Parker Jorenby (junior) recently completed his Eagle project which involved building fourteen bat houses for Fish Lake Church in Prior Lake. He decided to pursue the idea of helping bats about a year ago after going to a bat conservation event.

In order for his project to happen, Parker had to get several approvals from Prairie Lakes Boy Scouts and Fish Lake Church, including Pastor Brent Parrish. He decided to make fourteen bat houses that can (individually) fit up to fifty bats. Parker came up with the idea of helping bats after going to a conservation class and learning about white nose syndrome (WNS). WNS grows on bats’ noses in caves, which suffocates the bats. The bats can pick off the mold but that will cause hypothermia, since they (the bats) wouldn’t be bundled by their wings to keep them warm in the cave.

Parker knew he wanted his Eagle project to benefit bats in the community, but it wasn’t until this past August he reinvented his project a little. His neighbor asked if he wanted to partner his project with the Church to help them with their bat problem: lots of bats had made the inside of the church their home and would sometimes disrupt service and create a bad smell. Accepting this wonderful offer, Parker set off to find a way to safely take the bats out of the church and back into the wild. He decided to build fourteen bat houses where the church bats could live in the winter, not develop WNS and not disrupt Fish Lake Church. “Bats do so much for the environment, it’s only fair to give back to them,” Parker stated. And he’s right. Bats not only eat insects, up to 8000 mosquitoes a night, but can also spread seeds that help populate plant species. He started his project in late September, creating sketches of potential houses and their dimensions. Then he got all of his supplies and organized other scouts to build and paint the houses and dividers. Drilling the holes and then attaching the bat houses to poles also played an important role in the project. He finished the project on the 20th of October with the help of his family and fellow troop members.

Not only is Parker Jorenby a Boy Scout (soon to be Eagle Scout due to his project), but he is a trumpet player in the school band, a swimmer for the Boys Swim & Dive team, a member of LIVE, a National Honor Society member, and an aficionado of DC Comics (home of Batman). Parker constantly strives to be the best he can be by living by the Boy Scout Law: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Parker has definitely showed these traits while cheerfully working on his Eagle service project and overcoming irksome tasks.   It is fair to say that Parker Jorenby is a not just a Boy Scout, but a superhero — a bat man — to the community of Fish Lake Church.