My Eagle Scout project is for the Town of Dunstable Recreation
Department. The project is to design and build a soccer practice
wall at Larter Field in Dunstable Massachusetts. I played soccer
with the Groton Dunstable Youth Soccer Club
since I was old enough to play organized soccer. I currently play
for the Groton Dunstable Regional High School Junior Varsity team.
I heard from one of the assistant scoutmasters in the troop that
the soccer club may want a pratice ball wall at Larter Field that is
similar to the one at Groton's Cow Pond Field complex. I met
with the club president and members of the Dunstable recreation
department to determine if they were interested in the idea.
Everyone was really positive. I met with the Dunstable
Building Inspector to determine his requirements for the structure.
I met with the Dunstable Selectmen to ask permission on putting
the wall on the town owned field. Everything went real well.
Soccer kick wall at Groton's Cow Pond Field
In the Spring of 2007 I submitted an application to the people at the Nashua Valley Council
office. I had to provide a few extra details for the project
reviewer. They accepted it in May. I was busy during June
and then spent the whole summer at Camp Wanocksett.
Once I got back to school I met with the recreation people to get
the placement of the wall approved. The location was approved on
October 6. The next week I met with the soccer club's executive
board to ask for funding for the project. The many of the board
members at the meeting had not yet heard of the project. Once
they heard of the details, they approved funding the wall. They
set up an account at the local lumber yard. They guys there are really cool and have been a big help.
I
had a returnable can drive through my troop where I raised about
$60. I used this money to buy some caution tape and food for my
work crews.
I
had 2 work parties on Saturdays in October. At these work parties
we dug the holes. During the first one we fully dug 4 holes 48"
in the ground. The field had been filled with loam and sand so it
was real easy to dig. We only found small stones. During
the second work party we finished all 7 holes.
During the first work party we found this sweet snake. We tried to catch it, but it slithered off.
On
Saturday November 3 we made some trips to Moore Lumber in Ayer,
MA and picked up the material for the posts. We got seven 12 foot
4x4 pressure treated posts, 35 bags of concrete, sono tubes to hold the
concrete and posts and some bracing material. The next day we met
at my house and brought the all the stuff to Larter Field.
First we had to clean out the holes due to the rain from the left over hurricane that had come through.
Then we put in the first pole.
The
later poles took a lot less time than the first one. We put the
end ones in first and used a string to make sure that the poles were in
a line. We also used a 34" level to make sure the posts were
plumb.
Three hours later we had 7 poles installed.
On
Friday November 23 we started putting on the side decking. My dad
and I met Mr Pinque with his truck at the lumber yard at 10 AM and picked up 84
pieces of pressure treated decking material. We went to the field
were we met 4 other scouts who helped put the decking on.
Since
we were out in field we needed to bring a generator to supply power.
I borrowed the generator from Mr Silva who I know through the
sportsmen's club. Mr Silva's son is an Eagle Scout and he wanted
to help me out.
Mike S and I put the first board in place.
Matt
P and I put the second board down to complete the first course.
We made sure that this course was level so that we could stack
the rest of the boards on top.
Drills away!
The project was starting to look like something.
Break time. The Hot Cocoa really warmed us up.
After the break we started putting the boards up the second side. This went quicker since we were now experienced.
Mackey and Max moved a lot of dirt.
At the end of the day we stopped here. I will have to trade some 8' boards for a few 12' boards to finish.
We had started working at 11 AM and finished at 3:30 PM.
Day One Build Crew
We returned the next morning, Saturday November 24 and worked for an hour and a half doing the final tasks.
Before getting to the site, we went to the lumber yard and exchanged some boards we had for different length ones.
Once
we put those on, it was time to put on the copper caps that would keep
the water from getting down into the grain of the poles. I
applied an adhesive to keep the caps in place.
I placed the first cap on a pole.
Day Two Build Crew: Max H, Nick M, myself and Mackey G
The final product!
Location of Full Picture Set
Copy of my Eagle Project Report
Copy of my Eagle Project Application