Legion Park at the triangle at Main Street and New Avenue is dedicated to the people who have served in the U.S. military, but there was little in it that would convey that message. Matthew Schumacher, a senior at Lemont High School, decided he would change that with his Eagle Scout project.
Beginning about a year ago, and finishing this past spring, Schumacher organized and executed a project to improve the appearance of the gazebo in the park and mount flags on the ceiling of the gazebo representing all five branches of the U.S. military and an American flag.
He had first talked about the idea to Cmdr. Mike Meyers of the American Legion Post 18 in Lockport, whose son was in Schumacher’s Scout troop. When the project was OK’d by the Lemont Park District, he set out to get it done. He said he received a “generous” donation from Al Spencer of the Lemont American Legion post.
“There was a lot of paint chipping (on the gazebo),” he said. “We painted the whole thing. We had a lot of Scout volunteers, and I had a lot of my friends.”
It took about 30 volunteers and two, eight-hour days to complete the project.
He ordered from China panes of what is known as green glass, between which the flags were pressed and then mounted.
Schumacher, a lifelong Lemont resident, tapped his many friends to help with the project, and he knows quite a few from his involvement in Scouting and activities at Lemont High School, where he is a high honor roll student.
He has been playing trumpet since he was in fifth grade and today is in the marching band, the Honors Jazz Band, and the Honors Symphony Band at LHS, and is involved with the Community Service For Everybody group at the school.
He loves Scouting, and was awarded his Eagle Scout badge at a ceremony earlier this month. He is on the staff at Camp Owasippi in Michigan, where he works for nine weeks during the summer teaching Scouting skills. His father was a Scout and his grandfather worked for Boy Scouts of America.
Schumacher said he likes Scouting “because of the friends, activities and being out in the county. It’s a lot of fun.”
He is considering attending St. Joseph College in Renssealaer, Ind., Illinois State University or Northern Illinois University to study business and sociology.
Lemont, IL —
