Local resident Riess Magee is working on an Eagle Scout Project at Chelsea Park, installing steps on an eroded trail from the playground down to the soccer field below.
Riess is from Troop #392 of Normandy Park, and all his hard work is totally voluntary, as part of his Eagle Project.
- His work will benefit the community to make it easier for people to walk from the play area down onto the field.
- He is building 27 steps, with a handrail.
- He started designing the project and collecting materials this past spring, and he is about 2 weeks away from completion.
Riess plans on being at the park this coming Sunday (Sept. 23) to start on the handrails, and hopes to be completely done within two weeks.
“An Eagle Project is the final step a Scout does in a long series of requirements to finally become an Eagle Scout,” Riess told The B-Town Blog. “The project is done voluntarily, and it is done to benefit the community.”
Riess says he had been looking for a specific Eagle Project for over a year, until he decided on this one at Chelsea Park. He is not a frequent user of the park, although he passed by it every day on his way to elementary school at Glendale Lutheran School, and also had a few baseball practices there when he was in little league at Pac West. He visited various parks and beaches throughout Burien and Normandy Park looking for potential projects, and spoke with a variety of people, including Park Rangers, Engineers, and the Principal at his old elementary school, looking for a project.
He had criteria that were very important to him:
- The project had to be challenging, and had to be something that he himself could build.
- It had to benefit the community
- And it had to have a sense of permanence – it had to be a project that would last; something that he could re- visit in years to come.
