April 14, 2018 at 3:42 a.m.
Scouting the trails
Scouting the trails
Eagle Scout is an accomplishment many aspire to.
Few achieve it by the age of 14.
Seth Wilson becomes one of those few at a court of honor ceremony at 3 p.m. April 21 at West Walnut Street Church of Christ in Portland.
Like any scout working toward the rank of Eagle, Seth, aneighth grader at East Jay Middle School, needed to put together a meaningful community service project.
“My project was improving the Kelly Baggs Nature Trails system” at Weiler-Wilson and Hudson Family parks in Portland. “It was mostly involving signage.”
Seth, who hiked a chunk of the Appalachian Trail with fellow members of Troop 202, knows how important trail markers can be. As a cross country runner, he also knows how easy it is to get lost.
“I’ve seen countless kids get lost in those woods,” he said.
The Kelly Baggs trails were established in the 1970s and have gone through periods where they were well-maintained as well as years when they were neglected.
Seth’s goal was to make the trails more appealing and more accessible.
“I thought it was going to be a super easy job,” he said.
But it took a full year.
He got the idea in September of 2016 and completed it in late September of 2017.
“We had to mow all the trails,” said Seth. “We had to create new trails. That took about half the time. We encountered a lot of obstacles.”
Those included spring flooding and pop-up thunderstorms that could send scouts and family members scurrying for cover.
Seth makes a point of using the word “we” when he talks about the project.
“The biggest help came from my dad and my grandfather Larry Wilson and family members and scouts in Troop 202,” he said.
Funds to pay for the new signs also had to be raised.
That included aluminum can drives and speeches to local service clubs and sororities in search of donations.
The finished project includes two new large signs at each trailhead, one in Weiler-Wilson Park near the Salamonie River and the other at the east edge of Hudson Family Park where the Baggs trails connect with the paved walking trail around the pond.
Those signs feature color-coded maps of each of the trails through the woodland. Along thetrails there are also signs spelling out trail etiquette and tree identification signs replacing damaged or missing signs from an earlier Eagle Scout project by Aaron Hudson several years ago. The new tree identification signs have been attached with “enviro-friendly” screws.
“Vandalism was one of the problems with this project,” said Seth. “We had to bend signs back into place.”
Seth’s project drew praise from the niece of Kelly Baggs.
“That’s an honor that he would do that,” said Mary Opp of Lincoln, Nebraska. “That’s nice.”
Few achieve it by the age of 14.
Seth Wilson becomes one of those few at a court of honor ceremony at 3 p.m. April 21 at West Walnut Street Church of Christ in Portland.
Like any scout working toward the rank of Eagle, Seth, an
“My project was improving the Kelly Baggs Nature Trails system” at Weiler-Wilson and Hudson Family parks in Portland. “It was mostly involving signage.”
Seth, who hiked a chunk of the Appalachian Trail with fellow members of Troop 202, knows how important trail markers can be. As a cross country runner, he also knows how easy it is to get lost.
“I’ve seen countless kids get lost in those woods,” he said.
The Kelly Baggs trails were established in the 1970s and have gone through periods where they were well-maintained as well as years when they were neglected.
Seth’s goal was to make the trails more appealing and more accessible.
“I thought it was going to be a super easy job,” he said.
But it took a full year.
He got the idea in September of 2016 and completed it in late September of 2017.
“We had to mow all the trails,” said Seth. “We had to create new trails. That took about half the time. We encountered a lot of obstacles.”
Those included spring flooding and pop-up thunderstorms that could send scouts and family members scurrying for cover.
Seth makes a point of using the word “we” when he talks about the project.
“The biggest help came from my dad and my grandfather Larry Wilson and family members and scouts in Troop 202,” he said.
Funds to pay for the new signs also had to be raised.
That included aluminum can drives and speeches to local service clubs and sororities in search of donations.
The finished project includes two new large signs at each trailhead, one in Weiler-Wilson Park near the Salamonie River and the other at the east edge of Hudson Family Park where the Baggs trails connect with the paved walking trail around the pond.
Those signs feature color-coded maps of each of the trails through the woodland. Along the
“Vandalism was one of the problems with this project,” said Seth. “We had to bend signs back into place.”
Seth’s project drew praise from the niece of Kelly Baggs.
“That’s an honor that he would do that,” said Mary Opp of Lincoln, Nebraska. “That’s nice.”
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