Church, School Benefit From Eagle Scout's Work

One of Jefferson Township’s newest Eagle Scouts helped out the and the within the church.

Christopher Cook, a senior at Jefferson Township High School, did maintenance work at the church as his Eagle Scout project.

One major addition he made to the church and school was a dumpster.

“There’s never been a dumpster there before. Workers used to have to carry the garbage home with them for the trash collectors to pick up,” Cook said. “Now they have a dumpster they can throw it in and no one has to take it home anymore.”

Cook and several fellow Boy Scouts, his youth group and personal friends dug footholds for the dumpster, then mixed and poured concrete so the dumpster would stay stationary.

The other part of Cook’s project involved sanding and repainting the outside walls of the school that had peeled.

The entire project took about 93 man-hours over about four months to complete.

“The one thing that held us up was that we had to wait for the ground to soften up after the winter to dig for the footholds,” Cook said.

Cook has been a Boy Scout since first grade. Now that he has his Eagle Scout honors, he wants to become a junior leader.  

“I want to give back as much time as I can,” he said.

But that volunteer effort will have to be put on hold while Cook attends Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he’ll be heading in the fall to study finance and French. He’d like to get into international business when he graduates.