Valley Eagle Scout to build church a park

WASILLA — It takes a lot of work to be an Eagle Scout, a fact Bradley Grover learned this summer.

He was at Sacred Heart Church on Bogard Road Saturday supervising a crew of volunteers. He ran a bag of nails to one, then was asked for a hammer.

“Where are the bathrooms?” another volunteer asked.

“Inside the church,” Grover replied.

The point of all this volunteerism and dirt work is to construct a park at the church. Grover said the inspiration for the project came when he was sitting outside at the annual church picnic.

“I said, ‘man, it’s hot out here,’” he recalled. Later, it looked like it was about to rain. “I thought, ‘hey, I could build a pavilion.’”

That pavilion idea quickly developed into a much larger plan. The final project includes a fire pit, two horseshoe pits, a basketball court, a beach volleyball court, grass for the field and the pavilion. He’s also leaving room for a playground, but that’ll go in later.

Though he was the only one in uniform Saturday, he wasn’t the only Scout. There were Scouts from his troop and from the troop associated with Sacred Heart. There were also volunteers from the church’s school, parishioners, friends and family.

And though there’s dirt work to be done and rocks to pick up, hammers to swing and pickaxes to use, Grover said the hard part is already behind him.

“The most challenging part is actually the planning,” he said. “I’ve been working on it since May.”

That planning includes about what you’d expect — making sure you have enough wood, dirt, rocks, tools and people — but also a few things that might not be so obvious. What are people going to eat? Where are they going to use the restroom? How much water should you bring?

Grover said he’s been a Scout since first grade when he signed up as a Tiger Cub.

“I like scouting, it’s a lot of fun,” he said.

An eighth-grader this year at Colony Middle, he’s pretty young for an Eagle Scout, but that doesn’t mean he’s finished with Scouting or that he’s peaked.

“I’m probably going to go into Venturing, which is more advanced,” he said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.