On Sunday, May 18th, Scott Fischer received Boy Scout's highest and most prestigious award the rank of Eagle. Scott is a member of local Troop 97 and an 18-year old senior at Mt. Shasta High School.
One of Scott's requirements to earn the Eagle rank was to initiate and complete a community project. For this, he built four beautiful and sturdy wood benches, which he and some fellow scouts have recently installed along the boardwalks in Sisson Meadow, located at the east end of Castle Street in Mt Shasta.
Scott was inspired to build the benches after seeing that there was nowhere for people to sit while walking along the 1/4-mile long boardwalks.
Originally, Scott considered purchasing and installing new benches, but at a cost of $600 apiece, it would have been a challenging fundraising task. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves, recruited some fellow scouts, and organized the project himself utilizing the skills, ingenuity and generosity of local people and materials. As a result, the total cost for all four benches was $200. instead of a whopping $2400.
Scott started by working with Jim and Velma Nile of Mt Shasta, who provided cedar timbers and milled them into 3x4 and 3x6 beams that Scott had planed and stained to make them smooth and weather-resistant.
Chris Marrone of Marrone Construction helped Scott weld the steel supports for the benches, Chuck Schlumpberger of Schlumpberger Engineering helped Scott design the floating concrete bench foundations so they could be installed in the wetland setting, and Tom Hesseldenz, a local landscape contractor who designed the boardwalks, assisted as a contact for the Siskiyou Land Trust, who owns the property, and helped with siting the benches along widened portions of the boardwalk.
I had fun and learned a lot doing this project said Scott, who is also a car mechanic and plans to attend Shasta College next year, where he wants to major in diesel technology and obtain his welding certification. After college, Scott hopes to return to Mt. Shasta, where he has lived for seven years. It was especially rewarding, while we were installing the final bench, to see people already sitting in the first benches we had installed!
I'd really like to thank Mt. Shasta Rotary for donating $200, said Scott, as well as Jim and Velma Nile, Tom Hesseldenz, Chris Marrone and Chuck Schlumpberger who generously offered their time to help me complete the project plus, of course, my fellow scouts and my dad, Brad Fischer.
Jack Moore, president of the Siskiyou Land Trust, said, "We are extremely pleased and appreciative of Scott's hard work and initiative. The benches are a great addition to the boardwalk system at Sisson Meadow, and we know they'll be used and enjoyed by many people for years to come."
