Scouts service project readies Unity playground for start of school year

When students at Mountain View Elementary School in Unity return to class Monday, they’ll find a playground area freshened by their own hands.

More than two dozen members of Mountain View Cub Scouts Pack 476 spent Saturday cleaning up garbage and removing brush from the school’s outside recreation area. The group would spend the afternoon building four picnic tables with wood donated by 84 Lumber and Stone & Co.

“We thought it was a nice service project because it’s their school,” said Jodi Kronen­wetter, who along with her 8-year-old son, Griffin, participated in what pack leaders said likely will become an annual exercise.

Parents and students arrived Saturday morning and found a large pile of mulch delivered to the school the day before. The staff planned to spread it over the playground early next week. While not originally part of the weekend project, buckets and wheel barrows were deployed by parents and kids to move the mulch throughout the property.

Pack leader Chris Sheetz, 45, envisions the playground project as an annual endeavor.

“They’re going to be down here running around like maniacs, so at least we know it will be safe,” Sheetz said.

Sheetz works as a corrections officer at the State Correctional Institution in Fayette County. When his stepson, Jacob, 11, decided to join the Scouts, Sheetz signed on first as a den leader and eventually for the entire pack, which is based at the school and includes about 46 students from kindergarten through fifth grade.

The group is a family pack that includes boys and girls, Sheetz said.

“We’re here to make the kids’ lives better,” Sheetz said. “We want your siblings, and we want your mom and dad here to help.”

Saturday’s project included construction of picnic tables to replace ones that were loaned to the school as part of covid precautions but since have been removed.

Students, with a helping hand from adults, assembled the pre-cut lumber and followed instructions created by a parent who built one table a day earlier as an example for the kids to follow.

Mountain View Principal Chad Krehlik said the Cub Scouts’ work is an example of the community engagement.

“I think this is a true reflection of what Mountain View means to the community,” Krehlik said. “Just seeing all these kids and parents together and giving their time before the first day of school is incredible.”

The playground, he said, is an important and integral part of the school experience. Its cleanup and safety was needed before the more than 700 students return for classes this week.

“I anticipated a few kids would come out, but this is to another degree,” Krehlik said. “I’m going to jump in and lend a hand.”