Alan Rosenbeck: Helping Eagle Scouts Soar

CARA CHATFIELD
Highbanks Park Ranger

Alan Rosenbeck is a commissioned park ranger and assistant manager at Highbanks Metro Park. Since 2011, he has been working closely with scouts from Scouting America to help them achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. There are several ranks a scout can achieve, with Eagle Scout being the highest. This is a coveted rank as Eagle Scouts often receive financial scholarships and employment opportunities based on their demonstrated commitment to leadership and community service.

To become an Eagle Scout, Scouting America requires that the candidate must complete a service project. Specifically, that candidate must plan and develop the project, in addition to providing leadership to others during the implementation of the project. Only 5% of all scouts attain the rank of Eagle Scout. Alan has helped 22 scouts earn the Eagle Scout rank, and is currently mentoring another eight scouts working on open projects.

Earlier in his career, Alan received scout requests from management who hoped someone would be willing to assist particular scouts with service projects. Not everyone is up to the task, but Alan was. He is now known for being so gracious and helpful to future Eagle Scouts that he’s earned a reputation and scouts often reach out to him directly.

After being contacted, Alan meets with the scout and their parent(s) in person. Sometimes they have an idea of what they’d like to do, but usually they benefit from suggestions. Alan either offers three potential projects from which they can choose or suggests they research natural play areas and find three potential projects they’d be interested in completing. Alan helps the scouts narrow their project choices, realize practical challenges to completing the project, and discusses materials needed. He often helps them with more challenging aspects of their projects, such as boring large holes into the ground for setting poles. He offers them advice, acts as a mentor, fills out the paperwork they need, and maintains a project database for record-keeping purposes.

At Highbanks, these projects take many forms and have included refurbishing shelters, creating hammock stations, and installing nesting boxes. By far, however, the biggest ongoing project has been the creation and development of a Natural Play Area, all under the tutelage of Alan. The Natural Play Area features projects – both completed and underway – by 18 different scouts.

The Natural Play Area began its life humbly as a scout-created trail, carved into the woods between a field and the Olentangy River. With each new project, space was cleared in the forest understory —mostly invasive honeysuckle, a bonus— to accommodate the latest play equipment until the simple trail, in time, became a sprawling area. The first playground equipment was a rope spiderweb. Now the Natural Play Area features a teeter totter, parallel bars, balance beam, assorted climbing structures, an artsy totem pole, monkey bars, treehouse, photo-op cut-outs, seesaw, giant chair, rope course, a hanging bridge and swings.

Alan’s favorite project was of an interpretive nature, however, and was completed by a scout named Lauren. It’s special to Alan for several reasons. He feels that Highbanks is well-known for its unique geological features, Native American mounds, and earthworks. He believes what has been underrepresented is the park’s agricultural history and “modern” land-use history and he wanted to see that communicated in some way. He met with Lauren and offered her several potential project ideas, taking Lauren and her mother to various sites around the park to gauge their interest. Lauren chose to rebuild a portion of road that existed in the early 1900s when this area was a farm, connecting a main house to a barn. That road would currently connect the Dripping Rock Trail to the Mansion Reserve. Lauren and her team excavated, cleaned, and reset approximately 600 original locally-made bricks, and, with Alan’s advise, created new interpretive signage for the project.

Another reason why Alan was fond of the road rebuild was because he was touched by the drive and enthusiasm of that particular scout. Scout America was formerly Boy Scouts of America. Alan says, “the best thing the scouts have done is to allow girls into the troops.” He told me that Lauren’s mother used to volunteer with scouts because Lauren’s brother was involved. Lauren would often tag along and do everything the boys did. When girls were allowed to join in 2014, Lauren said it was the best day of her life. Alan really appreciated having a role in helping this responsible, civic-minded kid on her journey to become the type of adult that makes a difference in the world by giving back to her community.

Giving back to his community is something Alan takes very seriously. Alan himself was an Eagle Scout and he currently acts as an Assistant Scout Master for his son’s troop. Next year he’ll act as an Assistant Cub Master, and eventually plans to become Cub Master. He has held a civil-service position within the parks since 2011. Alan sees his work with the Eagle Scouts in our park as a way of furthering a civil-service mission by preparing a future generation.

Scouts are not completing service projects at every Metro Park. The number of projects completed at Highbanks attests to the fact that Alan is a special individual uniquely equipped to help young scouts thrive. With his scouting past, his desire to make the world a better place by instilling solid values in the younger generations, and in his long-standing civic-mindedness, he has helped not only several scouts directly, but has also enhanced Highbanks for the enjoyment of all through his work as a scout mentor.