(Hannah Gunnell/South Indy Connect photo) Center Grove High School Senior Jack Garcia completed his Eagle Scout project last week. The project included building six large planters outside the ice rink at Perry Park.
By HANNAH GUNNELL
The idea to build six large planters outside the ice skating rink at Perry Park was planted inside Center Grove High School Senior Jack Garcia’s head by his mother.
“My mom’s school, they have garden boxes for the kids, and she said it was really nice and they liked it,” he said. His mother teaches second grade at William McKinley School 39 in the IPS district. “They thought it was nice to be able to teach the kids with it. I thought, ‘I liked that and I want to do that somewhere else.”
Garcia built the planters to fulfill a project requirement to earn the Eagle Scout ranking. He has yet to present his project to the judges and receive his rank. He’s participated in Boy Scouts since he was in third grade.
“It’s been nine years — about half of my life so far,” he said. “I turn 18 on May 2.”
Garcia settled on Perry Park after discovering park staff also had a desire for the planters.
“I contacted different schools and parks and eventually landed on Perry Park through someone in my scout troop,” he said. “We talked to them and found out they want garden boxes out front. They liked that idea. It would pull the vegetation back, make it easier for people to walk in and out of the building, and make it a lot prettier.”
The planters were completed just over a week ago. Garcia built the boxes at his grandparents’ house and then brought them to the park to assemble.
“I really had to rely on the help of my grandfather and my adult leaders to show me how to do it,” he said. “Each of these boxes alone weighs probably 400-500 pounds without the dirt in it. We built all the side panels, brought them here, screwed them in and drove them into the ground.”
He thanked his adult leaders, Joe Villanueva and Michael Benefield, his grandfather John Crump (“Without him, I wouldn’t have a project at all”), and uncle Pete Fuller, who contributed the finances for more than half the project. The project cost $1,800 when all was said and done, and Garcia fundraised the difference by sending out letters of support to different organizations.
Park staff and volunteers will do future planting in the boxes, which Garcia said is mostly going to be flowers.
Garcia will graduate from CGHS later in May and plans to attend Ivy Tech to study engineering. He hopes to transfer to a larger school like Purdue University after two years. This Eagle Scout project gave him his first real taste of future engineering possibilities.
“I’ve learned a lot about how to lay things out on paper, how to create a parts list and know every beam and screw I need to put it together, and surveying the front area [outside the building],” he said. “I like engineering because I like learning about how things work. That’s interesting to me.”
