Charley Nelson and crew hard at work on the gazebo at the White Pine Trail staging area last Saturday. Post photo by J. Reed.

By Judy Reed

Charley Nelson, 16, the son of Charles and Ginger Nelson of Courtland Township, made a lasting contribution to the Cedar Springs White Pine Staging area last weekend when he and his family and friends built a gazebo for the community to use.
Charley, a sophomore at Cedar Springs High School, built the gazebo as an Eagle Scout project.
According to his mom, Ginger, Charley has been with Troop #222, which is sponsored by Cedar Springs Rotary, for three years. When it came time to pick a project as part of the process to achieve Eagle Scout status, former boy scout leader and CS Rotarian Tom Noreen gave Charley some ideas of things that could be done, and when he met with City Manager Chris Burns, she gave Charley several options, one of which was the gazebo. “He really likes to build things,” said Ginger.
About 16 people helped with the gazebo throughout the day on Saturday, December 4. Work started about 9 a.m. and ended at about 8 p.m.
Burns couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome. “The City was thrilled to partner with the Scouts, specifically Eagle Scout candidate Charley Nelson, for the construction of the pavilion at the staging area,” remarked Burns. “Charley and his crew did a phenomenal job in less-than-ideal weather conditions.  Thank you to all those who volunteered last Saturday to make this project a reality!”
Charley had his scoutmaster review Tuesday evening, and now has to go to a boy scout council board of review. If they approve it, Charley will get his Eagle Scout rank.
Burns said that a dedication of the gazebo will take place sometime in mid-January, and it will honor Gary Gust’s mother, Clara Gust. The Gust family donated the land for the staging area, with the understanding that some type of pavilion would be built to honor Clara.

Levi Velting kneels beside the gravestone of Carl Meitz, a friend of the family. The Velting family has known the Meitz family for 40 years, and thought it would be appropriate to honor him in a photo to be turned in for Levi’s Eagle Scout project.

Cemeteries are a place a lot of kids don’t want to visit. But they don’t bother Levi Velting, a 15-year-old sophomore at Cedar Springs High School. He spent a lot of time with his family doing geneaology in cemeteries across the county while growing up, and so it was only appropriate that he do his Eagle Scout project in a cemetery where he could honor fallen soldiers.

“It has been a joke at our house that he and his brother learned their ABCs in the cemetery looking for gravestones,” said Levi’s mom, Stacey Velting.

On August 22, Levi and 13 other Boy Scouts and their parents set out to East Nelson Township Cemetery to help Levi on his eagle project, which was making foundations for the veteran flag holders. They put 63 combined work hours into digging holes and cementing the flag holders in place. With the extra materials they also made foundations for the holders at Punches Cemetery on Ritchie.

Levi’s father, Brien, is a Gulf War Veteran, and hopes that when his time comes, his grave will be honored in the same way.

Levi and and the scouts took the Memorial Day issue of the Cedar Springs Post with the listing of all the veterans buried in the cemeteries, and checked to make sure they found all the names. There were a few they couldn’t find, and a few they said we need to add. We’ll be checking on this in the near future. Thanks so much for doing this!