New Greenhouse is Eagle Scout Project
Windsor Eagle Scout Beau Wilson earned his rank and helped build a better downtown by creating a greenhouse for the Town Green Community Garden, managed by the Windsor Garden Club.
Beau completed the greenhouse in late February. He built the new greenhouse for the Community, Garden as his Eagle Scout project, and followed it up by building workbenches for the greenhouse as his community service project at Windsor High School. Beau, now a junior at WHS, belongs to Boy Scout Troop 20 in Windsor, and started looking for an Eagle Scout project in 2015. When his father considered building a greenhouse for the family home, Beau decided he wanted to build a greenhouse for the Town Green Community Garden. To learn about the Community Garden's needs and what garden volunteers and users wanted, he met with the Windsor Garden Club, which manages the garden on behalf of the Town of Windsor. Then he met with the town to find out about codes and building regulations. Then in September of 2015, he started fundraising for the project. He received materials donations from Burgess Lumber and launched a fundraising website on YouCaring.com that brought in $1,500 in donations. That allowed him to build the wood-and-plexiglass greenhouse, complete with an automatic solar-powered temperature regulator and ventilation system. That's just what the garden needs, according to WGC president Cindy Fenton and Community Garden volunteer and leader Kathy Matonak. Beau built the greenhouse at home during the fall and then family and friends trucked it downtown and along with Windsor Garden Club volunteers hand-carried it into place inside the garden at the Town Hall complex at Windsor Road and Joe Rodota Way. Building the greenhouse and getting it inside the fenced garden wasn't the hardest part of the project -- doing the fundraising was, Beau says. The design-build portion of the project was the most fun for him. After the project was completed, he was successful in earning his Eagle Scout status -- a family tradition. The Windsor Garden Club provided a matching grant for the first $500 in donations Beau raised. Donors who supported the project include: Eric & Maureen Cecil; Adam Burgess of Burgess Lumber; David & Ben George of IGC Greenhouse; Nicholas Stameroff; Glenda Castelli; Cheri Eliz & Rob Ford; Pete & Pat Beckham; Cindy Lotz; Rosemary Lotz; Paul & Stacy Lotz; Brad Thomas; Windsor Home Depot and more. All will be listed on a plaque to go on the greenhouse this spring.