Shivam Patel, Eagle Scout
Total Volunteer Hours Worked: 114
I worked with the Katherine Hanley Family Shelter to give them some supplies and helped them with their storage. The shelter is located in Fairfax, Virginia at 12970 Katherine Hanley Court. One of the rooms at the shelter is lacking some storage spaces, which was why I built 2 bookshelves to add to the room so kids can have a place to store books and other supplies. The dimensions of the shelves are 3 feet tall, with one being 4 feet wide and another being 3 feet wide. This allowed kids to access the items on the shelves easily.
I also conducted an online drive through Amazon Wishlist to collect books and school supplies. These items helped the shelter with back-to-school season, along with the shelves.
Observations and Challenges
I had a good number of scouts show up, and we got everything done in a timely manner. I actually ended up cancelling one of the afternoon shifts, since we finished all of the work needed for that day in the morning, and just had to finish staining a few boards that 2 of the scouts stayed for an extra hour to help out with, but I ended up finishing 3 hours early that day. I also finished early by half an hour on the second day.
The bookshelves turned out extremely strong and well put together, there were no bad gaps or mistakes during the assembly process, and they seem like they will last a long while.
During the project day, I faced several challenges. Making sure the scouts payed attention and properly followed instructions was difficult for the first day. I had a vision for how I wanted things to be, and figuring out how to get that vision across properly was a challenge. I did end up resolving most of this however by demonstrating how I wanted a certain process to be and making sure they listened enough to replicate it.
I also at times had too many scouts at once, where there was only a few jobs availible, so I had to make sure each scout was involved and wasn’t bored. I combated this by having some rotations for tasks that permitted it, allowing multiple scouts to be a part of one step, and also breaking down some tasks into simpler steps that multiple scouts could help with, also allowing the project to be completed faster.
Changes (from Original Proposal)
I ended up buying a different type of wood, because it was higher quality and the wood I planned on buying had imperfections at the store that would have made the project worse. I also had an adult use an orbital sander to sand the wood, because it would be faster and more efficient than having scouts do it by hand, as well as more cost effective. I also didn’t end up using nails in the sides of the boards, since I was able to have the boards assembled using screws and it was strong enough to not require nails to hold the sides in before the screws.
Leadership
I had my helpers do 99% of the work, and I instructed them on what I wanted to be done and had them follow my instruction while I supervised them. For example, during the staining I would showcase how to stain the wood on a sample piece I wasn’t using for the project, and then had the helpers watch me an then replicate it themselves on the boards.
I also delegated tasks during the building process such as having someone drill pilot holes, someone screw in the screws, and was there to supervise and give guidance on what I wanted done or if someone had questions.
The most difficult part about being the leader was having to make sure that people knew what to do without myself doing it for them. I found myself wanting to do work by myself, however I pulled back and did my best to teach the scouts instead, with demonstrations if needed. On the contrary, the most rewarding part about being the leader was being able to see my vision of the project be carried out, and being able to guide people and not necessarily do it all myself.
My leadership skills were further developed throughout this project because I learned how to be more direct with explaining how to do something, as well as I have more experience with teaching scouts new skills.
Transporting to the Katherine Hanley Shelter
Completed Work