Saturday, June 11, 2011

Gear, Ground & Grub Service Project (3GSP)

On Saturday, June 11th, I held my Eagle Scout service project at Songaia Cohousing Community in Bothell, WA which I called Gear, Ground & Grub Service Project (3GSP).  A volunteer crew of 33 people helped out including 13 boys scouts from our Troop 626 as well as Troops 438 and 600.


The volunteers worked in four small teams. Together we replaced the flooring in an outdoor kitchen, installed the kitchen cabinetry, painted three picnic tables, added mulch to a brand new campsite in the woods and refaced the bottom skirting on the yurt.

This Songaia land where my project was held is used by Rite of Passage Journeys, a non-profit organization that delivers transformative wilderness programs for youth, adults and communities in life transition.

I had the opportunity to participate on a three-week, Coming-of-Age backpacking trip with Rite of Passage Journeys during the summer of 2010 and after returning from that adventure, I decided that helping them make these refurbishments to their summer basecamp operation at Songaia would be a rewarding service project to undertake towards earning my Eagle Scout rank.

I also held a fair trade coffee, chocolate and giftware fundraiser with Equal Exchange Coop and Ten Thousand Villages during my project promotion phase in order to help with the kitchen and yurt renovation costs.  I raised more than $600 in cash and also managed to get over $500 in donated/sponsored building products and lunch expenses by local organizations like Lowe's, Valley Supply Co. and Costco.  After I finish calculating all my project expenses, I then hope to donate $500.00 to the Stan Crow Scholarship Fund at Rite of Passage Journeys, which helps underserved youth participate in wilderness excursions like the one I went on.

Overall, it was a fun service project and the weather turned out great. It was nice to see people friends and troop families show up to help and I had fun managing the different Gear, Ground and Grub work teams even though it was a bit hectic at times with everything happening at once.  We were able to finish up in the early afternoon.  Thanks again to everyone in the troop who helped make my project a success!

Follow this link to read the story in THE BELLEVUE REPORTER

Posted by Logan Schmidt, Eagle Scout

www.Troop626.org