By Will Gobbell

West End Church has always been a special place for me and my family. When it came time in my scouting career to choose an Eagle Scout project, I naturally turned to my church. I wanted to donate my energy and time to a project that would benefit the church and its ministries. Since I am a youth, I went to Sean Williams for direction. He helped guide and organize my project with the church facilities and staff.

Together, we decided that the fourth floor theater storage area was the area of the church that needed attention, and it did!!! The area had been a dumping ground for years for unwanted items in the church along with all the props for theater productions.

Along with volunteers, I spent 153 hours on this project. First, we separated the items in the area in piles accordingly to function. Items were placed in piles for donations, trash, and items to keep. While the church members and staff looked through these piles, I built four shelves offsite to put in the area for organization. Finally, on the work day, I gathered friends, church members, and family to help me move the piles to their designated spot. We took four truckloads to the dump, four truckloads to Goodwill, and spent hours organizing the items back into the theater storage area.

I am proud of my project, and what I have done to help my church. I want to thank everyone who helped me and donated the funds to help pay for the building materials for the shelves. I felt the support of the congregation of West End United Methodist Church not only monetary but physically. Not only did the staff come to support me, but also members came to lend a helping hand. I hope that each of you will take the time to go to the fourth floor and see the improvement.

Those of us on staff are very excited about the new look of the theater and its possibilities for future use. As a staff, we will move forward with the plan to keep this space clean and free of clutter and we would like to ask your help in doing the same. As mentioned in Will’s article, it took many people and 153 hours to clean out the clutter that had accumulated over the years. Lets take pride in our building and keep it clean and clear!