Thomas Black '23 On the Road to Eagle

By Elizabeth Holland, Senior Communications Intern

The Notre Dame Community is proud to spotlight Thomas Black '23, who is on the way to becoming an Eagle Scout. The rank of an Eagle Scout is the highest rank achievable for the Boys Scouts of America. 

Thomas has been a part of Boy Scouts of America (BSA) with Troop 91 based in Hamilton, New Jersey since 2016. 

The road to becoming an Eagle Scout is a tremendous undertaking with earning many merit badges while culminating in a final community service project. Thomas started working on his project this past fall, creating a sign to provide information related to the underappreciated historical site from the Revolutionary War on Notre Dame property. Specifically, a battle that took place during the "10 Days That Saved the War." Thomas created this visual aid to highlight the important details of the event while also improving the surroundings of the area to make it an appealing, historical setting for those to gain education on and visit. 

Thomas was first introduced to the site through an outing his sophomore US History 1 class took with a retired teacher, Mr. John McQuarrie. There had been no land marker to distinguish that this battle took place on the school grounds. At the same time as his class trip, Thomas was looking for an Eagle Scout project. Mr. McQuarrie and Thomas together worked diligently on this opportunity to highlight the great history our ND property carries. Thomas built this sign from scratch, with help from volunteers. It took him months to research the history of the battle. Mr. McQuarrie introduced Thomas to many authors of books he used to research to further the discussion of the site and complete the whole report.

The Notre Dame Community is proud of Thomas' accomplishments and was excited about the unveiling of the new landmark sign. Congratulations, Thomas on your journey to becoming an Eagle Scout.