By Ben Lockridge / staff writer
Shane Brewer, 15, needed a project to do to earn his Eagle Scout status, and he found it at St. Joseph's Catholic Church where he currently attends.
"I was looking for a project; and I thought what better to do than to help my church," Shane said.
Brewer and several other scouts showed up around 8 a.m. on Saturday to do gardening work in the church's meditation garden.
"The meditation garden did not look that good. So, I decided that this would be my project — cleaning up the meditation garden," Shane explained.
Father Francis Cosgrove was overwhelmed to see young people come out and do the tremendous work to the garden.
"I'm delighted to see them working so hard," Cosgrove said. "Part of Scouting is leadership; and Shane putting this whole thing together with his fellow Scouts shows his leadership skills."
Shane says the work they are doing is very gratifying.
"I mean when you could see how rough things were; the before picture; now it's cleared, and all we need to do now is plant flowers. It feels good that people at my church are going to be able to enjoy all our hard work," Shane said.
In addition to his Scout life, Shane also says that the work done Saturday is out of respect for his faith.
"No matter what happens in your life; you will always have God," he said.
According to Adrian T. Mosley, chairperson for the meditation garden; the garden rests where a school was originally located.
"The bricks in the garden are the same bricks from the old school. We started work on the garden about 10 years ago, and as you can see some of the beds have not been maintained," Mosley said. "It's wonderful to see these boys out here. It's a good thing because we're so excited about this, and I even bought twice as many flowers because of all the extra hands we have today."
The resources to be able to replant the garden were made available by a Keep America Beautiful grant that was applied for, and in addition the San Marcos Mexican Restaurant donated lunch to the group of teens who worked in the garden.
"Next I'll finally go for my Eagle Scout rank; I'll go to the national jamboree, and just enjoy Scouting," Shane said.
