A few years back there was a need to have the books in the library catalogued for the Accelerated Reader Point system. A scout from our troop caught wind of it and used that as his Eagle Project. At that time, Jake discussed his desire to also do something to help improve the library with Mrs. Hanzel. She told him she actually had another big job that's been hanging over her head, but hasn't had time to do herself....replace all the brittle and ineffective plastic pegs holding up the bookshelves that are the original pegs from when the school was built over 35 years ago.
She wasn't sure it would qualify as an Eagle project, but it would be a huge help to the school library...a need most people wouldn't even know about. For a few years before this conversation and since then, shelves would randomly fall with or without someone bumping them while looking through the books. So Jake told her back in 4th or 5th grade that this is what he wanted to do for his Eagle project to help her out and give back to his community.
One of Jake's goals before he even entered the Boy Scouts at 12 was to work hard so he could get his Eagle before turning 14 years old--because even then, he understood that the older teenagers get, the more involved they are in clubs and other activities, making time for scouts a lot tougher.
And work hard he has...advancing in rank as soon as the time requirement was up and he hasn't allowed for any lag time. If a merit badge was started with his leaders, Jake would do what was needed to finish it up on his own. His first year of scout camp was the "get her done" year...he cranked out 6 merit badges...the most you could get at this camp and a total rarely earned. In addition, he's sought out other merit badge counselors to earn badges on his own time (with very little "memory jogging" from his parental units I might add). He's been on all the camp outs offered except one because we were out of town and one cold, rainy overnighter in November, it was just Jake and Jared and a leader (bless that leader's heart!). Jake shows Scout spirit every week by faithfully going to the activities and is always in uniform unless his leaders say it isn't necessary. He's a wonderful example of what a Boy Scout should be.
He actually made the rank of Life Scout the end of February, which was when we started thinking more seriously about his project with Jake still clinging to the idea that he was going to help Mrs. Hanzel. Once we met with the Eagle Project advisor and got his packet of paperwork, Jake moved forward with his intent to improve the elementary school library. (Ironically, Jake wasn't awarded his Life badge until the next Court of Honor which happened to be two days before he did his Eagle project.)
Fortunately for Jake, replacing the old pegs was still a need. Though I suppose in a district where major cutbacks are happening, this task wouldn't be anywhere near the top of the priority list...probably not even on ANY list, unless it belonged to Mrs. Hanzel.
Jake got his paperwork started, outlining his project intentions, in order to gain approval from the local board. Yikes. I'm a very organized and do-things-by-the-book kind of person anyway, but this Eagle paperwork stuff has me all anxious and nervous! (And even though the project is done, he's only halfway through!) But I backed up my parenting helicopter to keep from hovering and made sure Jake was running this show. Other advantages to this project is that a) it wouldn't involve power tools--yay for pegs!--which would complicate matters and b) it didn't involve fundraising...more paperwork and of course additional organization. What Jared and I didn't know when Jake met with the Scout leader from Council to get approval is that he told Jake the project was on the fence. Leaning more toward a regular service project than an actual Eagle Project. The project wasn't approved at the time because Jake was missing all the necessary signatures at the end. Whoops! (Pretty sure I wouldn't have missed that, but it's not my project and at least I didn't hover!!! :)
So Jake got his signatures, waited the two weeks until there was another night for approvals and Jake went back. This time, Jared had to sit in for two-deep leadership and that's when Jared discovered the iffiness of the project, according to the same Council member. There is no longer an hourly requirement for the projects since that's too hard to gauge and would just depend on how much help you had. Jake didn't mention the fact that the project was questionable to us originally because in his mind he thought that's what an Eagle Project was--service in your community. Hard to argue with that logic. Jared isn't sure if the project idea was questioned because there was no fundraising...like it just wasn't "enough" stuff or wouldn't provide enough opportunities for leadership. But that's hard to consider when I know of at least one project where people were just helping out at a shelter. Jake would definitely have opportunities for leadership having to give a safety class, oversee the task and make sure it was done right. I guess it was meant to be because the guy went ahead and gave his signature of approval on the project. That alone, was a huge relief! Being somewhat new to this project stuff, however, we weren't positive the project would hold up in review after completion. But after a few phone calls, we were ensured that once the project is approved, the BSA has to honor that. Besides, we have a BSA bigwig in our area and he said he'd raise all sorts of stink if they didn't. It certainly makes sense to me that once it's approved it would have to be honored, but nowadays, you just never know.
The day of the project was a wild one for me as I ran errands that Jake couldn't do (like order the pizzas and get ice and bottled water, among my other regular errands and the timing had to be just right. JJ and I spent more or less 5-6 hours in the car running around that day.) I picked Jake up from his school early so he could go to the elementary school a couple hours ahead of time to set up and make sure he and Mrs. Hanzel had everything ready to go to start receiving help at 4pm.
When I had Jake walk me through his explanation of the job, he discovered he wasn't sure how the helpers would know where to put the pegs once the old ones were removed unless they took them out one at a time. He told Mrs. Hanzel this when he arrived and apparently she was already thinking the same thing because when I went to the library after unloading some of the food an taking it to the break room, Jake was using chalk to mark lines on the vertical shelves to show where the pegs should line up.
Once I dropped Jake off, I went home briefly to put the Costco stuff away and then got back in the car to drop Cooper off at the school, pick up the pizzas and then the babysitter before taking the pizzas to the school and heading to Calvin's preschool graduation which happened to be at 5:30. Calvin, Karcyn and I would go to that, while Jared and the big boys would be at the project. JJ would not be coming with me. He's at that age where it would make more sense to stay at home than take him out in public to a special event where sitting still is a difficulty for him. He's into everything and SCREAMS to communicate. It was totally worth the $10.
As I was waiting for the sitter to come to the car, Jared called me at 4:40. He wanted to know if I was going to be there any time soon with the pizzas. I assured him I was a couple of blocks away and would be there shortly. He said they were almost done! WHAT?? They started less than 45 minutes ago!
Holy cow...there were 15 volunteers helping out, 6 of them scouts so Jake had plenty of people to supervise and manage. And they were very efficient. In fact, they did more than just take 10,000+ books off the bookshelves, replace the old pegs with metal ones, and wipe the shelves before replacing the books in their proper order. They cut out laminated posters, sharpened 300 pencils, wiped down all the hard surfaces and even vacuumed! Because they were so efficient, Jared and the boys were actually able to attend Calvin's graduation. It was an unexpected surprise.
Here's the project in pictures:
Scout motto: Be Prepared--medical bag...just in case.
And then giving a safety class before they proceeded to work.
Cooper manning the front door and opening it for volunteers as they arrived. It needed to stay locked after hours for security reasons.
Scouts and adult helpers removing books, cleaning the shelves, replacing the old pegs with the new ones and putting the books back--and Jake supervising and monitoring their work :)
And here they are working on those extra mini projects. A friend of ours who spoke to Jared the week before who is involved in scouts and whose son is an Eagle, suggested that if there was anything additional that could be done while you had a large group of people gathered to work anyway, it always looks good to go the "extra mile." So that's what they did.
Sharpening pencils the "old school way"--now that's work!
Cutting out laminated papers and posters.
Wiping down all hard surfaces.
And even vacuuming!
The hardworking, super mega crew (minus a scout who had to leave early)!
The finished product! Nice, clean lines and shelves laying flush and flat against the sturdy pegs.
Mrs. Hanzel told me later that Jake was a very serious and focused supervisor. He was also lamenting a little that he couldn't tell they'd actually improved or done anything. But Mrs. Hanzel knew and she was giddy with excitement! She told him it made a world of difference. It also saved her about 15-18 hours of labor if she did it herself.
Working close to dinner time, here's another way to reward the hard work (or motivate it)...cold drinks, pizza and brownies. I like how this food is on a table under a big sign that says "Teamwork." Extremely fitting under those circumstances that afternoon. I was told the group even got to eat together and left before the custodian locked up...who didn't need to clean the library that evening.
And finally...
Yes! Thank you!! Jake couldn't have done it without the people who showed up to volunteer and help!
