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Local 1316 Helps Scout’s Project Soar Like an Eagle

March 2003 IBEW Journal

To fulfill his community project requirement to become an Eagle Scout, 16-year-old Bryan Weathers took on turning a vacant residence into a computer center for disadvantaged youngsters—and the way the project soared made it worthy of the word eagle.

An Eagle Scout community project requires an average 100 man-hours, but this one blossomed into 571 volunteer hours as the planned renovation expanded and the computer center repeatedly got bigger and better.

Central to all of the above is IBEW Local 1316, Macon, Georgia, where Bryan’s father, Mark Weathers, is the local organizer and two other Local 1316 members head the Central Georgia AFL-CIO and the area’s building trades council.

Those two—Michael Gardner of the Central Georgia Federation of Trades and Labor Council and David Bentley of the North Georgia Building & Construction Trades—had previous experience with volunteer work designed to help the police and citizen’s association drive the drug dealers out and reclaim King’s Park, the site of Bryan’s project.

This time, Mercer University had computers to donate, the King’s Park association had a vacant residence and Bryan put the pieces together. "He worked with businesses in the community to obtain more than $3,000 of buildings materials," Gardner reports. "One of our employers, J.M. Clayton Electric Company, furnished almost all of the electrical materials, while Pitts Electric Company, also signatory with Local 1316, provided the electrical permit."

With Local 1316 Business Manager Johnny Mack Nickles providing him the use of fax machines and office equipment he needed, Bryan solicited 11 companies in all, got two building supply companies to donate materials and went back to building trades locals for cash donations to fill other needs as the project expanded.

Union volunteers from the IBEW, Plumbers & Pipefitters, PACE and the Carpenters provided labor, with 14 members of Local 1316 registering 112 volunteer hours. That example caught on. The Roofers union sent volunteers to assuage fears of potential leaks and Bryan’s fellow Scouts sanded the drywall for the final painting. The young people from King’s Park who will use the computers tackled the grounds, cleaning up, landscaping and planting flower beds.

By the time it was all completed six months later, Bryan wasn’t 16 anymore. On December 15, 2002, 17-year-old Bryan was informed of his Eagle Scout status and, to fit his big sister’s college vacation schedule, he had his Eagle Scout Court of Honor on January 5, 2003.

With the help of Local 1316, Bryan Weathers became an Eagle Scout and a deserted house became a refurbished computer center in Macon, Georgia.