The Mutual Ground facility at 418 Oak Ave. in Aurora will look a bit more lush with greenery and flowers in the weeks ahead, thanks to the work of a local Eagle Scout candidate and fellow members from Scout Troop 3 based at New England Congregational Church in Aurora.
Mutual Ground is a nonprofit organization that operates an emergency shelter for those fleeing domestic and sexual violence. It also offers counseling, advocacy and other services to those affected by domestic violence, sexual violence and substance abuse.
Last Saturday, Evan Knigge, 17, who attends West Aurora High School, directed a project where raised garden beds were installed so that residents at the facility can grow flowers and vegetables.
He joined the Scouts over a decade ago and has continued to move up through the ranks ever since.
“I joined somewhere back in first grade – something like that – and I just completed Cub Scouts and then Boy Scouts seemed like it would be pretty fun and so I joined that,” he said. “My initial goal in Boy Scouts was to go in and have fun with my friends and all that, but then I heard about the Eagle projects, and Eagle was something that really interested me as I fell deeper in love with Scouting. Eagle was not my original goal, but it is now and I’m glad.”
He said he started working on his Eagle rank after earning his Life Scout rank about a year earlier.
“I have been working on completing all the merit badges and stuff. I have three more Eagle Scout merits badges I need to complete,” he said. “It’s all about getting this project done and getting the merit badges done and go into my review. Hopefully, that will happen within the next three months.”
As far as his current effort, he said he heard from Mutual Ground “after they have spoken at our school many times and were the first people I reached out to for this project.”
“I just wanted to see if they had anything that they really wanted or needed, and they brought up the idea of garden beds and it sounded good to me and we went with it,” he said.
He and his father started working on the project two months before Saturday’s installation with initial plans, followed by purchasing the wood about a month later and then cutting and building the frames for the raised garden beds.
“We had soil donated by A1 Landscaping which was great,” Evan Knigge said. “My parents bought the wood and my dad helped me build this.”
A crew of about a dozen assembled at the Mutual Ground site during installation day on Saturday for the garden beds.
Current Troop 3 Scoutmaster Michael Herran of North Aurora said he just took over the position in February but that he “has been volunteering as an adult leader in Scouting for seven years.”
The troop has produced well over 125 Eagle Scouts during its many years in the community, he said.
“We are one of the first troops to be established in Illinois or in the Midwest as we were founded in 1910,” Herran said. “Most of our kids tend to stay in the troop the full length before they age out.”
Harran said that Knigge’s project fits the parameters he wants his Scouts to follow.
“For me, this project has a future. We try and encourage all the boys with their projects to make something that’s sustainable and last a while and benefit the community for as long as possible,” he said.
Evan’s father Dan Knigge expressed pride and satisfaction about his son’s project and involvement with Scouts.
“It’s a good social network for him,” he said. “He’s developed a good group of friends and they go out on regular camping trips for weeks at a time. They’re going out to New Mexico soon and so there’s a life of adventure there. He’s also able to learn traits like offering presentations and pulling projects together like this Eagle project as well too. It’s leadership and everything that’s above that.”
Evan Knigge said he hopes the project will continue to provide a positive impact for years to come.
“I actually feel great about this and just volunteering in general makes me feel good as other people do that too,” he said. “It makes me feel good and think about how much we take for granted on a day-to-day basis. It feels good to help people out.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
