The
Reaching the Summit Community Service Initiative will take place during the
National Scout Jamboree, scheduled in Fayette County in July 2013.
Service
projects have been approved after an 18 month education, application, and
assessment process.
Most of the
approved work includes outdoor construction, renovation, painting, landscaping
or clean-up efforts. The projects are located at cemeteries, parks, schools,
humane societies, historic landmarks, ball fields, and other community
gathering places.
Robert Martin,
CEO of the CCC, said the project has entered a phase of coordinating the specific
technical support, volunteers, and services that will be needed for each
project.
“Our strength
is in our ability to bring forth partnerships,” said Martin. “So we’re
partnering with the National Civilian Community Corps, church groups,
contractors associations, unions, students, you name it.”
“We’re
trying to get into 9 different southern counties with 8000 young people per day
in around 245 buses. We’re pulling the logistics together right now and it’s
going to be a chore, but we’re going to get it done,” he said.
“It’s a
huge undertaking.”
Shady Spring Elementary School science and social studies
teacher Susan Vandall submitted a winning public service application for help
with the school’s outdoor classroom.
Last
year Vandall led a group of supporters in developing an area in the back of the
school where students are planting, harvesting, researching and exploring.
They’ve
built a sun dial, grapevine arbor, stone pathway, bird houses, and have planted
an estimate $1000 worth of plants.
“We’ll be
cutting them back here in a little bit,” said Vandall. “Everything is totally hands-on.
We want the kids to get into and interact with nature.”
“We’re
going to have a dam down here so we can have more water animals and water plants,”
she said. “We’ve been out here studying the nitrogen cycle where all these
dying plants are going back into the ground, and we’ve studied the carbon cycle.”
“There is just
an endless amount of things to do.”
Students,
parents, faculty, and several community groups provided some funding and
technical support for the outdoor classroom. These include the Beckley Area Foundation,
Piney Creek Watershed, Americorp, and the US Dept of Agriculture.
“I like
going back there and working around, there’s lots of biodiversity and different
plants and animals,” said 5th grader Harley Furrow. “We come out
here and do some drawings of them and then we have some essay questions we
always do. It’s just more fun outdoors.”
Classmate
T.J. Johnson agrees.
“One of my
favorite times is when I read the tree rings. You can learn how old a tree is,
what happened in the past, from just reading the tree rings,” said Johnson. “There’s
a lot of work to do outside, but it’s still a lot of fun to help.”
Vandall has
always envisioned a space where students can go directly from their research
and work in the field, to writing and drawing in their notebooks, or discussing
their findings as a group.
A sheltered
outdoor structure would be ideal.
So Vandall
applied for help from the Boy Scouts Reaching the
Summit Community Service Initiative. She recently learned her application was
accepted; this summer she’ll get her shelter, constructed by the Boy Scouts.
“This will
be great,” said Vandall. “We have almost 600 kids in our school. And if we can
all use this, it will be wonderful for us to have a place to work.”
“You just
can’t imagine how excited they are.”
Martin
said the Shady Spring Elementary outdoor classroom structure is the perfect
example of the approved projects.
“Here at
Shady Spring Elementary, in the beautiful outdoors, in this ecosystem, I think
this is what it is all about,” said Martin. “Someone having a vision and the
initiative, and the Boy Scouts partnering with the visionaries to make this
come to fruition.”
Martin says
the projects should be “Boy Scout – ready” by April 15.
The 2013 Days
of Service will be July 17, 18, 19, 22, and 23.
A list of
approved projects can be found at the CCC’s website.