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Local scout earns Eagle Scout Award with two-part community service project

By Tabitha Johnston - Chronicle Staff | May 6, 2022

Shepherdstown resident and Jefferson High School senior Collin Guedel stands beside the sign of the Osage Orange tree in Morgan’s Grove Park — the second largest male tree of that variety in West Virginia — Saturday morning. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Saturday morning dawned bright and fair — the perfect weather for Collin Guedel to make the trek out to Morgan’s Grove Park, to see for the first time since Labor Day 2021 how his pollinator garden was beginning to grow. The garden, filled with deer-resistant, low-maintenance perennials, was half of the service project the Jefferson High School senior and Shepherdstown Troop 33 member completed, to earn his Eagle Scout Award in Dec. 2021.

“The pollinator garden is past the soccer field, directly past the spring house,” Guedel said. “It was all about planting native plants to the area, to promote pollinators to come and to keep the local flora alive.”

The other half of the project was inspired by Shepherdstown Community Club President Jennifer Wabnitz, Guedel said. The SCC owns the park, and does its best to care for it, through donations and renting out portions of the park’s property. To increase funding for caring for the park, Wabnitz requested Guedel place signs around the park asking for donations. Unfortunately, fundraising is not permitted as an Eagle Scout Service Project, but Guedel found a way to satisfy Wabnitz’s request, by adding donation information at the bottom of signs scattered throughout the park that focused on his love for forestry and the park in general.

“I set 10 signs around the perimeter of the park, talking about various trees in the park. And then there were seven other [signs] that discussed various aspects of the park, like how to get a bench dedicated in your name or how to volunteer at the park or acknowledgement of people who have volunteered and made a huge contribution to the park itself. Of the signs that identify trees, each one identifies a native tree or a tree that has been naturalized, that was important to the park itself, like the American Sycamore, the Osage Orange, the Kentucky Coffee Tree,” Guedel said, mentioning he carefully researched the sign information and had it checked by Trees 101 owner Shawn Walker, before having the signs printed. “There’s a ton of trees around the park, and those signs kind of explain what the tree was, how to identify it and something cool about it or where it’s ranging from.”

According to Guedel, the tree selections were made by himself and Wabnitz last July, after his Eagle Scout Service Project proposal was approved by the Shenandoah Area Council. Digging holes for the sign posts and cement to be placed into took place soon after, with the metal-and-wood signs being secured to the sign posts a little later, around Nov. 2021.

Morgan’s Grove Park’s new two-tier pollinator garden was planted to be self-sufficient and deer-resistant on Labor Day 2021.

Guedel expressed his appreciation for his father’s help in completing his Eagle Scout Service Project, along with that of his fellow scouts and JHS Student Government Association members (of which he is the president).

“Eagle Scout’s a huge commitment,” Guedel said, noting that due to COVID-19 Pandemic delays, he completed his project a year or two later than he had originally planned.

“I’ve spent years in scouting, growing and developing. I didn’t want to finish my time in the program with something small,” Guedel said. “Morgan’s Grove Park has been a big part of my life, growing up, just playing soccer here or coming here on weekends to enjoy the green space. So, after realizing the commitment I felt toward the park and the impact it’s had on me growing up, I wanted to do something big for it and something I could be proud of.”

Ten of the trees in Morgan’s Grove Park now have signs explaining their significance to local history, thanks to the work of Shepherdstown Troop 33 member Collin Guedel.