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Hawkins family boasts quartet of Eagle Scouts
By Sean Barron
BERLIN CENTER
Many people who hear the phrase “all in the family” probably recall many humorous scenes from the popular 1970s sitcom.
It carries an entirely different meaning, however, for the Hawkins family.
For brothers Derek, Daniel, Nick and Tyler Hawkins, it aptly describes an accomplishment of the siblings, all of whom earned their Eagle Scout awards largely for various community-service projects.
“I felt relieved. It was a huge burden off my shoulders when it was done,” Tyler Hawkins said from his Heiser Road residence.
The 20-year-old Pittsburgh Art Institute student was referring to a path and bridge he helped build that connects the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9571 in Ellsworth to a nearby park. Overseeing the project was a major step toward Hawkins’ having received his Eagle Scout award in January 2009.
It took about two years between the plan’s formation and completion, said Tyler, who’s majoring in video-game design.
Earlier this month, Eagle Scout awards also were given to Tyler’s 18-year-old twin brothers, Daniel and Derek, both of whom are with Boy Scout Troop 71 of Ellsworth/Berlin Centerand Western Reserve High School seniors. They received their awards during a court-of-honor ceremony Oct. 10 at United Methodist Church here.
In addition, two other members of Troop 71 were Eagle Scout recipients this year. They were Sean Gibblin and Tyler Winans in April and June, respectively.
Tyler Hawkins and brother Nick, 24, also were with Troop 71, which is affiliated with the Whispering Pines District of the Greater Western Reserve Council Boy Scouts of America.
Derek Hawkins, who plays baseball and football for his school, was bothered by the baseball team’s dugout, which had peeling paint, cracks in the walls and a bench too small to accommodate all the players.
“I was pretty embarrassed by the condition of the dugout,” he recalled.
So he talked to the school’s athletic director, got needed funding and set to work overseeing the installation of a larger bench as well as new paint for the interior walls and cement for the cracks.
For a while, many people mistook the park adjacent to Post 9571 for a turn-around because they missed the sign near the entrance that had fallen down.
That was before Daniel Hawkins and fellow Scouts replaced the sign with a metallic one complemented by surrounding solar lights.
“I wanted it to look more presentable and make it more attractive,” said Daniel, who plays defensive end and offensive guard on Western Reserve’s football team.
Nick Hawkins, a state-tested nurse’s aide for Fresenius Medical Care-Austintown, a dialysis center, became an Eagle Scout in September 2004.
He helped build at least a dozen bat boxes in Berlin State Park to reduce mosquitoes for campers and visitors, noted his father, Lee Hawkins.
Attracting bats to the boxes, which stand about 16 feet high, was important because of fears related to the West Nile virus, Lee Hawkins explained, noting that the boxes had to meet height and other specifications.
“The West Nile virus was big in the media, so that was on his mind,” Lee Hawkins added.
The father cited an enjoyment of teaching and mentoring kids as well as a desire “to help my sons through life” as main reasons for having served nearly 10 years as Troop 71’s scoutmaster.
“I’m very proud of all four of them,” added their mother, Polly, who worked with her sons when they were in Cub Scouts and was a secretary with Troop 71.