Jaxon Stout Eagle Scout Project with Palatine Fire Prevention

For the past six months, Jaxon Stout from Boy Scout Troop 209 of Palatine has been working with the Palatine Fire Prevention Department for his Boy Scout Eagle Project. In an effort to make homes safe with updated smoke detectors for senior citizens and disabled, Jaxon, age 15, has piloted a program to update up to two detectors in each home. Palatine Fire Marshal Rick Marek and Palatine Deputy Fire Chief Patrick Gratzianna assigned two areas of Palatine to begin the process of finding Village residents that would like to participate in the project. Stout wrote and printed a flyer to send to the Winston Park and Downtown areas of Palatine. With the help of 25 volunteers, the flyers were folded and bulk-mailed to over thirty-four hundred residents. There was a tremendous response with over seventy Palatine residents signing up for the service. The Fire Prevention Division was contacted by the residents and Jaxon set up appointments for several days to do the installations. Under Stout's leadership, he trained 14 Boy Scouts and 5 adults to participate with putting in the new detectors. First Alert donated 150 smoke with carbon monoxide detectors, which allowed Jaxon to do the service. Armed with tools the scouts removed and replaced many outdated detectors, some homes were without any devices. Jaxon Stout completed his portion of the program in early June and the Fire Prevention Department will restart the installations in the fall.

Jaxon is a student at Fremd High School and will be entering his junior year next school year.

Troop 209 is located in Palatine, IL and has weekly meetings at the First United Methodist Church on Plum Grove Road. They are sponsored by the FUMC Men's Club. They have 120 scouts and more than 40 adult volunteers who are actively involved. Troop 209 is part of Signal Hill District, in the Northwest Suburban Council.