Scout gives students map on playground

Courtesy photo

From left, Kerry Sandhu, Brian Ruskauff, Trevor Scheer, Nick Weatherman, Ofir Barashy, Nolan St. John, Niall St. John, Nathan Johnson and Aaron Christensen in front of their completed mural of the United States at Eisenberg Elementary School.

By Jenny Davis (contact)

Friday, Dec. 5, 2008 | midnight

Courtesy photo

From left, Nathan Johnson, Nolan St. John, Ofir Barashy, Nick Weatherman, Aaron Christensen, Trevor Scheer, Brian Ruskauff and Kerry Sandhu work on a community service project at Eisenberg Elementary School.

Courtesy photo

From left, Ofir Barashy, Trevor Scheer and Kerry Sandhu paint a mural of the United States on the blacktop at Eisenberg Elementary School.

It will be a little easier for Dorothy Eisenberg Elementary School students to learn geography with a new 30-foot map of the United States painted on their blacktop.

As part of his Eagle Scout Project for the Boy Scouts of America, Trevor Scheer, 17, painted the map with help from his friends at the school, 7770 Delhi Ave. Starting at 8 a.m. on an October morning, the group of about 12 volunteers, including fellow troop members and family members, were kneeling down on the blacktop painting until about 2:30 p.m.

After laying down the large stencil, the group connected the dots and started painting the borders of the 50 states. Afterward, they painted the states different colors.

"It was a lot of work, but it went really well," Scheer said.

Being a member of Boy Scout Troop 250, Scheer meets at the Desert Shores clubhouse once a week. He's been involved with the Boy Scouts of America since he was 5 years old, beginning as a Cub Scout. When he turned 11, he continued as a Boy Scout, something that his mother, Mindy Scheer, encouraged him to do.

"I'm very proud of him and all of his accomplishments with the Scouts," she said. "I've never had to drag him to meetings, he's always wanted to go."

The leadership skills and values that Boy Scouts teaches is what Mindy Scheer said she wanted her son to learn.

"That's really important to us as parents," she said.

And there is no better way to learn leadership skills and good morals than through camp-out trips, Trevor Scheer said.

"If you forget your cooking utensils just one time, you never do that again," he said. "You gain a lot of experience through the camp-outs and you learn responsibility."

Besides camp-outs and learning how to be prepared, Scheer enjoys dirt bike riding and being on Advanced Technologies Academy's bowling team. While in his senior year, he is majoring in physics and eventually wants to enter the engineering field.

Although Scheer doesn't have much else to accomplish before becoming an Eagle Scout, he wants to continue to stay with his troop as an assistant scout master.

"We all get along so well, we're there to help each other out," he said.

Jenny Davis can be reached at 990-8921 or jenny.davis@hbcpub.com.