The project will help David Griffith earn his Eagle Scout, but this memorial hits close to home for the teen. In December 2011, Griffith's older brother Sam died while fighting in Afghanistan.
"I miss him very bad. I always wanted to be as good as my brother," Griffith said.
Griffith always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his brother, who was also in Boy Scout troop 320.
When Sam was earning his Eagle Scout, his project was installing smoke detectors in the homes of Holly Springs residents.
"That was probably the best Eagle Scout project that my troop has ever seen before, and I wanted to do something that was just as good and people would remember me and my brother for just as long," Griffith said.
The memorial Griffith is building will go inside Veteran's Park in Holly Springs. His drawings show plans for a pentagon memorial made out of bricks and marble, as well as a piece of steel donated from the World Trade Center.
"We would like to have a place where everybody can go and sit down and think about what this war did, and I envy David for coming up with it," Sam and David's father Sam Griffith said.
Griffith has all the approvals he needs to begin groundbreaking, but the cost of construction isn't cheap. He needs to raise $30,000 to construct the memorial. The foundation is part of the Eagle Scout project, but the rest is his personal venture.
To raise money, Griffith plans to sell 1,000 personalized bricks, but he has only sold 30 so far.
He has a little more than a year to finish the project by the time he turns 18. He hopes to break ground in just a few weeks.
Click here to read more about the project and to buy a personalized brick.
See It On TV | Report A Typo |
Send Tip |
Get Alerts | Send us photos
Follow @abc11 on Twitter | Become a fan on Facebook
