A Greenwood Community High School freshman’s Eagle Scout project is already improving the lives of his former teachers and students who attended his middle school.
Peyton Barnes recently completed his project to earn the highest ranking award in Boy Scouts. He designed and built shelves that sit in a teacher’s store room at Greenwood Community Middle School and built a rock logo of Greenwood’s ubiquitous G near the football field of the middle school.
Barnes enjoyed his time at the middle school and wanted a way to give back. He helped a teacher toting around materials for a fundraiser and thought a storage shelf might help her, he said.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
And he wanted a way for middle school students to have more school spirit and to commemorate the school’s move from downtown Greenwood to Averitt Road.
“I wanted to give back to the school I just came from,” he said.
Thinking of the idea for the projects and executing all of the pieces from designing to building took Barnes just under a year.
He found other ideas that he couldn’t execute, such as benches on the school’s property and a condiment stand.
After thinking on it and consulting the middle school principal, he landed on the two ideas that made him an Eagle Scout.
Once Barnes decided he would build the shelf and logo, he got to work on the logistics of the project.
He searched online and at physical hardware stores for lumber, landscaping and paint costs to get an estimate of his project. He then got to work raising the $1,040 he thought it would take to get the job done.
“I looked at every item I could,” he said.
He called a local fast food restaurant that agreed to split a percentage of their sales with him on a dine to donate night, earning him $170. He washed cars in the parking lot of a pizza restaurant and he and other members of his Boy Scout group made and served pancakes, with family and friends donating some of the supplies.
All of the fundraisers allowed him to meet his goals.
Then, the build work started. He recruited volunteers who would help him and got to work. He finished the project in February.
Both of the additions to the school have helped the school community, Chris Sutton, Greenwood Community Middle School principal said.
Teachers and custodians have more storage for their supplies and the G that greets Greenwood residents and visitors alike should help move Greenwood’s reputation forward, he said.
“We hope when people see that, they think excellence and good thoughts come to mind,” Sutton said.
