At Legacy Elementary School near Huntsville, Alabama, they built a baseball field as a memorial to a student who had been killed in a hit-and-run incident. Unfortunately, anytime it rained, the only way to access the field was for people to slog their way carefully across a large drainage ditch.
Even with careful steps, there was no way to keep from getting dirty when crossing the muddy drainage ditch, which rendered the field nearly unusable at times.
Scout Cayman S. of the Boy Scouts of America Greater Alabama Council had been a student at that elementary school as a boy, and he knew all about the ditch and the problem it caused getting to the memorial baseball field. So, for his Eagle Scout project, he knew just what to do.
The only way to get across the drainage ditch and avoid the mud or water would be for there to be a bridge, but it couldn’t just be a small footbridge. On rainy days, the drainage ditch would swell with water, meaning any bridge would have to cover some distance to help people access the memorial baseball field.
Cayman drew up plans, gathered donations, amassed a crew of volunteers and started building what would eventually become a 60-ft bridge over the drainage ditch.
The project took four months to complete and involved large amounts of lumber, concrete, and labor. Even with all the work, completing the bridge was something Cayman knew was going to make a difference.
“It was a way to give back to the school and serve as a way to get to the Matt Dahl memorial field,” Cayman said. “I attended Legacy Elementary 1st through 5th grade and all throughout, they treated me well and taught me everything I needed to know to get ready for middle school and high school. This bridge was my way of thanking Legacy for all they have done for me.”
To learn more about Cayman’s Eagle Scout project, be sure to read the full article on AL.com.
To learn more about the positive impact that Scouting can have on young people like Cayman, be sure to check out this article on the recent Tufts study, and watch this video:
