Smyth on track to being first female NW Georgia Eagle Scout
Growing up, all Carolyn Smyth wanted to do was be in the Boy Scouts. Now, at 18 and ready to graduate high school, Carolyn is on track to earning the highest achievement award the organization bestows.
Her mother, Gola Burton, was a scout leader for her son’s troop and Carolyn was her helper the whole way. While Carolyn did everything the boys were doing in scouts, she wasn’t recognized for her work and didn’t receive any badges.
However, this didn’t deter her in the slightest.
“She was there at every meeting, helping with dens and corralling kids,” Burton said. “And she made me promise that when she got old enough, we would start a Venturing crew, which we did, so she could get recognized for scouting.”
Then, on Feb. 1, 2019, the Boy Scouts of America announced they would finally allow girls to join troops. Immediately, Carolyn and her mother started Troop 113G, the first all-girls troop in the area, and began recruiting members.
Fast forward to 2020 and 2021, Carolyn began looking at the kind of Eagle Scout projects she wanted to do. She initially thought of doing a mural, but realized she might not have the time for it.
While benches are a common project for Eagle Scouts, Carolyn felt she could do something different. With the help of her stepdad, Randy Williams, and her father, Robert Smyth, she made concrete benches with mosaic tops to be installed on local trails.
Carolyn was able to order mosaic pieces from Amazon, but a lot came from the Cedartown Home Depot, which donated recycled pieces.
Williams then taught Carolyn how to build the benches using rebar and also how to weld.
When it came time to install the benches at a trail, Carolyn and Burton contacted Julie Smith with TRED to find the best place.
Originally, the benches were going to be installed at the new Mount Berry Trail, but due to the International Paper pipeline construction, they had to move it to the GE Trails on Redmond Circle.
Once she passes her test, Carolyn will be the first female Eagle Scout in the Northwest Georgia region.
Carolyn said she couldn’t help but feel blessed to have family members who were so skilled and supportive of everything she was doing. She also thanked her parents, grandfather Michael Burton and her troop for all the help and work they put into her project.
Burton began to choke up as she talked about how proud she is of her daughter and all of the hard work she has done over the years.
“She could’ve quit at any time and that would’ve been OK, but she didn’t and I couldn’t be prouder,” Burton said.
Moving forward, Carolyn will be attending Georgia Southern University in the fall of 2021, where she will study Outdoor Recreation and double major in either accounting or auto mechanics.
Her dream is to one day have her own troop, where she can give them advice and tell her story of how she had to do her Eagle Scout Project in the midst of a pandemic.