Scout project repairs damage by vandals

PALMER — It’s a perfect match.

Three years ago the press box at Palmer High School’s football field was vandalized. The deadbolt to the building was broken, walls were kicked and punched in, and property stolen and destroyed.

The building has stayed that way since. PHS Athletic Director Jeff Thiede said the school has been looking to repair it, but has lacked the manpower and time to take on the project.

Enter Kade Owens.

As a member of the Boy Scouts of America, Owens, a 15-year old sophomore at Palmer High School, has been looking for a project that would work for his service project — the last step before becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest honor to obtain in Scouts.

Owens started Scouts when he was 8, and has continued with the program for the last seven years.

Over the time he has earned merit badges such as the “citizenship in the community,” while mixing in hours of community service and climbing up the ranks of the Scouts.

Once he obtained 20 merit badges, Owens needed one more to become an Eagle Scout, but in order to do that he would have to do a community service project that would fit the bill.

Being a member of the Palmer football team, Owens figured there was no better project than one that would help the community and his team.

“I was looking for some service projects to do and I thought it would be a good one to do because of all of the vandalism that has happened to the press box,” Owens said. “I thought it would be cool to do one that would help the team and school.”

So starting on Tuesday, Owens and the local Scout Troop 35 took to the press box, cleaning up the broken sheet rock, starting the process of revamping the inside of the building.

Palmer had just recently constructed the press box before the vandals took to it. When Owens first approached the school about the potential project, Thiede said the school was more than happy to support him.

“Here we had built this nice press box and somebody got into it. It was disgusting,” Thiede said. “We’ve tried to get it repaired and Kade said he would like to undertake that task. He came to us. We didn’t go to him. So we bought materials since it was something that we were going to do anyway and he said he would do it.”

Thiede said Owens will redo the sheet rock inside the building and “resurface the entire inside” in order to get the press box back to where it was before the vandalism.

In obtaining the Eagle Scout status, Owens said it would not only be quite the summation to his scouting career, but will also work well for him in the future either on a job resume or college application.

According to scoutinginalaska.org only 5 percent of all boy Scouts in America obtain Eagle Scout status.

Owens hopes to use his status as an Eagle Scout to get ahead of the curve and eventually propel him to greater heights — literally.

“As soon I’m done with my Eagle, I’m looking forward to trying to achieve my private pilot’s license,” Owens said. “I would like to become a pilot when I’m older. My goal would to be a commercial airline pilot.”

Before then, Owens will spend the rest of his Christmas break finishing up the project at the high school, along with the adventure that he began when he was just a child.

“We’ll probably be there ‘til about four or five in the evening,” Owens said Tuesday. “Finish up the sheeting, plywood and cleanup. Then we’ll trim later this week. Then I’ll be done.”