Several months back B & I were asked to chair the Spiritual & Service portions of the EFY our stake is hosting the first week of June. This means we are over the service project on Saturday morning, and the final testimony meeting as well as a few other details. We immediately began searching for service projects where 300 people could be involved at the same time. My sister H was involved with a friend from her ward in an amazing service project of compiling kits for the humanitarian center at the recent BYU Women's Conference. All my sisters and Mom were involved in helping pull that off. It was the night before J's graduation from college, and I am so grateful that I was here to be a part of that beautiful day, but disappointed because I couldn't go there to see that project in action. I heard it was amazing! I heard it was well organized, massive scale! I heard they loaded a semi truck full of kits! To gather supplies to pack them even is mind boggling! Let alone the assembly line of keeping people busy for the four hour block, etc.!
B&I decided that we wanted to divide these volunteers into smaller groups, and have them work on individual projects accomplishing many smaller projects. As of today, there are some 15 Eagle projects along the trail to implementation to utilize the help of those 300 people on the morning of June 6th! It's going to be awesome! Some are planting trees (258) along Pioneer Parkway. Some will be building the "Welcome to Bloomington" sign just off the freeway. Some will be helping with landscaping on that same corner (another scout's project). Some will be mending and oiling the fence around the petroglyph park here in Bloomington. Some will be planting trees (10) out at the Community Storage RV Park. Some will be painting the 627 fire hydrants that are within our stake boundaries. I am excited! It has been alot of work to get all these Eagle packets ready for approval by the Board. I have helped them to gather the necessary data, and then reviewed and edited the packets, and then many times, I have been on the board to approve the projects. I have learned much about the Eagle process,and have been impressed with the qualities that this experience teaches boys! B jokes that in addition to my own seven children I have adopted these 15 boys, to help them each along the trail to Eagle!
In conjunction with this project, the Bloomington Community Council said they would put the sprinkler system for the trees. They had hired someone else to do it, but with some encouragement, and due to a shortage of funds, I encouraged them to pay a couple of boys by the hour to oversee the project, recruiting the help of the Eagles, and thereby save the city money in sprinklers so they could afford all the other parts. So on Monday morning, J and I set out to the parts store to pick up supplies! 11,000 ft of pipe, 167 sprinkler heads, valves, boxes, rolls and rolls of wire, 12 bottles of PVC primer and glue - which is BLUE! It is stuck all over all of us! Monday after school I met Jed there, and we carefully loaded all 138 lengths of 2" pipe they had in stock onto our trailer. We planned to drive along the trench which was graded by a volunteer from the Community Council and drop the pipe right into the hole. This worked out GREAT! The store offered to deliver it to site, but then we would have to reload it onto our truck or manually drag it the entire 2 1/2 miles down the road to the right spot. L just recently turned 15, and got her drivers permit. She drove the truck slowly along the trench, and J pulled the pipe into place while I met with another scout! J called shortly after beginning to announce it was all in place, he headed back in for another load which was also in the trench quickly with more help from our awesome family! J & S started gluing on the South end of the line, while L & I pulled the rest of the pipe into place. We worked hard, and by 6:30 that night J.M. stopped seeing that we were working! He said he would be right back with his eagle scout N.M.. By the time they got back we were really moving, and had glued all the 2" pipe together to the end of the line! It was awesome! They said they wanted to come help the next night, so we decided to get all the other scouts there to help as well! That night late we worked in the gargage (out of the sun and heat of the day) assembling the T's adapters and funny pipes to which the bubbler ends will go. We got about half of them assembled Monday night. It was late that night (after 11) before I texted those I had cell phone #'s for, and asked for their help anytime the next day! My awesome family got up at 5:30 the next morning, leaving B, S and J here in bed. Together we set the boxes where the valves go before B had to get to the office. Then J, L, S and I started gluing the pipes in! J worked hard all day! I had to leave a few times to pick up BB guns for Cub Day camp, and for a few checks at the office. Around 3 when school got out, the boys started showing up. We had some 30 scouts working that afternoon! With some gluing pipes in the trenches, some here assembling the rest of the T's, all working hard together, we drove the 'Golden Spike' when the North workers met the Souther workers in the middle section and finished all the 1 1/2" sprinkler line with all 167 stubs up for the trees! It was amazing! At 4:50 I ran back to the supply house to change some wrong parts, and told them we were going to be done that night. They couldn't believe it! It truely was amazing! All the boys were invited to come to our house for a Frazzil, it was so awesome to hear them talk about how cool it was to have all that work done so quickly! To be a part of such an awesome project!
It was Elder Christofferson in the last conference who said "We need strong Christians who can make important things happen by their faith." That is exactly what I saw happen this week! J believed he could get this done, and he did! All those boys felt grateful to have been a part of such an awesome endeavor! In the middle of the afternoon, there were some boys who had to leave for scouts, and they didn't want to leave. They were so cool! No we want to stay and get this done! It was awesome! I am grateful to be part of such a force for good! Amazing!
B&I decided that we wanted to divide these volunteers into smaller groups, and have them work on individual projects accomplishing many smaller projects. As of today, there are some 15 Eagle projects along the trail to implementation to utilize the help of those 300 people on the morning of June 6th! It's going to be awesome! Some are planting trees (258) along Pioneer Parkway. Some will be building the "Welcome to Bloomington" sign just off the freeway. Some will be helping with landscaping on that same corner (another scout's project). Some will be mending and oiling the fence around the petroglyph park here in Bloomington. Some will be planting trees (10) out at the Community Storage RV Park. Some will be painting the 627 fire hydrants that are within our stake boundaries. I am excited! It has been alot of work to get all these Eagle packets ready for approval by the Board. I have helped them to gather the necessary data, and then reviewed and edited the packets, and then many times, I have been on the board to approve the projects. I have learned much about the Eagle process,and have been impressed with the qualities that this experience teaches boys! B jokes that in addition to my own seven children I have adopted these 15 boys, to help them each along the trail to Eagle!
In conjunction with this project, the Bloomington Community Council said they would put the sprinkler system for the trees. They had hired someone else to do it, but with some encouragement, and due to a shortage of funds, I encouraged them to pay a couple of boys by the hour to oversee the project, recruiting the help of the Eagles, and thereby save the city money in sprinklers so they could afford all the other parts. So on Monday morning, J and I set out to the parts store to pick up supplies! 11,000 ft of pipe, 167 sprinkler heads, valves, boxes, rolls and rolls of wire, 12 bottles of PVC primer and glue - which is BLUE! It is stuck all over all of us! Monday after school I met Jed there, and we carefully loaded all 138 lengths of 2" pipe they had in stock onto our trailer. We planned to drive along the trench which was graded by a volunteer from the Community Council and drop the pipe right into the hole. This worked out GREAT! The store offered to deliver it to site, but then we would have to reload it onto our truck or manually drag it the entire 2 1/2 miles down the road to the right spot. L just recently turned 15, and got her drivers permit. She drove the truck slowly along the trench, and J pulled the pipe into place while I met with another scout! J called shortly after beginning to announce it was all in place, he headed back in for another load which was also in the trench quickly with more help from our awesome family! J & S started gluing on the South end of the line, while L & I pulled the rest of the pipe into place. We worked hard, and by 6:30 that night J.M. stopped seeing that we were working! He said he would be right back with his eagle scout N.M.. By the time they got back we were really moving, and had glued all the 2" pipe together to the end of the line! It was awesome! They said they wanted to come help the next night, so we decided to get all the other scouts there to help as well! That night late we worked in the gargage (out of the sun and heat of the day) assembling the T's adapters and funny pipes to which the bubbler ends will go. We got about half of them assembled Monday night. It was late that night (after 11) before I texted those I had cell phone #'s for, and asked for their help anytime the next day! My awesome family got up at 5:30 the next morning, leaving B, S and J here in bed. Together we set the boxes where the valves go before B had to get to the office. Then J, L, S and I started gluing the pipes in! J worked hard all day! I had to leave a few times to pick up BB guns for Cub Day camp, and for a few checks at the office. Around 3 when school got out, the boys started showing up. We had some 30 scouts working that afternoon! With some gluing pipes in the trenches, some here assembling the rest of the T's, all working hard together, we drove the 'Golden Spike' when the North workers met the Souther workers in the middle section and finished all the 1 1/2" sprinkler line with all 167 stubs up for the trees! It was amazing! At 4:50 I ran back to the supply house to change some wrong parts, and told them we were going to be done that night. They couldn't believe it! It truely was amazing! All the boys were invited to come to our house for a Frazzil, it was so awesome to hear them talk about how cool it was to have all that work done so quickly! To be a part of such an awesome project!
It was Elder Christofferson in the last conference who said "We need strong Christians who can make important things happen by their faith." That is exactly what I saw happen this week! J believed he could get this done, and he did! All those boys felt grateful to have been a part of such an awesome endeavor! In the middle of the afternoon, there were some boys who had to leave for scouts, and they didn't want to leave. They were so cool! No we want to stay and get this done! It was awesome! I am grateful to be part of such a force for good! Amazing!
