Eagle Scout project breathes new life into Jerry Dean Park

Jerry Dean Park, adjacent to McGrade School, needed a facelift. Its trails were run down, its sign was worn, and its central pavilion was worse for the wear.

That’s where Caleb Broderick came in.

The 15-year-old Boy Scout decided the park needed some help and chose it for his Eagle Scout project. So on Friday and Saturday, Broderick and a dozen volunteers set to work making the park look great again.

Several tons of gravel and teams toting wheelbarrows covered the trail around the pavilion in a couple of hours Saturday morning, and any extra gravel was going to recover the path up to the baseball diamond. 

For Broderick, making the park look nice was the main point of the day, but it also served a secondary purpose.

   “It has a lot to do with leadership,” he said. “I have to call people for donations and have friends and family bring stuff. A big part of it is just learning how to talk to people.”

Broderick and his volunteers repainted the Jerry Dean sign that lets visitors know the name of the park, along with the pavilion in the center, now a sharp yellow and green.

A Boy Scout for six years, Broderick’s culminating project is just another testament to community service the Scouts can provide.