Some may have noticed that there are currently five benches scattered throughout the courtyard area between central hall and south hall. These benches are Junior Tex Van Speybroeck’s Eagle Project. An Eagle Scout Service Project is a project that a scout organizes for a charitable cause. Scouts must do an Eagle Project before they can achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. The project is planned by the Scout and proposed to beneficiaries and scout leaders. The Scout finds workers, raises funds, and oversees the whole project.

Projects are usually done for schools or churches because those are the easiest organizations for a Scout to work with. Speybroeck wanted benches outside between south hall and center hall for students to sit on while waiting on rides.

“I actually consulted Mrs. Somerhalder on this and she had a list of projects that she wanted to do for the school’s tenth anniversary and one of them was a project that a Girl Scout had to put in flowers which fell through, unfortunately, but they were also going to buy benches from the district and put those in,” Speybroeck said. “I proposed that I make the benches and bring them out instead. That is how I got the idea for the project.”

The benches were built over a period of two days. The first was spent cutting, sanding, and sealing the wood. The second day, the benches were assembled and placed.

“To make them, benches took about five hours to assemble and about ten to actually get all the wood cut and prepare it,” Speybroeck said. “We had about thirty people come out and help over both days.”

Speybroeck is proud of the project he chose and of the product of his hard work.

“It’s definitely one of those things that in the moment while you’re doing it and doing all the paperwork and you just think ‘why am I doing this?’ because there’s no tangible item that you’re working on,” he said. “But once you get to that final phase and you’re actually building things and you’re watching it come together, it’s really satisfying.”