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SALEM — A Payson teen decided to use his Eagle Scout project to raise money to buy his local police department a K-9, and he set a record while doing it.
Michael Bunker, 17, found out that the only thing he needed to get his Boy Scout Eagle Award was to complete an Eagle project, and he came up with a creative idea.
Bunker came up with a plan to raise money to buy a police dog for his Eagle Project because he's always wanted to be a police officer himself.
"Lots of people fluctuate, 'Oh, I want to do this, I want to do that,' " said Michael's mother, Kimberly Bunker. "He's wanted to be a cop and that's all he's wanted to do."
During the Salem City Council meeting Wednesday evening, Bunker presented the board with a check for $2,500 so the police department could buy a K-9.
Mary Jane, a 1-year-old Belgian Malinois will become the second K-9 for the Salem Police Department.
"They said that this was better than any of the other projects they've seen," Bunker said.
Bunker and other Scouts in his troop spent almost a month outside the local grocery store carrying grocery bags to customer's cars to earn tips. Eventually, they earned enough to buy the dog from a respected police dog breeder.
"The end result? We raised like $3,700," Bunker said.
"The thing I'm excited about is, we're going to be able to have a dog on duty 40 hours a week to now 80 hours a week," said Salem Police Department Chief Brad James. "The ultimate goal is just to make our community drug free."
Bunker said he hopes that it will help him to get a position in a police force someday.
"He's got his heart in it and yeah, I think he would work in well into a department like ours," James said.
The Salem mayor said this was the most money an Eagle Scout has ever raised for the city, so he presented Bunker with a plaque Wednesday evening.
