Senior Dan Sheehan Formally Earns Eagle Scout Rank

The West Roxbury native earned the rank after placing 15 headstones on unmarked graves of veterans this past June.
West Roxbury, Mass.— During his childhood, Dan Sheehan remembers visiting The Gardens of Gethsemane Cemetery in West Roxbury every Memorial Day.

On each visit, he remembers seeing tiny American flags draped over rows of headstones. They appeared every so often, often dotting the rolling hills. Growing up in a West Roxbury military family, he knew those headstones belonged to military veterans.

Now a senior at Catholic Memorial School, Dan knows where to find 15 more of those flag-draped headstones next Memorial Day.

In a formal celebration of his Eagle Scout Rank at Holy Name Parish this past January, City Councilor Matt O’Malley and Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs Francisco Urena recognized Dan for placing headstones on the unmarked graves of military veterans last June.

While his initiative began as an Eagle Scout project, Dan believes it ended with a deeper appreciation for servant leadership.

“When you do a lot of service, you think of people in poverty and how they can help themselves out of poverty,” said Dan.

“But, when people are dead, it’s completely selfless. They can’t help themselves, so you have to help them.”

The Boy Scouts requires at least 21 merit badges before a scout assumes their rank as an Eagle Scout. A member of Boy Scout Troop 7 in West Roxbury, Dan began the application process last year with 31 badges. However, he still needed to complete an Eagle Scout project before assuming the new rank.

According to Boy Scouts of America’s website, a Boy Scout must, “plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community” for their Eagle Scout project.

When Dan first began thinking of a project idea in February last year, he reminded himself of the different service and leadership initiatives he participated in at CM.

That same month, Dan had travelled to Peru on CM’s Blessed Edmund Rice Solidarity Initiative to build homes for the urban poor living on the outskirts of Lima. He had served as a peer minister, a varsity football player, and captained the swim team. That same spring, he would later win the Catholic University Book Award for his commitment to public service.

Looking back on each of these experiences, Dan felt inspired to identify a project that advocated for a cause near and dear to him. This led him to Gethsemane Cemetery President Mr. Allan MacKinnon. At first, Dan wanted to discuss the possibility of building a fire pit for de-commissioned American flags.

However, Mr. MacKinnon informed Dan of the strong laws against open fires in Boston. Turning his attention to other ideas, Dan asked him to identify other areas of need across the cemetery grounds. Then, Mr. MacKinnon caught Dan’s attention when he mentioned a need for headstones on unmarked veteran graves.

“It was something that [Mr. MacKinnon] had always wanted to get done but didn’t have the time to send cemetery staff to go out and do it,” said Dan.

Over the span of five months, Mr. MacKinnon met with Dan on five separate occasions to go over logistics for the project. Mr. MacKinnon provided Dan and members of his troop with equipment and a map of the veteran burial plots. Over a span of two days in June, Dan directed his troop members —some of whom attended CM with him — on where to lay down sod and place the correct gravestones.

He made sure to involve as many younger scouts along the way too.

“I want to see them evolve into leaders,” he said.

“I want to help them grow to fill the shoes after I leave so that the troop will keep on being a place where young men can grow.”

Dan’s leadership over the course of the project surprised nobody at CM. Mr. Patrick Murray, who coaches Dan on the swim team, lauded his ability to bring people together and support a common cause.

“He is one of the most hard-working athletes on the team, but what makes him such a beloved member of our community is that he always puts the team before himself,” said Mr. Murray.

“Danny brings joy to the team while always challenging himself and his teammates to be better each day.”

When Dan graduates from CM this spring, he plans to study forestry and join the ROTC program at the University of Maine. Regardless of which career path Dan chooses from there, he believes that his experience from his Eagle Scout project will follow him for life.

“It’s important to help the people who are dead because they can’t help themselves in any way,” said Dan.

“It’s an interesting part of service helping people’s names live on forever who don’t have families.”
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CM prepares students for the rigors of college and beyond. While here, boys embark on service-learning opportunities, leadership development, and character formation programs inspiring them to become confident, courageous young men motivated to do good in the world. 

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Catholic Memorial, the Christian Brothers School of Boston, prepares boys for college, manhood and a world full of unknown challenges, ambiguity and complex problems and the importance of relationships.