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Eagle projects

Jeff Carpenter chisels out a notch in one of the bunk bed frames he is making for a new cabin at Camp Reed. Scouts from Troop 400 are helping him with his Eagle project. (Liz Kishimoto / The Spokesman-Review)
Paula M. Davenport Correspondent
Jeff Carpenter chisels out a notch in one of the bunk bed frames he is making for a new cabin at Camp Reed. Scouts from Troop 400 are helping him with his Eagle project. (Liz Kishimoto / The Spokesman-Review)

A part-time job teaching kids how to use the Valley YMCA’s indoor climbing wall steered Jeff Carpenter to the Eagle Scout project he’s working on this summer.

Carpenter, 17, is overseeing construction of five bunk beds and a traditional bed frame in a new cabin at the Y’s Camp Reed on Fan Lake. Known as a sky cabin, the dwelling sits on 20-foot-tall stilts.

“The campers are sleeping on mattresses on the floor and they’re really in need of these bunk beds,” said Carpenter, a member of Troop 400.

Carpenter said the building project presents some interesting twists. So far, he’s photographed the cabin’s interior, come up with measurements and drawn plans for the beds.

He’s also been looking for companies willing to cut prices or donate about $600 worth of lumber and supplies. And he’s organizing a daylong work party of Scouts, friends and family who’ll help cut the lumber in his dad’s shop.

On an upcoming Saturday, he’ll round up his buddies again to haul the lumber into the sky cabin and hammer the beds together.

“It’ll probably take about eight hours cutting and six to eight hours of assembly and that’s with all of us working together,” he said. He hopes between five and 10 helpers show up on each of two work days.

Carpenter began planning this project last March. Like all aspiring Eagle Scouts, he filed a detailed, written proposal to be OK’d at the local and national level.

“There’s a workbook we go through and I have to organize and find workers,” he said. Once the project is completed, a review panel will quiz Carpenter about the project, ensuring he was behind the work.

On the academic side, he’ll soon be a senior at U-Hi and also is enrolled in the Running Start program, which lets him take college courses.

A Scout since fifth grade, he’s an outdoorsman to the core. “I like the camping and have really gotten into trap shooting and backpacking,” he said.

He’ll be a third generation Eagle Scout when he finishes his project. “It’s rewarding to know I have the determination to do this. Actually seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is nice.”