Our sons Nicolaas and Zachary are both in Troop 72 in San Bruno. Having both achieved their Life Scout rank and having earned a minimum of 31 Merit Badges each, as well as meeting other requirements, both Nick and Zach were ready to choose their Eagle Scout Projects. The Eagle Scout Project is a Community Service Project that a Boy Scout performs for the benefit of the community, showing his leadership skills working with his troop as well as family and friends.
Both Nicolaas and Zachary decided that they wanted to do their Service Project for Allen Elementary School, which is the school they had attended. Working with principal KitCosgriff and the SBPSD, Nick decided to help clean up the main school by replacing theborders around the gardens. This would both give the campus a fresh look and help to eliminate student’s dirty shoes from being tracked into their classrooms. Zach decided to build a shed for the smaller campus, known as Hesselgren. The shed was built for the preschool children to store their bikes and toys. With Mrs. Cosgriff’s help and support, both boys were able to work out the details with both the District Maintenance Crew andthe School District overall.
Having one another to work with has always proven to be a huge asset for both Nick and Zach. Each step of the way they both planned and executed their Eagle Projects. First creating a document known as the Service Workbook and getting approval from their Scout Master Henry White and Assistant Scout Master Mark Eschen, the Parents Committee and the Scouting Leadership of Discovery District and the National Leadership of the Boy Scouts they were ready to move on.
Acquiring the necessary funds and materials was the first hurdle to meet. Bothapproached the San Bruno Lowe’s with their proposals and were pleasantly surprisedby Lowe’s generosity. Nick acquired sufficient funds to pay for his entire project. He needed to purchase approximately 500 feet of wood for the replacement project. After spending several hours planning out the building of a shed, Zach decided with Lowe’sadvice and support to build a shed from a kit that was donated in its entirety by Lowe’s.
Choosing a weekend, which turned out to be sunny and warm, both Nick and Zach wereable to organize Troop 72 Scouts along with many parents to do the hard labor of digging out and rebuilding the antiquated borders at the main campus and constructing the shed at Hesselgren. Early Saturday morning we first headed out to both Rolling Pin Donuts on San Bruno Ave. and Starbucks of Bayhill to secure the donations that had been promised ahead of time. Both establishments donated enough treats to welcome the Scout and parent volunteers. Mrs. Cosgriff was on site throughout both days, keeping an eye onhow her school improvements were developing.
Saturday and Sunday of that weekend there were 30 volunteers in all. Their friends from Capuchino High also showed up as well as their Cousin Joe who is a roofer in the SanBruno/S.S.F. area. With all of the support of their friends and family we witnessed the coming together of both the borders at Allen and the shed at Hesselgren.
We are very proud of both of our sons who have shown leadership to the many young Boy Scouts who have come up the ranks as they had. We are very thankful to Henry White for his leadership and to all of the parents of Troop 72. We are especially thankfulto Allen School and SBPSD for having the trust in our sons to complete their Eagle Projects at their Elementary School.
