So I know alot of you are very interested in honoring our vets. As am I. I guess that rubbed off on my son Sean as he asked the local group of Vietnam Vets at the American Legion if their was a project they would like him to do for his Eagle Scout. We were at a candle light ceremony at the local Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the time. The gentleman he spoke to got a huge smile and told him to wait right there. He brought over the president of their group who told Sean that they've been trying for 10+ years to get some sort of wetherproof display to hold a booklet they have listing the obituaries of all the young men who were KIA/MIA during the Vietnam war. They listed the locater book at the wall as their example. They also gave Sean free reign to design it as he saw fit and told him they'd already raised the funds.
The pics you'll see below are the finished result. This design is entirely his, WITH NO HELP FROM ME OR MY FATHER. See, mt dad has a 5 year architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania and I have a tech school diploma in architectural drafting. So we explained that this had to be his design. We would only intervene if it was structurally not doable. He spent about a month learning Google Sketch Up and designing the project.
In the first pic you'll see the book of rememberence in it's display case. Everything behind the straight white border he designed and built. He matched the existing stamped concrete and granite of the current memorial. He worked with a contractor to pour and stamp the concrete although he built the forms after I cut the materials. No one under 18 can use any power tools during an Eagle Project. Scout rules, not mine! He organized a team to dig out and plant the area. And since painting the white border of his area would make the older area look mismatched he repainted the enite memorial. You'll see the size of that in the second pic (Sean's the one standing in that pic). He also added LED lights throught the entire case so it can be viewed at night. The extension cord seen in the pics is only temporary to make sure the lights were still connected and working after transport. There's an underground conduit the Sean installed so their electrician can add it to the current light circuit that's at the memorial. The whole case is made of Acrylic, both smoked and clear so it's really amazing to see it at night.
The Vets were so impressed when they saw his design that they asked him to add a sign in book to the display. That's on the slide out, self closing drawer shown in pic three.
They also got into a bit of a disagreement about the placement. Some wanted it to double as a podium for their presnetations that they do on memorial day. Some wanted it near the entrance area so people would see it first. Sean settled the dispute by offering to install a second post to hold a podium, which he would build out of matching Acrylic. That's shown in the fourth pic.
The final pic is of the memorial itself. This is the design he wanted his addition to match. I'm frankly amazed at how well he did that. With no training he did a better job then either my father or I could've. He's planning on studying Naval Architecture at the Coast Guard Academy.
They will be dedicating the memorial on Memorial Day, May 31, 2010 at 1:00 PM. I've heard that it will be covered on the local news. I will post links if they come through with that. If you're in the area of Pottsville, PA feel free to stop in and see it. It's only about 5 miles south of the Yuengling brewery on Route 61, right next to the entrance of Penn State Schuylkill Campus.
Ride Safe,
J-Carr
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Topic: My son's Eagle Scout project. (Read 2135 times)