August 22, 2001
Tom O'Neil blazes a trail on Grand Traverse Commons
Boy Scout creates path as part of Eagle Scout project
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Tom O'Neil had a living a lesson in perseverance this weekend. And leadership. And organization. And working until you drop.
Completing an Eagle Scout project of putting in a new trail on the Grand Traverse Commons property, O'Neil and a crew from Boy Scout Troop 30 based at Trinity Lutheran Church had their work cut out for them. Literally.
They were carving out the _-mile Men's Trail on the Grand Traverse Commons property, a companion to the Women's Trail put in last year as another Eagle Scout project. O'Neil and his fellow scouts cut, chopped, trimmed, mowed, chipped, hauled and dumped all day Saturday.
Then, when the work was not quite done by Saturday evening, O'Neil was back for a full day of work again on Sunday to get the trail finished: including signs, benches and thousands of wheelbarrow loads of wood chips.
Going above what is expected is part and parcel of being an Eagle Scout, something O'Neil learned from the very beginning of the project.
"I had to get approval from the Commons Board and gave a presentation the day they were discussing the Minervini proposal," said O'Neil about last April's meeting. "The room was packed. I learned a lot from it."
O'Neil, who will be in 10th grade this fall at Traverse City West High School, has been in scouting since the first-grade. Now aspiring to the elite Eagle Scout rank, he found the Men's Trail project after talking to Dan Tholen, a member of the Commons board.
"This is the fifth Eagle Scout project we've done here," said Dan Tholen, chairman of the parkland committee for the Grand Traverse Commons Board. "This is such an exciting trail, it is two times as big as the Women's trail."
The two trails reflect the history of the property, which used to feature exercise trails for residents at the Traverse City State Hospital, one for the men and one for the women. While the original trails sites are unknown, these two trails provide a groomed expansion to the network of trails that weave through the property.
"These trails give the people who work on it and the people who use them ownership in the property," Tholen said.
After getting approval to make the trail from both the Commons board and the city, O'Neil set about finding donations of signs, wood, equipment such as a chain saws, a brush hog and a chipper, plus food and drinks for his crew.
Getting together a crew is a crucial step in demonstrating the leadership required in an Eagle Scout project. Eagle Scouts do not just do the work themselves. For this trail project, more than 30 fellow Scouts came throughout the day to help out.
Reaching the pinnacle of scouting, O'Neil sees so much he has gotten from his involvement over the years.
"I've learned a lot about teamwork, leadership, how to camp and a lot about nature," said O'Neil, who will write a report about his Eagle Scout project for review by a national board. "I've also gotten a lot of friends out of scouting."
While the national average of Boy Scouts achieving Eagle Scout rank is three percent, Troop 30 boasts a 26 percent rating. The core of achieving the rank is completing a community service project that demonstrates a scout's leadership and organizational abilities.
Assistant Scoutmaster Chris Stein attributes this percentage to a solid adult leadership core and the example of so many Eagle Scouts continuing to be involved with the troop.
"The Eagle Scouts we do have stay with the troop," said Stein, who has two sons that are Eagle Scouts and one more planning to be one. "It is not like get your badge and take a hike, they hang around and there are four here helping today."