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mokenamessenger.com news
the Mokena Messenger | November 29, 2018 | 3
Central student’s, Eagle
Scout’s project aids veterans
Today,
Eagle project
focused on building
raised garden for
veterans
Iwill not
Amanda Villiger
Assistant Editor
The harvest season has
certainly ended, but the garden
box built by one local
scout will be used by veterans
for years to come.
Matt Piltaver, who is now
a senior at Lincoln-Way
Central, took on the task
at the Manteno Veterans’
Home as part of his Eagle
Scout project.
He got the idea to do a
project at the veterans home,
but said he was unsure of
exactly what he could do to
help them out.
“I had to go over and talk
to one of the maintenance
guys over there and ask what
they needed,” Piltaver said.
“He gave me a couple things
they needed, and some of
them I couldn’t really do.”
Then he got the suggestion
to build a garden.
“I said, ‘yeah, that would
be great. I can do that.’”
So Piltaver began preplanning,
fundraising and recruiting
of volunteers to make
the garden a reality. Local
businesses offered their support
by ways of donations of
lumber, plants and money, as
did some of Piltaver’s family
and friends.
“I’ve always had a respect
for veterans, and, during
that time that I was thinking
about doing something
for veterans, the whole big
football thing broke out,”
Piltaver said. “They were
just being, in my eyes, disrespectful
to the flag and the
country and the people who
fought for it.”
He said after visiting the
Matt Piltaver (left) points to some of the herbs, vegetables
and flowers planted in the garden at the Manteno Veterans’
Home. The garden was built for his Eagle Scout project.
Photo submitted
home, he noticed many of
the residents did not seem
to have a lot of things to do,
with many of them watching
TV or napping.
“They looked like they
weren’t having a lot of fun,
so that really drove me to
want to do something outside
to get them out and active
and doing something,”
Piltaver said.
With the idea that gardening
could become an enjoyable
passtime for residents,
Piltaver and the other volunteers
planted a variety of
vegetables and herbs in the
garden in May — including
tomatoes and peppers that
could be used in the kitchen.
The Eagle Project is one
of the final tasks for a Scout
to earn his Eagle rank, which
is the highest rank attainable
in the Scouting program.
Other requirements include
completing 21 merit badges
and serving in a leadership
role in the troop. All the
requirements must be completed
before the Scout’s
18th birthday.
He said one of his favorite
of the many merit badges he
completed was the Wilderness
Survival badge, which
requires a Scout to “survive”
on their own for a night with
just a few items including a
water bottle, bug spray and a
flashlight.
“They throw you out in the
woods and you have to build
your own like little campsite
or like little hut to sleep in in
the night,” Piltaver said of
his own experience, “and I
took a bunch of big logs and
propped them up against a
tree and took a lot of twigs
and lined it and used a bunch
of leaves to close it up and
insulate it.
“...And I slept in it over
night and everyone else did
it, [too], and it there was a
cool makeshift campsite that
everyone had.
Piltaver said he has helped
out with a number of other
Scouts’ Eagle projects in
the past, one of his favorites
having also been at the Manteno
Veterans’ Home. During
that project he helped
organize and log old photos
of veterans, which are now
displayed on the walls in the
facility.
Please see scout, 12
stress over
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