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Light Rain Scout hammering down Eagle rank
Guests at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge will have a more enjoyable visit thanks to the work of one local Boy Scout. Keith Donovan, 14, built a shelter at the Queens animal sanctuary for his Eagle Scout project.
The North High School ninth-grader enlisted about 30 fellow scouts and their parents to help build the 14-foot by 14-foot structure to provide visitors to the wildlife refuge relief from the hot sun. On July 25, the group spent about 11 hours constructing the shelter, and completed work after another six hours the following afternoon.
Keith is a Boy Scout with Troop 109, based at Grace United Methodist Church in Valley Stream. His mother Fran said that the troop was contacted by the wildlife refuge, seeking a scout in need of an Eagle project.
In order to complete the project, Keith needed a lot of supplies including pressure-treated wood, plywood, shingles, nails and cement. He sought donations and received a generous contribution from Home Depot in Elmont. “They gave us a lot,” Keith said. “They gave us about half the material that we needed.”
With his project now complete, guests can sit on the benches underneath his shelter and enjoy a picnic lunch without getting sunburned.
A second, smaller project Keith and his fellow scouts completed was the building a rope fence to separate the animal sanctuary from the beach area. “The [old] fence was really crummy,” Keith said. “It was caution tape.”
Keith said he was glad to help out the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. “I thought it was a really great place,” he said. “I saw animals there that I never saw before in my life. The wildlife was amazing. It’s not something you see every day.”
Keith’s next step will be to submit his Eagle application, then sit for an interview with Valley Stream Mayor Ed Cahill. He hopes to officially receive his Eagle rank at a Court of Honor ceremony after New Year’s. It is likely he will earn scouting’s highest honor along with Ryan Potter, a fellow Troop 109 scout who also completed his Eagle project over the summer.
