All in all, it took about 450 volunteer hours to complete the job

FAIR OAKS, CA (MPG) - The heavily travelled path between the A and B Buildings at Bella Vista High School used to have narrow concrete walkways and lots of grass; after a rain, the grassy area turned into a virtual mud pit.  Fixing this problem had been on the minds of school administrators for a while, so when the school’s Interact Club, which is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Fair Oaks, offered money and sweat to help solve it, the answer was YES. Then the question became who would oversee the whole thing.  That was solved when Ben Rudd, a BV sophomore and Boy Scout, took it on as his Eagle Scout project.

Ben soon became acquainted with all the facets of managing a job like this, from getting a qualified person to design it, to figuring out how to pay for it, to getting volunteers during summer vacation, to the vagaries of weather, to… well, you name it.  The design part was solved by a plan suggested by Rotarian Ralph Carhart, a retired landscape architect.

The money angle was partially helped by the Interact Club’s healthy treasury, largely consisting of tips earned at the Rotary Club’s past Crab Feeds, and Ben did the project a huge favor when Thompson Building Materials, after learning of the project from him, donated $2,200 worth of pavers.  The sweat came from Ben’s fellow Scouts and their families, along with Interact Club members, and once Rotarians learned of the project, they showed up also. Remember the mention of the vagaries of weather?  Well, the first two days of the project, which mainly consisted of a lot of shoveling, ended up occurring on the two hottest days of the mid-June heat wave.

All in all, it took about 450 volunteer hours to complete the job, about a third of which came from Interactors and Rotarians. The cost of sand and gravel, equipment rentals, and food and water for volunteers (partly paid for using a gift card donated by Costco), came to $2,445, all paid by the Interact Club. The general contractor volunteer who oversaw the job estimated that the cost would have been $10,000-$15,000 if done by a commercial company.  So, from any angle, this project added value… to the school, to Ben’s practical and leadership skills, and to the sense of accomplishment of every volunteer.  Job well done!