Restorations bridge generations
Boy Scout Troop 66, St. Vrain Historical Society partner on projects
An unconventional par tnership between Longmont Boy Scout Troop 66 and St. Vrain Historical
Society has inadver tently bridged generations of Boy Scouts and restored much of Old Mill Park — and nearly a decade later, it’s still going strong.
It all started in May 2012, when then 12-year-old Eagle Scout candidate Caleb Mar tinez, was tr ying to decide what his Eagle Project should be. That’s when a headline in the Longmont Times-call: Historical society tr ying to revive Longmont park resonated with Caleb.
“Caleb was moved by the struggle and story of this group (the St. Vrain Historical Society) that envisioned a place for school children to learn about local histor y through class field trips and living histor y events,” Caleb’s mom, Kristy Mar tinez, wrote in an email.
A year later, Caleb, with help from his Scoutmaster father Tony Martinez, approached the then Old Mill Park Historical Society chairman, Galen Miller. The meeting between Troop 66 and Miller would be the star t of a budding par tnership between the Scouts and the historical society, one in which fur ther tied Miller to the troop.
It was during the initial
planning conversations that Martinez discovered the long-time connection Miller already had with Troop 66 — Miller had been the scoutmaster for his son back in the 1960s with the same troop.
Old Mill Park’s name comes from the Longmont Flour Mill that previously had stood on the land and was built in 1872 but was lost in a fire in 1934. Two of the park’s buildings, the Hauck Milk House and the Affolter Cabin, are transplants that date to 1860.
The park was dedicated on Aug. 1, 1976, the day of Colorado’s centennial. It is nestled in a quiet pocket of Pratt Street and has hosted weddings, museum workshops, Shakespeare performances by the Longmont Theatre Company and enlightened busloads of third-graders visiting the historical society’s springtime “Pioneer Days” about 19th-centur y life.
But times haven’t always been good to the aging Old Mill Park.
Old Mill Park Manager Teresa Litman said Miller, who passed away in 2019, took it upon himself to be the park’s caretaker after the 2008 recession hit — and even hand-mowed the grounds when the historical society couldn’t afford to pay for that ser vice. She also said the historical society has plenty of “hands” but are not always able to get the work done because it is composed mostly of an older generation. However, she is enthralled that the Boy Scouts have and continue to help them with ongoing preservation efforts.
“He would say, ‘I’m proud of these boys — they’ve done a wonder ful job,'” Litman said, reflecting on what Miller would say about the Scouts, who have completed eight restoration projects at Old Mill Park.
“These eight Eagle Projects have included restoration and preser vation of historical structures, landscaping additions, building a welcome kiosk, and maintenance and repair of tables, fences, a stage, landscaping, and other park assets that have helped make the park more user-friendly to the public and promote the mission and outreach of the St. Vrain Historical Society,” Kristy Mar tinez wrote.
Three of the most recent Eagle Scout projects completed in 2020 included restoration projects by Longmont High School senior Jackson Staats, 18, Niwot High School senior Kyle Taylor, 17, and Kyle Williams, now a college freshman in Orlando, Fla. Two other Eagle projects also were expected to be completed in 2020, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were rescheduled to later this year, Tony Mar tinez said.
Staats, who in his junior year in high school, led his group to repair and restore nine picnic tables and two footbridges in the park. Taylor’s team helped repair the flagpoles, repair a fence, and create a new gate and fenced area for storage of maintenance and preser vation equipment, also completed his Eagle Award his junior year of high school. As a senior in high school, Williams led his team in building portable structure snow shields to protect the deteriorating Af folter Cabin during the winter.
Eagle project ideas don’t have to be big or small, Staats and Taylor said; they just have to teach a candidate how to demonstrate leadership in their community.
When asked what advice he would give to future Eagle Award candidates, Taylor said, “Just ask. There’s always something there, especially with the historical society. Just reach out to Mrs. Litman and she’ll get you in contact with the right people.” He added that it’s best just to set up a time to take a tour to find the inspiration needed.
“The Eagle Scout project is mostly about helping the community and whether it’s like what Kyle said about raking leaves or whether it’s a big project — it’s still helping the community, and I think that I would tell other Scouts to look toward the Historical Society (in thinking about Eagle project ideas),” Staats said.
Both Taylor and Staats said they can see how much growth they have gained by being in Boy Scouts as well as the growth opportunities they gained as community leaders during their Eagle projects — which included giving presentations to community members to ask for funding for their projects. Skills, both young men say they now appreciate and will use in the future.
“A lot of credit is given to the Eagle Scouts but it’s not a solo endeavor — Mr. Mar tinez, Mrs. Litman, all the other people who helped along the way, they all deser ve credit to this community endeavor,” Staats said.
Litman said not only is she proud of the young men and women who lent hands and helped on various projects, but she is most proud of “the way they conduct themselves and their maturity level, and their respect for each other and their teamwork that I see.”
“The more we can connect the older generation with a younger generation, I think it’s so impor tant that the stories get told between the two, the younger ones get to see how their actions can af fect those older, and then the older people get to see that there is a younger generation that’s not hoodlums — that there are now young men and ladies who care about their communitywanttobepartofitby giving back,” Martinez said.
Staats, who is now 18 years old, is going through the application process to be an adult leader with Troop 66, so he can continue to help future Scouts with the things he has learned. Taylor said he hopes to be a scouting camp counselor and continue to work with the Scouts as he gets older.
Litman said the St. Vrain Historical Society previously had a gala to honor the work Miller had done, but she hopes the organization can plant a couple of trees with a memorial bench in his honor for future generations. She said there are no plans for that yet.
Anyone looking to get involved to help the Scouts in future projects or to help the St. Vrain Historical Society can reach out to Litman by calling 303-7761870 or visiting the society’s web page at: stvrainhistoricalsociety.com.