In January, a young man named Ian (the son of one of our bluebird monitors) contacted us to see if he could do his Eagle Scout Service Project at the foundation. I had just attended my cousin’s Court of Honor ceremony and I was so impressed with everything he did in order to achieve the rank that I was really excited to get the chance to work with Ian. Ian did not disappoint, and less than four months later, we have an absolutely beautifully renovated Event Kitchen to share with our visitors as we head into our busiest season.
When we first started meeting with Ian, we presented him with several things on site in desperate need of attention–broken and rotting bird blinds, certain sections of trail, the pavilion, and our Event Kitchen. Luckily for us, he decided to go with the biggest project, and the one that we needed the most help with–the renovation of our Event Kitchen. It would be a huge undertaking and require a lot of manpower, but Ian entered the planning phase of his project with the goal of a late spring completion date.
Over the next couple months, Ian spent 25 hours planning and preparing for the project. He completed an incredibly detailed project proposal, calculated the amount of material that would need to be ordered, planned for tools and other supplies, and recruited a group of volunteers that would help with the renovation on the two days he designated for the project–April 27 and May 4.
A total of 24 volunteers showed up over two days and put in about 185 hours to completely re-side and stain the entire building. It was not all smooth sailing, and Ian and Matt worked together to figure out what to do about rotted posts, bent door hinges, and a variety of other surprise challenges, but we made it through under Ian’s guidance and somehow managed to finish in those two days. I cannot speak highly enough about the amount of time and the quality of the work that Ian put in to his project with us, and we will forever be grateful that he chose us for his project.
Check out the photos below to see the Event Kitchen’s amazing transformation over two weekends:
A “before” shot of the siding
The demolition phase begins!
Pulling off the old siding was fairly quick work…Now on to the hard part!
First side is on and ready to be stained
Beginning of Day 2–Starting off with a safety briefing
Almost finished with the siding
Ian overseeing one of our biggest challenges–the doors
The Survivors celebrating the end of Day 2
The finished Event Kitchen–isn’t she beautiful?
Thank you again to Ian and all of the volunteers who came out on April 27 and May 4 to make this transformation possible. I had so much fun being a part of this project and the time and skill you dedicated to it is truly remarkable.