Perrysburg Eagle Scout to fix up junior high courtyard

Perrysburg High School freshman Bradley Wilson (in white shirt on right), who turns 16 on May 25. had an Eagle Scout project to help clean up the courtyard at Perrysburg Junior High. COURTESY OF WILSON FAMILY Enlarge

The courtyard by the Perrysburg Junior High cafeteria looked forgotten.

It was a tough area to navigate a mower around, so the grass was overgrown and the weeds needed to be picked.

It was the kind of place that seemed just right for a community service project.

“I thought I could kill two bird with one stone,” said Perrysburg High School freshman Bradley Wilson, who turns 16 on May 25. “I could clean up the school and I could get my Eagle Scout project done.”

So the young Wilson, an Eagle Scout candidate, went to work.

He collected $543 in donations from friends and neighbors to buy gardening supplies and recruited high school French club members to help. Two companies, Black Diamond Garden Center in Perrysburg and Bostdorff Greenhouse Acres in Bowling Green, also donated a tree and mulch.

In October, Bradley and other volunteers planted a large flowering pear tree, put in the mulch, installed two bird houses, and added 37 daylilies and 15 burning bushes.

Now, it’s the first spring where the courtyard is blooming.

At a recent school board meeting, junior high principal Dale Wiltse praised the student for sprucing up the overlooked courtyard.

The teenager’s passion for scouts began when he started Cub Scouts in first grade.

His father, Jim Wilson, 54, a chief estimator for the E.S. Wagner Co. in Oregon, has always been his leader. Mr. Wilson is an Eagle Scout himself.

Bradley’s younger brother Graham, 14, a Perrysburg eighth-grader, is also involved in scouts.

“Scouts is kind of a family thing for us,” said his mother, Gaye Wilson, 48, a stay-at-home mother of three.