Stephanie Drake Choate, left, pins the Eagle Scout medal onto her son Nathan’s uniform. “It was so special to have it at Mount Merici Academy. We are so proud of you, Nathan,” she said. (photo by Chuck Mahaleris)
Nathan Choate, of Albion, received the Eagle Scout medal during a ceremony conducted by China Troop #479 in his honor on Friday, May 10, at Waterville’s Mount Merici Academy.
The town of Albion in March presented Nathan with its 2023 Spirit of America Foundation Award in “recognition of his outstanding and commendable community service to the Town of Albion.” His Eagle Scout Service Project revitalized the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Monument.
Nathan is the son of Michael and Stephanie Drake Choate, and lives in Albion. He attends Erskine Academy, in South China. This project required more than 200 hours of labor shared by scouts and scouters as well as Albion residents. Colby College Lovejoy land grant provided the funding needed for the effort. Hilton Drake and Stephanie Drake Choate’s ancestors and the Lovejoys were two of the five founding families in the town of Albion, formerly known as Freetown Plantation, in 1790.
Elijah Parish Lovejoy attended Waterville College (now Colby) and is well known as one of the first martyrs to freedom of the press and the abolitionist movement, killed in 1837 in Alton, Illinois. Colby’s language arts building bears his name. The Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award of Colby, established in 1952, is awarded to a journalist who continues the Lovejoy heritage of fearlessness and commitment to American freedom of the press.
During the ceremony, Lee Pettengill, who serves as the Chartered Organization representative for Troop #479, in China, and was the Master of Ceremonies for the event, led Nathan in the Eagle Scout Charge. “I charge you to be among those who dedicate their skills and ability to the common good. Build America on the solid foundation of clean living, honest work, unselfish citizenship, and reverence for God; and, whatever others may do, you will leave behind a record of which every other Scout may be justly proud,” Pettengill said.
Natha had completed all of his requirements and passed his Eagle Scout Board of Review last October.
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