When she walked the Fourth of July parade route through her hometown on Thursday, 18-year-old Eagle Point resident Alyssa Powell had a little something extra to be proud of.

The new Eagle Point High School graduate — who has participated in the parade and other festivities her entire life — simultaneously earned her Girl Scout Gold Award and her Eagle Scout rank in recent months by repairing and installing flag poles for the city’s Avenue of Flags.

A display of veterans’ flags — all casket flags donated by families of the fallen — the Avenue of Flags begins at Highway 62 and delineates the route through the city and toward Eagle Point National Cemetery.

Over the past year, Powell repaired more than two dozen damaged flag poles and installed 44 new ones.

Powell said she was motivated to help revamp and extend the display of flags, in part, because she comes from a family of veterans, but also out of a desire to do something meaningful for her two service projects.

When she signed up for Girl Scouts “before I was even old enough,” Powell knew she wanted to earn the Gold Award, the highest honor a scout can attain.

And when Boy Scouts of America opened its program to girls, she wanted to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, as her three older brothers had done.

Powell tagged along from early childhood, watching her family volunteer in the community.

“I’ve been in Girl Scouts through most of my life. I started going when I was 4, even though you can’t officially even join until you’re 5,” she said.

“I joined Boy Scouts when I was in eighth grade, about five years ago.”

Powell said she spent most of her scouting years doing community service projects but also helping post flags for display along the Avenue of Flags. The flags are put up 10 to 12 times a year for various holidays.

“For my Gold Award, I was checking around the city to see which groups needed help. … Since I’ve been helping with Avenue of Flags for so many years already, it felt like a good project for me to do,” she said.

All told, Powell logged 86 hours toward her Girl Scout Gold Award, which she was required to earn on her own — hours volunteered by others don’t count toward her total — and logged a combined 146 hours — her own and those volunteered by friends and family — toward her Eagle Scout rank.

She did different repairs and renovations for the service awards, earning hours separately for each.

Sarti Powell, Alyssa’s mom, served as her daughter’s Girl Scout troop leader and said she was proud but not at all surprised by her daughter’s hard work. Alyssa and other troop members in Sarti Powell’s troop all dual enrolled, joining both Girl and Boy Scouts as soon as they were eligible.

The Avenue of Flags was a no-brainer as service projects, Sarti said.

“We’ve been helping with the flags for a very long time. We were kind of around when it all started, so it felt natural to give back in that way,” she said.

“She worked on it for a full year. I’m really proud of her. She’s just a really good kid.”

Alyssa plans to join the Air Force National Guard, following in her father and grandfather’s footsteps. Her father is a 1st Sergeant in the Army National Guard and deploying on a mission in the coming weeks.

Alyssa said her favorite parts of the project were working with family and friends and “paying respect to veterans.”

“My dad being a veteran, and my grandfather being a veteran, it’s always been really important to me to give back,” she said.

“It’s not even, for me, about, ‘Oh look, that’s Alyssa’s project,’ or my hard work being on display. … The cool part for me is people just knowing the flags are there and that we have all these new flags on display to commemorate even more veterans. Each one has their name and the battle and all their information. … Each one is a story about somebody who served our country.”

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