Many high school students find themselves in their last few years leading into the time to apply for college scrambling to find activities and trying to stack accomplishments to help fill up their college application. This is certainly not the case for WCA Senior Franklin West. In the past few years, you have seen us write about Franklin’s award-winning historical writing prizes, his journey to an accomplishment of one of the toughest feats, becoming an Eagle Scout, and now he has another giant feather to place into his college application cap: being named Volunteer of the Year by the Virginia Land Conservancy. West received the award in conjunction for one of the projects he undertook and led while working towards his Eagle Scout appointment, conservation and historical preservation of the fences at the Historic Church On The Main. The Church on the Main was a brick Anglican church built by the 1750s to serve James City Parish as a replacement for the church on Jamestown Island, which had become difficult for communicants to reach. By 1857, all aboveground traces of the church were gone, but the site is a historical landmark protected by the Virginia Land Conservancy.

West’s project consisted of repair, replacement and historic improvement of colonial-era split rail fencing on the site. As mentioned, Franklin chose the historic Church on The Main for his Community Service Project for the Rank of Eagle Scout. 169 hours were spent completing the project with the help of his fellow Scouts from Boy Scout Troop 103. He was responsible for all phases of the project to completion, including securing the period required materials.   He worked closely with Patrice Sadler, Executive Director of The Historic Virginia Land Conservancy,  and Alain Outlaw to ensure the historic integrity of the renovation.