Local community garden benefits from Aidan Alaniz’s Eagle Scout Project

[April 01, 2025]    In the past few years, several local boy scouts have completed Eagle Scout projects that benefit the community in some way. Aidan Alaniz’s Eagle Scout project is one example.

Eagle Scout service projects are a requirement for any youth to earn their Eagle rank, and these projects require a significant effort to complete.

An Eagle Scout planning guide website says these projects require the scout “to plan, organize, and direct a project of significant value.” It also provides an “opportunity to demonstrate leadership qualities.”

Before deciding on a project, Alaniz said, “When I first crossed into Scouts from Cub Scouts, my dad and I started brainstorming ideas for my Eagle Scout project. One of our ideas was to start a community garden, [but] starting a community garden would have been a bit too big of a project.”

Then, Alaniz was told about the Lincoln community garden. One of the projects that the community garden needed [to be] done was replacing the garden tool shed. Alaniz said, “I thought that it would be a cool experience to learn how to build a shed from the ground up.”

Alaniz’s project took just over two weeks of actual building. He said, “I spent several weeks before my project day purchasing materials, researching different plans for sheds, watching videos about building sheds similar to mine, and making a list of all the materials I would need for my projects.”

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Eagle projects are less about the work completed, and more about demonstrating planning and leadership, so Alaniz had other members of his scout troop help with the project. Alaniz said, “a few of my friends in the troop helped me frame out all the walls before the day of my project. By framing out all the walls and being as prepared as possible, we were able to assemble the shed in one day. From start to end building the shed took about two weeks.”

As with most of the projects, there were some costs involved. To help pay for materials, Alaniz said, “Lincoln Ace Hardware donated $100 of materials at cost. I supplied the rest of the materials for the shed.”

The Lincoln Community Garden Project grows a wide variety of food that is given back to community members who would like to receive fresh, garden-grown vegetables. Alaniz said, “the shed that I built for this project provides a place to store tools and items necessary for the garden.”

By providing a space for storage, Alaniz’s shed will benefit the community garden now and in the future.

[Angela Reiners]

 

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