Support Preston Howard's Eagle Scout Project

Nathan Howard is organizing this fundraiser.

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My name is Preston Howard, and I'm a 17-year-old Scout with Coupeville Troop 4058. I'm looking for donations for my Eagle Scout project. I’m a senior at Coupeville High School on Whidbey Island, Washington, and I am doing Running Start full-time, which means I’m taking college classes that count toward both my high school diploma and also my Associate's degree. I’ve been involved in Scouts since second grade, and it’s been a huge part of my life, teaching me about leadership, community service, working hard, civic duty, and skills for my life.

As a Scout, I've been able to participate in amazing experiences, such as a two-week backpacking trip at Philmont Scout Camp in New Mexico. I've also backpacked in the Olympic National Park, snowshoed on Mt. Baker, kayaked/canoed/hiked a 50-miler at Baker Lake, went camping with horses at an Oregon Scout summer camp, water skied at a Montana Scout summer camp, and countless other camping, hiking, and fun Scout adventures. In addition to that, I've spent many hours supporting the local community in Scouts, including volunteering for multiple conservation projects at the local state parks, gathering food donations to go to local food banks, placing flags at the graves of veterans, and collecting trash at local community events such as the Arts and Crafts Festival, MusselFest, and the Water Festival.

Now, I’m working on my Eagle Scout project, which I’ve been looking forward to doing for a long time. It’s really important to me because it gives me a chance to make a positive and long-lasting impact on my community. It also helps me to close out my scouting career with a strong sense of accomplishment. My Eagle project is building and installing two fenced-in areas around the recycling bins at the campgrounds at Fort Casey State Park and Fort Ebey State Park. The recycling bins at Fort Casey do not have any structure that contains them, which takes away from the natural beauty of the park and doesn’t provide containment for the bins, which is a problem with the high winds the park gets. The structure at Fort Ebey has rotted away, is too small for the new bins, and doesn't provide any visual barrier to help maintain the natural beauty of the park. Working with a state park ranger, I developed a design for new structures that will fence in the bins. The structure will only go up to the lid of the bins, so visitors can easily add recycling to them. The front of the structure will have two gates that meet in the middle so park staff can open and pull out the bins. In addition to this, I'm working on carving signs that clearly identify which bin is which (glass, aluminum, steel, and plastic) in a way that matches the aesthetics of the park.