Volunteers wanted on Saturday for Eagle Scout project in Coventry Woods; community bonfire to follow

Courtesy of Maureen Kai — Courtesy of Mauree Kai

This Saturday, October 20th from 10am-4 pm, Eagle Scout candidate Austin Tanay is running another work weekend at Coventry Woods in North Coventry Township. He is a Life Scout in Troop 95 and working on attaining the highest rank in scouting – that of Eagle. His project involves creating a rustic tent camping site at Coventry Woods, North Coventry Township, for group camping. A couple years ago I visited and wrote about Coventry Woods for a parks and recreation series for the Pottstown Area Health & Wellness Foundation. This is an absolutely lovely part of our region!

The project is quite large in scope, including demolition of 5 old buildings in a specific area of Coventry Woods (1954 St. Peter’s Road, Pottstown), clearing out a lot of overgrown brush, cutting down close to three dozen dead trees, opening up an eight foot wide trail into the campsite, removing large rocks out of the walking path, building a campfire ring, building benches to go around the campfire ring, and erecting a flag pole. The site will be available for non-profit groups like scouts and churches in the area.

Austin is recycling any materials that are recyclable, cutting up the wood from the structures to be used in a big bonfire at Coventry Woods this weekend, following the work day at around 4 pm. He is also cutting up the downed trees for firewood to be sold, salvaging reusable materials from the cabins, and properly disposing of all trash from the demolition that cannot be reused in any way.

He has already held three work weekends and accomplished a lot thanks to the support of volunteers, but he still has more work to be done. The work this weekend will include demolishing the fifth and last building, breaking down all the material for proper disposal or recycling, leveling off the site, cutting up and transporting the wood from the structure to the location of the bonfire. His goal is to get the last building completely demolished and disposed of so he can build the fire ring and benches Saturday afternoon.

The cost of the firewood is $75.00 per load/cord. The logs are cut into 3-4 foot lengths. They just need to be split. The proceeds will help fund the Eagle project. If you are interested in purchasing wood, call Mauree Kai @ 610-970-0951 prior to coming for pick up.

The workday will start at 10:00 AM on Saturday. All are invited to participate and they can come later since the project will be going on into the afternoon, wrapping up around three o’clock.

*Volunteers need to bring their own tools. For this Saturday, crow bars, hammers, sledge hammers are needed. Work gloves are a must. A few wheelbarrows would come in handy also if people have a way to transport them.*

There is plenty of parking available. Anyone coming to help out can park at the lodge and look for the sign at the entrance of the trail head into the project (1954 St. Peter’s Road, Pottstown). This is what the entrance looks like.