- By Dan Veaner
- Around Town
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The crowd was made up primarily of teachers, who were enthusiastic about the racks. The project started modestly when Carol Engels suggested he build racks for the Kindergarten classrooms. But as word spread more and more teachers wanted them. "He started out doing the project for kindergarten, because typically kindergarten has trouble keeping hats and mittens together," Engels said. "But he took it upon himself to make this a really huge project." He ended up presenting 20 new racks on Monday.
But there was so much demand that Howe agreed to make four more, so that every classroom from Kindergarten through fourth grade could have one. "I know that being an Eagle Scout is the highest you can go as far as Boy Scouts of America," said Principal Earlene Carr. "Jonathan, I want to commend you on all that you have done to get to where you are right now."
Howe, who is currently studying veterinary technology at Alfred State College, conceived the project and led about 15 fellow Boy Scouts in its execution. He paid for the materials out of pocket. Meeting in Assistant Scout Master Steve Jones' basement, they cut out 20 bases, drilled 800 holes, cut 800 dowels, and attached an end tack and glued each one to the central shaft. The racks were then finished with stain. They also have a bit of local history in them. A piece of plywood previously part of the Cornell baseball field dugout was donated, and the bases were made from it.
Howe's mother, Linda Woods, was on hand for the celebration. "I'm very proud," she said. "He did it. He got help from everyone, and the Joyce and Steve Jones were very helpful. When this was brought to his attention he just took off with it." After the presentation punch and an enormous cake was served. " We have a cake for you, Jonathan, to fatten you up a little bit," joked Carr.
Principal Earlene Carr greets teachers and guests. Teachers
took the racks to their classrooms after the celebration.
Jones facilitated the project, but left the leadership to Howe. "I helped to a degree, but it was Jonathan," he said. "I volunteered my basement, and I cut a couple of those dowels." Once the design was set, Howe got everyone working. "It was quite a bit of assembly line," he said. "We used a drill press set at an angle to drill the holes into the center posts. We used a circular saw to cut the dowels. And then it was a matter of finishing them, tacking them, and gluing them together."
The final step before becoming an Eagle is a committee interview tentatively set for October 15. "I'm nervous, but I'm excited at the same time," Howe said. "All my years in Boy Scouts taught me leadership. I was senior patrol leader for a year, and that helped a lot with putting these together, because I already had some idea of how to be a leader."
Howe says he put his mittens in cubbies when he went to elementary school. "We didn't put them on the registers, because that was frowned upon," he recalled. Engles said the racks will make a big difference in her classroom. "Winter is crazy. We've lost mittens and hats. In the past they would be put on the heaters, and that's not really a safe thing. This way we'll be able to stay organized, and hopefully everyone will go home with hats and mittens -- the correct ones. And two of them."
Jonathan Howe
Howe is the fifth scout to earn Eagle rank since January. This is remarkable, because nationally only four scouts in every hundred earn the rank. "Our troop is very active," Says Jones. "We have an absolutely incredible scout master, Rick Vaughan. He puts in a lot of time and effort with the boys, makes sure that the troop stays on an even keel. We try to go camping about once a month. We're always doing something. We try to stay involved in the community. It's an awful lot of work."
But the work pays off in producing scouts with demonstrated leadership skills. And it produced practical mitten racks that will be appreciated and used for years to come. Howe summed up, "This just put the icing on the cake."
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