This article was originally published in The Examiner on Jan. 12, 2017.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
Each year, the Officer Bryan Hebert Memorial Foundation helps Eagle Scouts to fund their projects.
But Harris McGrade used the leftover funds from his Eagle Scout project to donate back to the program as well as his local Boy Scout troop’s campsite.
McGrade presented a $3,635 check Wednesday, Dec. 28 at the Boy Scouts of America office on West Cardinal Drive to the Officer Bryan Hebert Memorial Foundation and a $4,000 check to help his fellow scouts rebuild Camp Urland in Woodville, which recently suffered flood and tornado damage, he said.
“I refurbished the entire police department’s SWAT team obstacle training course that they train and have competitions on,” McGrade said, describing his project.
Each obstacle was surrounded with rotting landscape timbers that McGrade replaced. He also repainted the course with red, yellow and green markers.
“I think it was 85 [obstacles] that we had to put screws in every single one of them; we had to rip out a whole bunch of boards all over the course, get new boards [that were] treated wood, screw them back in, paint them,” McGrade said. “We had to paint the entire course back over.”
The obstacle course also needed to be refilled with over 16 tons of pea gravel, he said.
“We had to spread that out throughout the course, eight or nine truckloads,” McGrade said.
McGrade and his family raised funds for his project through solicitation letters.
“It’s just a proud day,” his mother, Nancy McGrade, said. “A big family effort pays off,
comes to fruition.”
The Hebert Memorial Foundation has funded 14 scholarships for police cadets in the Lamar Institute of Technology regional police academy and nine Eagle Scout projects, the organization’s president Ken Karr said.
Sergeant Karr is also the supervisor of the Beaumont Police Auto Theft Task Force.
“When we first formed it, we just wanted something to keep Bryan’s name out there so we did this,” Beaumont Police Sgt. Bobby Anderson said.
Hebert died in the line of duty July 8, 2011.
Anderson is the Herbert Memorial Foundation event coordinator and serves with Beaumont Police’s Special Assignment unit.
The foundation has given as many as four scholarships in one semester, Anderson said.
The organization began with 14 boxes at local businesses and hoped to raise $3,500 for a scholarship in Hebert’s name. They ended up with $20,000 at the end of the year.
The nonprofit also funds memorials and helps with funeral expenses for fallen officers, while the 100 Club of Southeast Texas also assists families after a loss.
“Had he asked, we probably would have funded his Eagle Scout project, but he didn’t,” Anderson said of McGrade’s project for SWAT. “The neat part of that is we do things for the scouts, [but] we got a high school kid that took it upon himself [who] had money left over from his project and decided to donate it to what we consider worthy causes.
“That makes it even more outstanding,” he said. “Rather than him asking for money, he ended up giving us money.”
If additional funds become available, Karr said the organization plans to offer criminal justice scholarships for four-year degrees, since they recently wrote this into their bylaws.
Every year, the foundation fundraises with a ShinyRibs concert. This year’s concert wil be Jan. 28 at the IBEW Hall on Spindletop Road in Beaumont.
Eleanor Skelton 