When Alexy Chazares was ready to complete a project that drew him one step closer to becoming an Eagle Scout, he decided to make that special day complete by dedicating his work to his adoptive grandmother, Dorothy Bell.
With the help of his high school cross-country team, he installed new markers alongside the trails of the Sydney Dover Trails park on Saturday.
“I was a little stuck on which ideas to go for,” Alexy said. “My dad did bring up the idea of the Sydney Dover Trail because I used to come here with my cross-country team, and we would always get lost. We didn’t know exactly where we were going. We thought we were on one trail but would end up somewhere else, so my father presented the idea.”
It was a crowning achievement that he wanted to share with Bell. She was always an inspiration to him, and he had a plaque that he presented to her after the project was completed.
It reads as follows:
The markers on these trails are honoring a special educator, advocate & friend on this date: “April 9, 2022, Mrs. Dorothy Bell”
“My father went on to become a collegiate runner thanks to your encouragement, guidance and support. May these trails encourage people to live healthy and pursue their dreams.”
From his son Alexy Chazares and proud Eagle Scout
Troop 89 Valrico, Florida
Bell is a motherly figure to two generations of the Chazares family. It first started with her encounter with Alexy’s father, Cleto ‘Sundy’ Chazares.
She had an even more profound impact on his father, Alexy said, stating that “in his darkest time, she was the only light that he had.”
Sundy’s dad was a single father who migrated his family from their native Mexico to Texas, which was a rough and tiresome journey. From there, they moved on to Florida and settled in Wauchula, where they worked the fields of tomatoes, cucumbers, and citrus.
Because Sundy could only speak Spanish, he had to start school on the third-grade level instead of fifth grade, which would have been more suited for his age. Bell, who was a guidance counselor at his school, made sure he was well accommodated in class with the help of a Spanish-speaking aide. Over the years she continued to encourage Sundy to not give up in school.
However, he had succumbed to the pressure of both working as a migrant and going to school and dropped out at the end of junior high school.
Sundy eventually joined a gang, and seeing the downward spiral he was going, Bell asked his father to let him stay with her and her family. So he returned to school.
In high school he was a successful runner in track and cross country. In turn, he was accepted to St. Edward’s University in Texas, on a full cross-country scholarship.
Sundy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and went on to obtain a Master’s Degree in Education Leadership at the University of South Florida.
He is currently the principal at Simmons Career Acceleration Academy.
“He just feels like where he is, that he’s serving a purpose by serving those students and helping them,” Bell said. “He’s just like one of my own children.”
And how Bell accepted Alexy as a grandson, he has accepted her as a grandmother. She said that she felt “very humbled and very honored” to receive his token of appreciation.
Alexy’s older brother Eryk also praised Bell when he was working on his Eagle Scout project in 2019.
He created the “Shelf of Knowledge” bookcase that was placed in the Redlands Christian Migrant Association Plant City Infant Center. Its purpose is to help the youth of migrants to be able to expand their knowledge. On the side of the bookcase, there is a plaque dedicated to Bell that reads: “My father would have never made it without your guidance, love, and patience.”
She is still consistently a part of their lives as they are in hers.
“She’s always been there for the birthdays, Thanksgivings, Christmas, to the point where she will tell the boys, ‘If your father fails to invite me to one of your activities, you invite me,’” Sundy said. “She’s always been active in their activities.”
Alexy is not only a scout member but an author as well. In the seventh grade, he had his first book published, “Tickets to Disaster,” a fictionalized story about the Titanic. His second book is on the brink of completion, Alexy said.
Working with the younger scouts, seeing them having fun, and participating in their duties, are other things that are rewarding in his troop, he said.
In the long-term, he would like to go into medical school and become a neuro-surgeon.
It’s another chapter in his life where Bell will support him.
“I definitely know that without her help, I more than likely wouldn’t be here,” Alexy said. “I think she still has had an impact on me.”