{"id":47207,"date":"2024-01-25T14:59:21","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T14:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=47207"},"modified":"2024-01-25T14:59:21","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T14:59:21","slug":"dionne-pinned-at-eagle-scout-court-of-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2024\/01\/25\/dionne-pinned-at-eagle-scout-court-of-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Dionne pinned at Eagle Scout Court of Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Danielle Ray<\/em>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/em><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 It was easy to see how proud Arthur \u2018AJ\u2019 Dionne was of his accomplishments during his Eagle Scout Court of Honor, held Dec. 30 at the First Baptist Church on Main Street.<\/p>\n

During the event attended by his fellow Scouts, Troop 182 leaders, family, friends, former teachers and others, Dionne\u2019s mom LynnMarie pinned an Eagle Scout rank pin on him. In turn, he pinned mini badges on his parents to represent his thanks for their support. His dad, Jeff, an assistant Scoutmaster, put a new blue Eagle Scout handkerchief around his son’s neck, and his older brother and fellow Eagle Scout Adam rededicated him.<\/p>\n

During the program, Dionne talked about his Boy Scouts experiences while a slideshow he had put together of highlights of his many years of Scouting played in the background. The 21-year-old mentioned campouts, hikes, their troop trip to Alaska, which he called the \u201cadventure of a lifetime,\u201d and more memories.<\/p>\n

\"\"
New Eagle Scout Arthur AJ Dionne, sixth from left, with his fellow Scouts and troop leaders following his Dec. 30 Eagle Scout Court of Honor, held Dec. 30 at the First Baptist Church on Main Street. Photo Credit: Danielle Ray<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lifelong town resident graduated from Wachusett Regional High School in 2021 and is now a sophomore at Jacksonville University in Florida, working toward a bachelor’s degree in music technology. His Eagle Scout project was constructing and installing a flag disposal bin at the John Bauer Senior Center in Paxton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had gotten a lead through Facebook about this idea, along with help from my grandmother,\u201d Dionne said of his Eagle Scout project.<\/p>\n

His project sponsor was Paxton veterans agent Jeffrey Kent. Dionne said that a dozen people helped him with the project, which involved building and painting the flag disposal box, mounting printed information documents on the box, and installing a locked drop box flap and recovery door.<\/p>\n

As soon as his project was approved, Dionne set up a GoFundMe to help fund the project, which netted $458.10. The remaining balance beyond the $268.16 used for his project was given to the Paxton Senior Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed leading everyone on their tasks and seeing this project come to life,\u201d Dionne said. \u201cI’m proud to hear that Paxton American Legion Post 306 is taking the opportunity to dispose of the flags properly. After almost three years from my board review date, it still feels good knowing I’ve made an impact on the community in a fairly unusual way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Troop 182 has well over two dozen members who live in Holden or Jefferson, including Dionne\u2019s younger brother Aidan, and is part of the Heart of New England Council Quinsigamond District. Several of the 14 troop leaders attended Dionne\u2019s Eagle Scout Court of Honor including his father, Scoutmaster Glenn Sullivan, and assistant Scoutmasters Dan Golden and Andrew Pierce.<\/p>\n

\u201cOthers will give testimony about your character and achievements,\u201d Troop 182 Committee Member Howie Gelles said to Dionne to open the ceremony. \u201cYou have provided a service to the community, which caught the attention of community leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sullivan said he has \u201cknown AJ since he was 2 or 3\u201d when he was tagging along with his big brother to troop meetings and events. He noted that some of Dionne\u2019s favorite Boy Scouts activities were the annual pinewood derby and building rockets, and that \u201cthe outdoors really hooked AJ in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis experiences in and out of Scouts have made him well-rounded,\u201d Sullivan said of the young man.<\/p>\n

LynnMarie\u2019s voice broke as she presented a gift to Sullivan, who she said “really helped shape the person he’s become.” She went on to say that since Dionne arrived a couple weeks before his due date, he “has not stopped.”<\/p>\n

“Never a dull moment,\u201d she said with a smile.<\/p>\n

The mother of three shared that she has been heavily involved in Scouting for 17 years. She said she was amazed to see all the young men sitting in the church pews, boys whom she watched grow up since starting Cub Scouts.<\/p>\n

“It’s not one person that raises a Scout, it’s truly a village,\u201d LynnMarie said.<\/p>\n

Dionne\u2019s dad Jeff read a letter from Kent, who was unable to be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should be proud of yourself,\u201d the Army veteran penned about Dionne\u2019s \u201cprestigious accomplishment\u201d of becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest Boy Scouts rank, which only 6% of Boy Scouts reach.<\/p>\n

Dionne presented his mentor pin to his grandmother Pat Brosseau, someone he said has \u201cbeen with me my whole entire life\u201d and helped him \u201cimmensely, especially leading up the ceremony.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe pushed me to go through this absolutely wonderful experience,\u201d he said of Brosseau.<\/p>\n

Fellow Scout Declan Matheson was master of ceremonies. He talked about meeting Dionne 15 years ago and said that \u201che has been one of my best friends.\u201d Matheson said that when he thinks about which part of the Scout Law his longtime friend embodies the most, it is \u201cdefinitely friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dionne said that while he knows that he \u201cwill never not be involved with Scouting in some shape or form,\u201d at this point he\u2019s not exactly what that means \u2014 and that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goals for the future are not perfectly clear, but I must say that I plan on finishing college and am hoping to find a job or career within the creative realm,\u201d he said. \u201cLife’s unexpected, so I’m making sure I take hold of each day I get and try my best to fulfill the day. I’m excited to see where life takes me. I wonder what adventures and challenges it will throw my way. I wonder how many more adventures of a lifetime I\u2019ll get to embark on.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of his passions is music, and he has launched his own video, photo, and sound business called Dionne Productions.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I’m just getting started in the freelance creative field, it’s made a huge impact on my life and creative career,\u201d the drummer conveyed. \u201cIt’s hard now not having Scouts on the regular schedule, but music has taken a bigger chunk of my time over the past few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he wants to thank everyone who had a part in his Scouting experience \u2014 his friends, family, Scouts, leaders, and Scoutmasters \u2014 \u201cfor helping me and pushing me along the Trail to Eagle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWords cannot truly express my gratitude for everyone who has helped me in some sort of way,\u201d Dionne stated. \u201cI found my Scouting experience to be a true adventure of a lifetime, as I will never go through the Scouting ranks ever again. Putting in the sweat and tears to become an Eagle Scout will never be a regret in my life. Once an Eagle, always an Eagle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Danielle Ray Landmark Correspondent HOLDEN \u2014 It was easy to see how proud Arthur \u2018AJ\u2019 Dionne was of his accomplishments during his Eagle Scout Court of Honor, held Dec. 30 at the First Baptist Church on Main Street. During the event attended by his fellow Scouts, Troop 182 leaders, family, friends, former teachers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}