WESTWOOD, Mass. (WHDH) — Meet Troy Neubecker – a junior at Xaverian Brother’s High School in Westwood who is living proof that hard work can really pay off.
It started as an Eagle Scout project and now it’s a prominent memorial in his town.
Sixteen-year-old Neubecker took what started as an Eagle Scout project, and ended up creating a lasting memorial in his hometown, a tribute to the victims of 9/11.
“I was really little when it happened, but through this event, and figuring out what I’ve done, it’s showing me more and more how much of an important day this is,” said Neubecker.
Neubecker’s biggest hurdle was raising over $20,000.
“I did a hotdog stand in the center of town. People came through, grabbed hot dogs, no prices, they just donated whatever they wanted. I think it was around $2,000-something for the whole day,” said Neubecker.
A year later Neubecker had his money and he had his monument.
“Lots of people came to me after I did it. They’d be like thank you, congratulations, and I hear lots of little stories. So I can definitely see that lots of lives were affected by it,” said Neubecker.
Although most of his efforts were fundraising, he did get his hands dirty.
“The slab the monument is on, we had a company come and teach us how to stir cement and make the slab so me and my friends actually made the slab ourselves,” said Neubecker.
Neubecker’s giving back didn’t stop there. He recently headed to West Virginia to help rebuild homes in Appalachia along with classmates.
“You actually go into the community and help them out, we helped repair roof, do siding,” said Neubecker’s classmate, Henry Oberlander.
While troy stays very busy he says all this hard work taught him a very valuable lesson.
“If you commit to it, you just gotta stick to it. Make sure if you’re gonna tell someone you are gonna do something, you don’t let them down,” said Neubecker.
Neubecker got a big thank you from the town of Wrentham. They picked him as their Volunteer of the Year.