Tolar Community Center

Vital Stats

Cody E

Tolar, TX

  • people helped850
  • People Doing It 22

The Problem

The town of Tolar is in the process of building and trying to complete a community center. Tolar is a small, mostly rural community (about 550 in the city limits). There is virtually no commercial tax base for city funds. There is also no place in the community for city gatherings, school fundraisers or a place for senior citizens to hold activities. Several years ago, land was donated for a community center to address this. Fund raisers were held and donations collected to start the building. All of the labor and building supplies were donated. Last spring, the outside of the building was finally completed, but the inside was a shell and the community had lost the steam to finish. I needed an Eagle Scout project and felt I could help.

Plan of Action

I did a lot of research online, with my county extention agent and with the Master Gardeners on the type of drought tolerant plants that would grow best in my area. I drew up a landscape plan that included a sprinkler system and took into consideration the drainage, the sun location at different times of the day and the type of plants that were easy to care for. I presented my plan to my Eagle committee, my district Eagle Board, the fund raising committee and the Tolar council. Once it was approved, I planned my work days and began to solicit donations from businesses to carry out my plan. I was able to get all of my top soil, mulch, drain pipes, irrigation equipment and plants donated by local businesses. I even got three trees donated and landscape rocks. Scouts and adults from my troop worked for two full days spreading dirt, burying sprinkler lines and drain pipes, and planting all the trees and plants. My project took over 189 hours to complete. Once I was done, I presented a plaque to the city for the center. The new landscaping has gotten the community excited about completeing the interior and they are holding fundraisers monthly to finish up.
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