Grand County Middle School recently received a little bit of a facelift thanks to the efforts of local Boy Scouts.
Life Scout Hayden Lance felt that middle school students didn’t have a lot of seating during lunch and outside activities, especially in the shade. He approached GCMS Principal Melinda Snow about the possibility of building benches for his Eagle Scout project. She was supportive and instrumental in getting funding for the project.
Hayden, with the help of his father, engineered seven benches, had the plans reviewed by the school district maintenance supervisor, and from there, it was a matter of purchasing the materials and getting other Scouts to help. With his parents’ help, Hayden measured, cut, drilled and fabricated each piece of the benches so that the other scouts need only paint and assemble them.
Jameson and Arthur Hawks, Spencer Porter and Young Men’s leader Shae Walker helped paint and assemble the benches.
According to Hayden, the most difficult part of the project was getting schedules aligned for help, but his greatest concern was ensuring that his lumber and supply order was correct so they didn’t have too much – or not enough – lumber and supplies.
He spent somewhere close to 100 man hours working on the project, from meeting with Scout and school leaders to engineering the benches, and then purchasing, painting, building and delivering them.
Hayden said he feels good that he was able to contribute in some way to the comfort of students.
“I hope they take good care of them,” he said.
