Preschoolers and staff at the Department of Defense Education Activity’s Vicenza Elementary School in Italy work in a new planter bed on April 16, 2026. The preschoolers use the planters, restored as part of 14-year-old military child Max Arteaga’s Eagle Scout project for Troop 295, during a six-week, hands-on gardening unit that teaches them about life science and other subjects. (Nancy DeCaro/Courtesy Photo)
VICENZA, Italy — Preschoolers who are developing green thumbs in the Vicenza Elementary School garden got a big assist from a Boy Scout with a heart of gold.
Last week, the children patted black dirt in around bright green shoots and watered them with a miniature watering can, something they couldn’t have done were it not for John Maximus “Max” Arteaga, a 14-year-old seeking to attain Scouting’s highest rank.
For his Eagle Scout project, Max restored several planters on the school grounds. The previous wooden planters were falling apart and splintering, so he decided to use concrete block to build new ones that will last.
“The hands-on nature of it just allows for such a deeper level of learning that we wouldn’t have if he hadn’t done this,” said preschool teacher Nancy DeCaro.
“That opportunity to have a brand new garden was a luxury,” she added. “It was very generous of him.”
Eagle Scout-hopeful Max Arteaga, left, and his scoutmaster and father, John Arteaga, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, review plans for Troop 295 on Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy, shortly after Max was elected to the top scout leadership position in the troop on April 7, 2026. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
Nearly 80 preschoolers in four classes will use the new planter near DeCaro’s room for the gardening unit, which teaches skills in reading, early writing, math and science, she said. Two other restored planters will be used by higher grades.
Restoring the planters at the elementary school on the Villaggio campus near Caserma Ederle took a combined 140 hours of labor, Max estimated.
It required him to exercise various leadership skills, including managing financial resources and tools, while instructing over a dozen fellow Scouts who volunteered to help build the planting beds, made of cinder blocks.
He secured a $499 grant to fund the bulk of the project after giving a presentation to the nonprofit Vicenza Parent Teacher Student Association.
Arteaga’s is one of several Eagle Scout projects here in recent months that have benefited the U.S. military community.
A U.S. flag retirement box created through the efforts of Anna Claire Amacker was installed in February near the Caserma Ederle post office. And in a patio area on Caserma Matteo Miotto, south of Vicenza, Liam Lawson added a railing and countertop last October.
Max Arteaga, a 14-year-old Boy Scout, supervises a volunteer helping him lay a concrete block wall for his Eagle Scout project of restoring several decaying planter beds at the Department of Defense Education Activity elementary school in Vicenza, Italy, in this undated photo taken in spring 2026. (Marcela Arteaga/Courtesy Photo)
There’s been a fair number of Eagle Scout projects because many of the about 45 boys and 10 girls who make up Troop 295 on Caserma Ederle are Life Scouts, the rank just below Eagle, said John Arteaga, Max’s father and the troop’s scoutmaster.
Arteaga, a civilian intelligence chief at the Army’s Southern European Task Force, Africa, and a retired lieutenant colonel with more than 28 years in the military, was never a Scout himself.
“The Army was my Boy Scouts,” he said.
Scouting has had a close relationship with the military for over a century. Eagle Scouts are heavily represented in ROTC, service academies and other military leadership programs.
But that relationship came under strain after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to end Pentagon support for scouting activities on U.S. military bases and other departmental assistance to the organization.
Long known as Boy Scouts of America, the group has rebranded following its decision several years ago to admit girls. It is now called Scouting America.
A preschooler at the Department of Defense Education Activity's Vicenza Elementary School waters plants in a new planter bed in Vicenza, Italy, on April 16, 2026. The planter bed was restored as part of 14-year-old military child Max Arteaga's Eagle Scout project for Troop 295. (Nancy DeCaro/Courtesy Photo)
In February, Hegseth said Scouting had “lost its way,” blaming efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion.
Those threats coincided with President Donald Trump’s broader push to eliminate DEI programs in the federal government.
Talks with Scouting America yielded reforms to align its programs with a Trump executive order, resulting in a new partnership agreement under which the organization agreed to waive registration fees for military children.
The agreement ensures a continuation of troops like the one in Vicenza, where the scoutmaster and his son trace their connection with the organization back many years.
Max got involved as a Cub Scout while living in Belgium and stuck with it through the family’s military moves and the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this month, he was elected senior patrol leader, the troop’s top Scout.
Max Arteaga, a 14-year-old Boy Scout, throws dirt from his shovel as volunteers assist him with his Eagle Scout project that refurbished several planter beds at the Department of Defense Education Activity’s Vicenza Elementary School in Italy in spring 2026. (Marcela Arteaga/Courtesy Photo)
Some of his favorite experiences are learning leadership skills, including at National Youth Leadership Training last summer at Camp Freedom near Ansbach, Germany, where his patrol learned to navigate by GPS. The old kind, “not like Google Maps,” he said.
“You have to get to know different skills (and) get to know all your Scouts,” he said. “And at the end, you become like a family almost.”
The next step on his path to Eagle Scout is going before a board to present his project, hopefully at Camp Alpine, a summer camp in Switzerland.
For fairness reasons, he’ll be mentored by an adult other than his father, who has helped about four other troop members earn the top rank since he became scoutmaster.
But he downplayed the role he and other adults have, saying the Scouts shoulder much of the load.
“I’m just a gardener, no pun intended,” he said. “Making sure they grow.”
