Thursday, October 1, 2026
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A sophomore at Council Rock High School South and Northampton resident, Grace Arner, 16, earned the Eagle Scout Award last May and was recently recognized at the Eagle Scout Court of Honor in early October at Langhorne Presbyterian Church for this exceptional achievement. Grace’s attainment of the Eagle Scout rank is especially notable because she is the first female in Troop 147 to earn this prestigious award. Grace is a founding member of the Holland-based troop which is chartered by Northampton Presbyterian Church.
The Eagle Scout rank is the highest attainable rank in Scouting America, formerly known as Boy Scouts of America. Scouting America’s Washington Crossing Council which governs Bucks, Mercer and Hunterdon counties noted that thus far in 2025, a total of 164 scouts has earned the Eagle Scout award. Ten of these Eagle Scouts are teenage girls and four of the 10 scouts -- including Grace – are from Bucks County units.
Grace’s Eagle Scout project was called “Scouting for Instruments.”
At the Court of Honor ceremony, Grace received citations from U.S. Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District and Pennsylvania State Senator Frank Farry of the 6th District. Grace received further recognition on the congressman’s and senator’s Facebook pages. Congressman Fitzpatrick congratulated Grace for “ensuring more young people have access to the gift of music and creative expression.” Senator Farry recognized Grace’s achievements calling her project, “a wonderful example of creativity and compassion in action.” Senator Farry also recognized Grace for her other leadership roles including chaplain aide, den chief, quartermaster, assistant senior patrol leader, senior patrol leader and Ockanickon Camp staff.
Grace decided to pursue this project and credits her decision based on a suggestion by her mom, Lori Arner, who serves as scoutmaster of girls for Troop 147G. Scouting is an Arner family affair. Her dad, Rob Arner, is also an Eagle Scout and Grace’s two brothers, Luke, 13, and Joshua, 11, are scouts in Troop 147.
Grace explained why she chose musical instruments for her Eagle Scout project. “I was kind of confused on what to do. But, I talked to my mom one night, and she suggested that I do something with instruments. I said, that's a good idea! And, I eventually developed Scouting for Instruments. The goal of my project was to provide better access to instruments for children whose parents might not be able to afford them. The purpose was to collect, prepare and restore musical instruments for students and families at Council Rock who cannot afford to rent them,” said Grace.
“I collected money through GoFundMe and organized an instrument drive and benefit recital last January at Holland Middle School.” Grace plays the cello and performed at the recital with other local scout musicians. The GoFundMe campaign raised more than $1,100 towards the Eagle Scout project.
As leader of the Eagle Scout project, Grace had to manage working with community donors, fellow scouts and school and church leaders that had input on such projects.
“I would delegate the task of inventorying the instruments to the scouts as well as putting the program together. I also talked with several adults too. I had emailed one of them to make sure that all the paperwork was finalized and that everything looked good. I communicated with the Church Committee, which are all adults, and I presented my proposal to them and that was how they approved it. It's a lot of moving parts,” Grace said.
At the benefit recital and through advertising her project through social media such as Facebook and at local businesses such as Wawa, Grace worked to promote her project and gather and catalogue donated instruments for refurbishment, as needed. Many people in the community donated instruments of all kinds.
“One person donated their double bass and another person who was anonymous donated 15 guitars. We picked up a flute from this one person and she said it was made in the 1950s. Some of them were really old, but they all looked beautiful,” Grace said.
“We collected about $30,000 worth of instruments. We had piles and piles of instruments just sitting in our dining room. It was pretty funny!” she said.
Grace worked with a local company called Music & Arts which has several locations in the area including Doylestown and Horsham. The company offers restorative services such as restringing, cleaning and polishing, replacing broken or missing parts, freeing sticky keys, mitigating water damage and much more. Rob Arner noted that Music & Arts was so impressed by Grace’s work and fundraising, the company offered to refurbish the instruments at no additional cost.
Grace also worked with the Council Rock Music Foundation and with her teacher, Corey Axler, the school’s choir director, vocal ensemble and music coordinator, to have the newly cleaned and restored instruments distributed to students in need. The project took about 10 months to complete from initial inception to the awards ceremony.
Nationwide, Scouting America estimates that more than 176,000 girls and young women participate across all of the organization’s programs, including over 6,000 who have earned the rank of Eagle Scout. Some of the most famous Eagle Scouts in American history include U.S. President Gerald Ford, astronaut and space pioneer Neil Armstrong, Academy Award winning producer and director Steven Spielberg and Sam Walton, founder of Walmart -- to name just a few.
As an Eagle Scout, Grace said she will continue in advanced leadership roles and plans to attend the Scouting America National Jamboree in July 2026 in West Virginia.
“I would like to encourage all scouts to be prepared to meet life's challenges,” Grace said. “Since the Court of Honor, I've now come to realize what it means to be an Eagle Scout. In my opinion, it means that you serve others and you always put others ahead of yourself. People look up to an Eagle Scout for different reasons. To be an Eagle Scout shows a lot of strong willpower in the youth,” she added.
Troop 147 is open to any local girls or teenagers interested in becoming a scout. For information, visit www.troop147.net.
Fly Eagle Fly! Congratulations, Grace!
