Eric Hanover When Nanci Hanover brought her newly adopted son home to Simi Valley, she vowed to do whatever she could to assure he'd be the best person he could be.

Now, years later, Eric Hanover is a teenager who loves camping and hiking, does well in school and is wrapping up his Eagle Scout project.

"I am truly the most blessed parent in the world. I was so lucky to be able to choose my child and bring him back to me," Hanover said. "So many people have issues with children adopted from overseas. My son is my hero."

Hanover went to Kazakhstan in 2001 to adopt a child.

"I found a wonderful little monkey sitting on a chair in the orphanage waiting for me," Hanover recalled.

Eric was 7 years old.

"He had no front teeth and spoke no English," she said.

When Eric arrived in Simi, he was placed into kindergarten classes at Phoenix Ranch School.

"For three months, he was this boy without a language," Hanover said. "He lost all of his Russian, and he didn't know any English. But his desire to learn and make friends pushed him, and six months later he was speaking his first sentences. He has been a gogetter, an overachiever ever since."

'THANKS, KID'—Eric Hanover, 14, speaks with Wilma Melville, the founder of National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, after completing an Eagle Scout project on behalf of the nonprofit. At 14, he's finishing up the paperwork for his Eagle Scout project. Eric built three pieces of agility equipment for the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, including a teeter-totter, a plank walk and another piece called the "wobbly monster."

"They rescue unwanted dogs from shelters and train them to be search and rescue dogs," said Eric of the foundation. "They go to hurricanes and natural disasters, and they went to 9/11 and to the Chatsworth train crash. Their job is to find people and bark until their handlers get to them and find them."

Eric logged 238 hours working on his project. He started in December by visiting the facility and brainstorming what to build.

"Some of their pieces weren't in great condition; they were kind of falling apart," Eric said. "The ones I built will last for a while."

The foundation sent schematics, and Eric redesigned them slightly before building.

"I've helped people with other projects, working with wood," Eric said. "But it was pretty hard to really find out how to build the pieces. But I had a bunch of Boy Scouts to help me."

With the help of Eric's Eagle Scout project manager Frank Dripps, the Hanovers drove the pieces up to the foundation's training center in Gilroy.

Debra Tosch, the executive director of National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, was appreciative.

"It's critical for the canines to learn to negotiate different types of agility challenges they may find on a disaster," Tosch said. "By Eric building those pieces and putting them at our training kennel, every dog is going to go through there and be trained. They're going to learn how to negotiate particular footing issues. It was not an easy project."

The foundation honored Eric as part of their service appreciation awards May 16.

"Eric was amazing, and he was very good about taking on a project and following through," Tosch said. "He's a great young man. It's so nice to see young people these days get into volunteerism."

Eric is the president of Youth Act, a faction of Rotary for middle school students. He also likes camping, hiking and other outdoorsy activities. He said he enjoys Boy Scouts and Rotary because the organizations teach leadership.

A member of Boy Scout Troop 622 in Simi Valley for nearly three years, Eric is a seventh-grader at Simi's Phoenix Ranch School. He will have his Eagle Court of Honor in September.