 people buried in the cemetery. It is likely someone was missed. Thankfully, Willoughby thought of that and added a feature for anyone to update data to the website.
Willoughby's father said his son passed his board of review. Willoughby is now recognized as an Eagle Scout. He is just waiting on his paperwork and badge number. His father said their troop, #850 is the oldest active troop in the state, while his son is the youngest Eagle Scout in the past 30-40 years in the troop.
You can find "Operation Atlas" here.