Friends complete Scout’s unfinished work

Andrew Rosell has left his footprint on the mountain he so loved in life. An avid snowboarder, Rosell used to volunteer every autumn to cut brush and work at Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboarding Park to earn his season pass for the chairlifts.

He noticed that the roof on lift No. 3 needed to be replaced and decided it would be a great project to earn his Eagle Scout ranking. Unfortunately, he didn’t get a chance to see it through.

The 16-year-old Mt. Spokane High School student died last May when he was struck by a truck.

The Boy Scouts of America awarded him the Spirit of Eagle award, which honors Scouts who have completed much of the work required to become an Eagle Scout but died before they could achieve it.

Andrew earned more than 40 merit badges and only had to complete a project for a nonprofit organization.

Shortly after his funeral, his family and friends, including Scout leaders Jim Grier and Pat Willis, decided to finish the project for him.

On a recent weekend, members of the Boy Scouts; Campfire USA; friends; his parents; grandparents; an aunt; and his sister, Stephanie, gathered at the mountain to replace the chairlift’s roof. They also painted the inside and outside of lodge No. 2 and cleared brush around the chairlift.

“I’m just blessed that we’re able to finish this for him,” said his mother, Brenda Prentice.

The project was a big one. The original wooden roof – which is about 30 feet off the ground – needed to be torn out before it could be replaced with metal roofing and other materials, which were donated by Ziggy’s Building Materials and the Spokane Valley Lowe’s Home Improvement. To reach the roof, volunteers used a cherry-picker which was donated by R&R RV.

On Sept. 22 and 23, there were about 50 volunteers busy hammering, painting or cleaning up debris. Several volunteers were on top of the chairlift roof.

The volunteers spent time working and remembering their friend with laughter and tears.

Andrew’s father, Ed Rosell, said his son wasn’t going to tackle the project by himself.

Prospective Eagle Scouts must organize the project and complete the paperwork, raise a crew to do the work and see the project through to the end.

“(Earning an Eagle Scout ranking was about) teaching him to become an organized young man and a leader,” Ed Rosell said.

Andrew loved being outdoors; his parents first took him camping before he was even 1 year old.

As a teenage boy, he also liked his video games, basketball and climbing.

Snowboarding was one of his favorite activities. Last winter, he broke his clavicle trying to avoid hitting someone else.

The accident required surgery, and Andrew received a 3-inch metal place and seven screws in his collarbone.

Prentice said he went back to school the next day.

“School was a highlight to him,” she said.

Andrew even persuaded his mother to try snowboarding last year. She took lessons and plans on doing it again this winter.

She’ll take his place in the crew that works on the mountain to earn her own season pass.

He was a Life Scout with the Boy Scouts and volunteered his time with Valley Hospital and Medical Center’s Kids Carnival of Safety, the Children’s Miracle Network and Hoopfest. He joined Boy Scouts as a Tiger Cub when he was in the first grade.

Prentice said that to complete an Eagle Scout project, scouts must keep track of the hours spent on the project.

Andrew had dedicated 10 hours to the project before he died, and the volunteers added another 900 hours to that.

The family worked to get donations for the roof and the lodge and also fed the volunteers – chili dogs one day and hamburgers the next.

Andrew’s grandparents Charles and Carol Prentice, his aunt Shelly Bauge, and his parents, along with Alpine Bakery and Bistro, donated and prepared food for the volunteers.

The group of his loved ones also released red balloons with messages to Andrew.

“He enjoyed being around people,” his mother said. “Family and friends meant everything to him.”

She hopes the project can help her family heal from the pain of losing Andrew.

To honor him, the volunteers included an addition to the chairlift, other than the new roof. Andrew’s snowboard, which all of the volunteers signed, will be mounted at lift No. 3, a reminder of the boy who loved the mountain so much.