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Eagle Scout project grows on personal care home residents

By Meg Thompson for The 3 min read
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Older adults living at The Residence at Hilltop personal care home in Monongahela are able to enjoy the outdoors and gardening more easily with the help of an area Eagle Scout.

For his Eagle Scout project, Brenton Bauer of Fredericktown expanded the gardening program at the care home by building eight cedar, weather-resistant planter boxes and six benches in the rear of the building, enabling residents to plant flowers or to sit down and enjoy them. The boxes are built in a way that allows residents in wheelchairs to participate just as easily.

Bauer said he had been familiar with the home since he was a Cub Scout when the troop would visit the home to sing Christmas carols. Individual dens within the troop additionally visited to do crafts or play games with the residents. When it came time for Bauer to choose an Eagle Scout project in the fall of 2012, he went to Hilltop to find out if there was any need for his service.

When taking on the project to expand the already established but smaller gardening program, he noticed there were no benches along the walkway and decided to add them also, he said.

The other Boy Scouts with Troop 1515 in Centerville assisted Bauer during the construction of the project in April and May 2013.

The Scouts did construction on site because it pleased the residents to watch them, Bauer said. He said the Scouts also interacted with residents when they went inside for lunch, and residents began planting the plants Bauer provided right away.

“The workers noticed that the citizens living there really liked it a lot,” said Bauer, 16.

Bauer said he had been encouraged to stay with Boy Scouts and to strive to become an Eagle Scout by what he heard and saw through the years.

“When we were in the Cub Scouts, we heard stories about the awesome things that went on in Boy Scouts and with the Eagle (Scouts). Then, in the Boy Scouts, we went to actual Eagle Scout ceremonies and helped out with projects, which is really interesting. That’s a fun and a very enlightening experience,” he said.

Several of Bauer’s family members were in the Boy Scouts, and his three younger brothers are currently Scouts as well, he said.

Bauer said that what Scouting has meant to him is “getting to help people all the time and help them do things that they wouldn’t normally be able to do.”

Bauer is a staff member at the Heritage Reservation, a Scout summer camp in Farmington. In the past, Bauer has been assigned to help younger Scouts earn certain merit badges.

“When I work up at the Boy Scouts camp, we get a motivational speech at the beginning of every week. It was always talking about teaching Scouts important things, helping them get merit badges, all the things that had to be done to make them better people, to teach them important values in life,” he said.

Bauer is currently the junior assistant Scouts master of his troop, and he plans to continue striving for more merit badges himself. Bauer plans to continue to stay on staff at Heritage Reservation and to keep Boy Scouts a part of his life.

Son of Brian and Annmarie Bauer, Bauer is a junior at Bethlehem-Center Senior High School. He plays the alto saxophone in marching and concert band, and he plays soccer. He plans to attend college after graduation to study robotics.

Bauer will receive his Eagle Scout award at his Eagle Scout ceremony on Feb 1.

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