FERRIDAY — Tazman Stampley has earned 40 Boy Scout merit badges since he started scouting. And now, at 14, he’s made Eagle Scout.

Stampley was awarded Eagle Scout status Saturday evening at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Ferriday, the site of his Eagle Scout service project.

For his project, he built a prayer garden with benches, landscaping and statues of Our Lady of Sorrows, St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Patrick in front of the church rectory.

Stampley started working on the plans for the service project approximately a year ago.

“During (the Boy Scout 100 year) Jamboree, I turned 14, and I had a plan to have it completed before I turned 14 — and yes, I completed it all before I turned 14,” he said.

“It was very hard getting my Eagle, and there were a lot of people who helped me.”

“I would like to list all of the people who helped, but we would be here all night.”

One person he was sure to thank, however, was his mother, Deisha Norwood.

As for herself, Norwood couldn’t help but express pride in her son’s accomplishment.

“It is just now sinking in that we have done this,” she said.

“For a year, he has worked on this project, and I am so proud.”

That year was spent planning, raising money, getting materials, finding statues that were of similar style and size and manually working.

Now that the project has come to fruition, Stampley said he would take a moment to use the prayer garden he had worked to create.

“I will make it a point to go and thank God I was able to make it,” he said.

To attain the rank of Eagle Scout, scouts must achieve 21 merit badges, serve in leadership positions within their troops and complete a service project that benefits a school, a religious institution or the public at large.

Only two percent of Boy Scouts attain the rank of Eagle Scout, said Darren Gantt, district director of the Attakapas district of the Louisiana Purchase Council.

Before Stampley was awarded the scouting honor, a brief dedication service was conducted in the prayer garden by St. Patrick Catholic Church pastor the Rev. Louis Sklar, who blessed the statues.

“This prayer garden has been a dream of both the parish altar society and men’s club for a while, that we have this beautiful lawn in front of our church and part of it be used for a prayer garden,” Sklar said.

Stampley is a member of Boy Scout Troop 21 in Jonesville.

He is also the son of the late Carl Lynn Stampley.