A group of scouts demonstrated initiative and skills recently at Antietam Meadows Park off Scott Road in Washington Township. The scouts, a Webelos Den of seven kids and two additional younger members of Pack 97, planned and built a habitat for Owls.
“The scouts met at the beginning of the year and reviewed a range of topics” said Scout Leader Joshua Curry. “They reviewed elements of ‘Conservation Good Turn’. We encouraged them to achieve something bigger than themselves. Eventually they settled on building a habitat for birds.”
A preliminary step was finding a location. This was solved by asking Washington Township who approved an Owl Box at Antietam Meadows.
“This was a relatively large and challenging project for 4th and 5th graders” said Curry. The scouts acquired plans for a suitable habitat, collecting materials and tools, building the component parts, and finally assembling all the pieces and installing it in the park.
A large part of the team assembled the pieces on October 17 and 24, and installation was completed on October 28 with digging holes, making and pouring cement, and putting it in place.
“We have our awards ceremony scheduled for November 14 at 6:30PM at Trinity Church where all of the awards earned to date will be awarded to include the Conservation Good Turn Patch.”
The scouts will return periodically to maintain the habitat. They’ll do cleaning in the fall, and will do a walk through in the spring to see if anything is happening.
The scouts that participated in the project were Gabriella Curry, Christopher Curry, Naomi Gress, Dakota Ecker, Cameron Zeger, Madsen Dorius, Colby Lewis, Eli Lewis, and Carter Haluska.
Adults that participated were Jess Gress, Ashley Staubs, James O’Keefe, Kim Lewis, and Joshua Curry.
Curry noted that this project was well within the capabilities of this age group.
“The kids were inspired to do worthwhile things and to achieve their goals” he said. “Youngsters are not always challenged to go beyond simple community services. This just shows how capable our kids are to engage, with a bit of supervision and encouragement, in more difficult and complex tasks for the community.”
