See It: The Community being helped

I wanted to do something pretty meaningful for my Eagle Scout project. Our Scout Troop, Denver Area Council Troop 556, works closely with Denver Mountain Parks, of Morrison, Colorado, to provide some important service to keep parks, trails, and recreation areas in good condition and taken care of.

The Braille Trail is one of their most interesting trails. Running the length of the 1.5-mile loop is a coated metal cable to assist blind persons in hiking and every few hundred feet is a plaque in both Braille and Romanized letters that describe the area around the trail, thus opening a whole new world to people with vision problems.

At the bottom of the loop is a picnic area with tables, benches, and a bathroom. The area had fallen into disrepair and was splintered and decayed, with the wood from the tables rotting and unusable. For my project, myself and a group of about 10 or 15 went into this area and restored it to a usable state. We sanded down all the rough edges and replaced much of the rotting wood. We then stained the tables with fresh, biodegradable stain to protect them from the elements. A few days later, three of us returned and sanded the wooden walls of the outhouse and painted it with water-based paint to protect it.

The end result wasn't immediately noticeable, but after a few weeks, we returned to the area for a picnic and enjoyed not being splintered and could readily tell the difference we had made.

See It: The Community being helped

Just Read It! is designed to bring together children and teenagers through books in many different settings. We would like to reach mainstream and not-so mainstream children. Our 4 goal groups are foster, hospitalized, blind and "regular" kids. The idea is to collect books or to write our own and record these stories onto the computer. When that is done we will make CD's to send to any child who is feeling down, lonely, sad, or sick. This will not only help the child who is recieving it but it will foster an awareness among more priveleged children about what it means to need treatment every day, not to be able to see, not to have a home and not to have the priveleges that they take for granted. We will have fundraisers that will be run by the kids, hospital visits and brainstorming sessions. Contact us if you want to get involved!

See It: The Community being helped

Once a month volunteers get together to prepare and serve a meal at a local church to community members and their families. The majority of those who are served are either deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or developmentally or physically disabled. Many people who come to the feeding are impovershed and live in group homes and may not have any family left in their lives. Others are lucky enough to have family whom they live with and whom accompany them to the feeding.
Volunteers cook each meal as if it was for themselves. The time, effort and love put into each dish is reflected in the service and radiates out onto the population served. Those who come to eat get a full plate and balanced meal, with as much food as they wish. Any leftovers are handed out so the people who come can take food home.
On average, we serve about 150-200 plates each time we hold the feeding. About half of the food is donated from local churches and businesses, while the other half is purchased by volunteers.
The unique thing about this project is that none of the volunteers know sign language, none of them have ever worked with the blind, and the majority have never interacted with a developmentally disabled person. The only common thread is the food. Food is a universal language, everyone eats, and everyone has to eat. No one should ever feel hungry, regardless of their circumstances. The volunteers and attendees are united by food, they all eat together when the serving is done, and the food opens up communication that would otherwise be difficult to occur. Breaking barriers with food unites people, unites a community, while tackling the issue of hunger.

See It: The Community being helped

Michael Page of NJ created Talking Pages, Inc. after his Aunt developed macular degeneration and could no longer read. Michael formed an online system that lends audio books to the visually impaired. Talking Pages currently has a catalogue of over 1,000 books. Michael won a BRICK Award in 2006.