The Donnelly brothers, Declan and Caleb. PROVIDED

Twin brothers, who have donated their time for more than five years, decided to give back to the Adventist Community Services Food Pantry as part of their Eagle Scout project.

Caleb and Declan Donnelly, North Fort Myers residents and Bishop Verot High School sophomores, recently earned their Eagle rank. To receive the rank, each scout has to earn 21 merit badges and successfully complete a community service project.

The two, who are 15, have been scouts for 10 years now.

“Caleb and Declan, along with their Scout Troop 761, helped to make our volunteer bathroom and client waiting area much nicer and more comfortable. The client waiting area was a kind of catch-all before and now it is clean and roomy as well as inviting. We could only seat six people before the improvements and now we can seat eight. The bathroom was dark and dreary, needing updating. It looks much cleaner and brighter now. Our clients and volunteers are very grateful for their help and dedication to helping our pantry, at the ACS of Cape Coral,” said Food Pantry Program Manager Alexandra Berru in a prepared statement.

The food pantry is in Cape Coral. The pantry provides food for approximately 2,500 people a month, clothing and resource counseling to those in need.

The Donnelly brothers, Declan and Caleb. PROVIDED

Caleb said he has volunteered at the food pantry for five years. He said with volunteering there for so long, he saw there was a need to renovate the central bathroom. After running the idea through the pantry manager and scout leader, he started on the project.

“I got all the supplies together and went to stores for donations,” Caleb said. “We had 22 scouts there. Individually, the scouts put in 10 hours of work, 220 hours overall, and I put in an extra four or five hours of planning.”

He said the finished project looks really good. The work included painting the common area, replacing fixtures and installing shelves.

“It felt really good knowing I could help out a lot of people in need,” Caleb said.

Declan’s project was renovating the guest area of the food pantry – painting the entryway, replacing fixtures and furniture and installing white boards.

Declan said it took a lot of paperwork, time and effort to make his project come to fruition. A total of 175 hours were put into the project, which included assistance from others, as well as 30 hours of planning on his end.

“It feels really good,” Declan said of completing his project and being able to help other people. “I would like to thank all the people that helped – friends, family, grandparents and the scout troop.”

They both maintain a 4.5 GPA and take honor and AP classes.

Declan would like to pursue business school after high school. Caleb wants to go to medical school.