“Planted a seed in my head,” said Smith, 17, a Fairfield resident and senior at LaSalle High School.
That seed has grown into four park benches located in the corners of Point Pleasant and moved Smith closer to a lifetime goal: Becoming an Eagle Scout, a feat accomplished by 2 percent of those who enter Boy Scouts.
“It’s very exciting,” said Smith, one merit badge shy of qualifying to become an Eagle Scout. “Pretty special feeling.”
What began two years ago was completed last week when the final touches were added to the benches. In between, Smith discussed his plans with Fairfield officials, and once they were approved, he raised the necessary funds and built the benches with assistance from family, friends and fellow members of Troop 967, sponsored by Sacred Heart Church.
Bob Schappacher, parks maintenance superintendent, called the benches “an added feature” to the walking trail.
“They look great,” he said.
The only work completed by city employees was digging out the dirt and removing it so the concrete could be poured, Schappacher said.
All the concrete needed for the foundations was donated by Cliff Bown, the same man who donated concrete to build the Joe Nuxhall Miracle Fields, handicapped accessible ball diamonds in Fairfield.
Smith entered Scouts in the second grade, then slowly started accumulating merit badges. In the eighth grade, he picked up several badges “real quick” and that motivated him, he said.
“I wanted to get it done,” said Smith, following in the Eagle Scout footsteps of three other members of his Troop, led by Scoutmaster David Stringer.
He was asked about his journey from Boy Scout to Eagle Scout: “It’s a marathon,” said Smith, who noted Scouts must earn 14 merit badges to become an Eagle.
So now when the Smith family — father Steve, mother Ellen, sister Josie, 20, and brother, Alex, 14 — visit the park they see what began almost by accident and was finished years later.
“I’m very happy,” the teen said. “I see all the work behind it. When I see people using them, I realize it made a difference.”
His mother remembers seeing Facebook posts her friends made the day after the benches were installed.
“There are benches in the park,” they wrote.
This proud mother didn’t miss that softball.
“That was my son,” she told her friends. “He did that.”
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