Tuesday, Aug. 03, 2010

Scout builds tables toward his Eagle rank

Education coordinator at the Grassland center is pleased with extra seating

A pair of pickup trucks, one towing a flatbed trailer loaded with a trio of picnic tables, rolled toward the Grassland Environmental Education Center on Saturday morning.

Candace Sigmond, the education coordinator for the center, smiled as Boy Scout Zachary Wilson stepped from one of the vehicles to deliver his gift.

Zachary is working on becoming an Eagle Scout. Part of the requirements to attain that rank involves accomplishing a project for the community. After helping with a Webelos outing at the Grassland Environmental Education Center, Zachary decided to take on the project of building three tables, where visitors can gather comfortably.

"I wanted to build a table, something physical, something that will always be here that people will actually use. A lot of students and college kids come over here to study the environment, and they have nowhere to sit and write down anything," Zachary said. "(I want people to) come and think 'someone actually built these.' "

For her part, Sigmond was pleased to have the expanded seating.

"We do have stone tables, but I will get anywhere from 30 to 100 students out here at one time," she said.

In building the tables, Zachary enlisted the help of other Boy Scouts.

"It took us about a month to build them, to sand them, to paint them twice, and to screw everything in," he said. "It took me a lot longer than I expected."

He chuckled, "It took about 27 man-hours for each table."

Zachary said that the most challenging part of the project was not the fabrication of the yellow pine tables. Instead, he found the most nerve-wracking part of the job was fund raising.

"I had to go around asking for donations from local businesses and family members. It was really a lot of stress on me having to ask them for something and then going through with the project," he said.

"To think that these people are counting on me to go through with this and if it doesn't end up happening I'm letting them down. That was really stressful for me."

Zachary's mother, Lisa Wilson, was present as the Scouts from Troop 85, a couple of adults and several members of Los Banos Rotary Club -- the troop's sponsoring organization -- unloaded and set up the tables.

"It was really nice to see the process of the boys learning," Wilson said. "A lot of them have never really painted or sanded or have ever really done anything like this. All of them had to have learned something about wood, painting, assembling, bolts and screws -- what to use, what not to use, how to reinforce."

Wilson praised the commitment that the other Scouts showed to her son's project.

"It was all 14- and 15-year-old boys out there in 105 degrees on their days off," she said. "Summer has just begun and here they are doin' this ... and I thought to myself, 'Well that's really cool. That's really dedication.' "

Senior patrol leader Kyle Bartlett received some special praise from Wilson. Despite the fact that Bartlett could not attend the delivery, Wilson made a point to note that the patrol leader has put in 23 hours of time on Zachary's Eagle Scout project.

Wilson concluded, "I'm really glad (Zachary) joined Scouts. I'm really thrilled with the whole program. I'm a Scout mom all the way."