Josh Irizarry-Diaz’s personal project for the IBMYP was the Removal of English Ivy, an invasive species from Reedy Creek. He continued working on this project for 21 months and submitted his final report to the BSA Council Conservation Committee in June 2021. He has been awarded the William T. Hornaday Award-Badge. It is an award designed to recognize scouts who undertook and completed truly exceptional conservation projects. It involved 43 volunteers for a total of 358 hours of work. 

Less than 4,000 Hornaday awards have been awarded since the program inception in 1917. To put it in perspective, 61,353 Eagle Rank Awards were earned in 2019 alone, with more than 2.5 million since 1912. Josh been one of them in 2019. 

He will be recognized at the Heart of Virginia Council Annual Recognition Gala on the 26th. I believe he is the first scout in years in our council. 

His family and Henrico HS IB are ecstatic and beyond proud about his accomplishment. Personal projects can be as complex or as simple as the student chooses it to be.