Jerid Cupp building benches for students

After years of standing around waiting for a ride home from school, Mountain View middle schoolers will be able to kick back on a couple of new redwood benches this fall.

“When I used to go there, I remember seeing a lot of kids standing around out front and they always looked tired. So I decided to build a couple of benches so they’d have something to sit on,” aspiring Eagle Scout Jerid Cupp, 16, said of his service project.

“They’ll have steel frames and the corners will be rounded off where your back meets the seat so they’ll fit your back real nice. And they’ll wrap around with a plaque on each one to say who built it and when,” said Cupp, who’ll be a junior at East Valley High School this fall.

This month, he’s organizing a car wash to help cover the cost of at least half the approximately $600 worth of necessary supplies. A member of Troop 481 in Otis Orchards, he’s already drawn plans for the benches and will soon be recruiting fellow Scouts and friends to help with construction.

Both benches will be anchored into concrete pads near the school’s walkway.

Cupp said the road to his Eagle Scout ranking is both demanding and gratifying.

“Sometimes it seems long and other times, it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “You learn a whole bunch of stuff that will help you through life. And you learn how to work with a lot of people with different perspectives and backgrounds.”