Dutiful boy scouts lend helping hand

Not only did boy scouts heed the motto "Be Prepared," more than 1,200 showed just how ready and able they could be during three days of projects held at area parks during the Columbus Day weekend.

The Greater Niagara Frontier Council of Boy Scouts of America organized an outdoors program to upgrade, improve and enhance structures and accesses at area public-access sites. The project was in planning for two years.

Chestnut Ridge Park served as the base of operations, but scouts wearing distinctive burnt-orange tee shirts could also be seen assisting works at other sites in Erie and Niagara Counties.

During a Saturday lunch served to all scouts at the Chestnut Ridge site, Mona Lloyd, BSA project leader, said, "Scouts usually bring and prepare their own food, but we're serving them here so they can have more time to help at project sites."

Lloyd noted that about 900 scouts were working at Chestnut Ridge, 200 helped at Niagara Gorge, 80 scouts spent the day at Beaver Island State Park, another 80 assisted through the weekend at Emery Park and smaller groups pitched in at sites in Buffalo at Martin Luther King Park, Delaware Park around Rumsey Woods and Hoyt Lake.

Skilled and hard-working members of the Central and WNY Chapter of Safari Club International brought the heavy equipment, materials, and construction savvy needed to build a dock at the center of the Chestnut Ridge pond.

"The dock will give anglers with impairments such as soldiers in Wounded Warriors a chance to get out and enjoy fishing the pond," said SCI member Bob Keicher.

He pointed out that the donated SCI dock-building project, if completed by a private contractor, would cost the county about $300,000.

The T-shaped dock, measuring 15-feet wide, parallels shore with 75 feet of railing. The access road to the dock has been paved and the deck of the dam connecting the Commissioner's Cabin and the new dock has been rebuilt for easy walking and wheelchair access.

Erie County Parks Commissioner Jim Hornung said of the SCI project, "It's all about the public having access to this great area. What a place to have kids fish safely."

Hornung personally and publicly thanked all the scouts and coordinators for their planning and extensive work contributions during the Saturday lunch.

Among those contributors, Michael Meyers, council president, thanked Hornung and took me on a site tour to other projects downhill from the pond.

Along with rebuilding and painting shelters, planting gardens, and assisting at the dock project, the scouts also pitched in at upgrading of the Deputy Commissioner's Cabin and a Warming Station.

Workers replaced windows and doors in the cabin, but Meyers explained that the Warming Station was a major project. A weathered, decaying toilet facility back in the woods had to be taken down.

So the Legacy 11 and county parks planners opted to rebuild it as a place at cross sections of several trails where hikers, snowmobilers, and cross-country skiers could stop and warm up along the way.

When completed, the stone-based cabin will be closed to the elements and provide a fireplace for all enjoying their cold-weather outdoors activities.

"We like to call all these projects a 'gathering of the resources,'" Meyers modestly said as we passed dozens of orange-shirted scouts at work on buildings and grounds.

Other projects included work on the Emery Park amphitheater, landscaping at Ellicott Creek Park, gardens at the Convention Center, shore upgrading at Hoyt Lake among other upgrading and building work.

"Knowing and serving public interests have been a central part of BSA involvement," said BSA historian Paul Freitag. Paul and his Wife DeAnna Freitag manned a display of scouting documents, sash merit-badge and awards displays, and outdoors projects exhibits.

"Civics has always been a key instructional aspect in BSA teaching," Freitag said, pointing to metals and badges first presented to deserving scouts in 1924.

That tradition continued in full force throughout the Columbus Day weekend at county parks and other outdoors access sites.

If the parks look a bit nicer when you are out enjoying the fall foliage this year, thank the BSA Legacy '11 planners and volunteers.

Article Taken from The Buffalo News

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