By June of 2010, Tanner had finished all of his Merit Badges except his Camping merit badge, in which he had only 3 days left. So he began to look at starting his Eagle Scout Project. He began speaking with Brother Ray Garrett back in March of 2010, about replacing Veterans Headstones at American Fork Cemetery. They started to look at dates, but in April it got to crazy for Tanner with Soccer. In May, Ray & the AF Cemetery crew were busy preparing for the upcoming holiday of Memorial Day. In June, between Tanner just starting up a new season of competitive soccer & Ray preparing for his son's return from his mission. In July, Ray was busy spending time with his son, then on July 24th Ray's son died of an overdose. So we decided that we'd either need to look at doing a different project or wait awhile for the Garrett's to recover from their heartbreak.
It wasn't until maybe May 2011, we spoke with Brother Ray Garrett and started to get things back on track with his Eagle Project. So in June, we began the process because we had decided years ago that Tanner would need to get his Project done before he was able to get a Drivers License.
With all the unexpected things that went wrong, we decided that as long as his project was DONE, he'd be able to get his license. He has finished his workbook, it still needs a few finishing touches, & has yet to have his Eagle Board of Review, BUT none the less its a work in progress. We are VERY proud of him, its a lot of work normally- but to be involved in high school soccer, & competitive soccer YEAR ROUND, with school, practices and everything else. I can see why so many boys now a days are not receiving their Eagle Scout Awards. But for Tanner, it's a MUST!
The 2 furthest headstones are on their tops, to show the amount of cement that was needed to be removed before pouring new settings. These are the 4 Veterans Headstones. One of which was a "Purple Heart" and ALL gave their time, talents & service to our Country. None of which, THANKFULLY were killed in action.
After practice one day this summer, Tanner asked his Soccer team to come and help prepare the stones, by removing all the old cement casts and cleaning off the rust on the front of the headstones.
Here the boys are chiseling off the cement.
Mike & Tanner built this 4 place headstone structure so they could place the headstones in the mold, then pour the cement around them.
Then on a Wednesday night, Mutual activity Tanner asked both the boys/leaders from our ward & the boys/leaders from the Deerfield Ward to come over & help pour, place and set the 4 stones. All in all there were a LOT of people who came out to support Tanner in this project.
When placing these headstones, they needed to have the right height, width and depth for placement in the cemetery.
The blocks they are using are measured perfectly so the headstone would be placed in the center with 4 equal sides.
Then Tanner had to instruct these YM how to mix the cement, pour the cement, & smooth it so it would look nice when finished. They also used plastic to cover the face headstone so they wouldn't get extra cement on them. Tanner then removed the plastic after a few hours after the cement set. Let's just say it was a REALLY late night-
After a week of the headstones drying, we set a time when Tanner, some boys from his soccer team and his dad went down to the AF Cemetery to place the headstones back where they belong.
Let me just add that these headstones WERE NOT LIGHT! They were very, VERY heavy.
A lot of the Eagle Scout Project is that the boy scout in charge, "delegates" and leads the other boys through this process.
We are truly grateful for ALL of you who helped Tanner on this project.
All throughout the planning & working on this project I thought to myself, "this is so LITTLE compared to what each of these men did for us, and our country!" I just hope those who came in contact with the project thought that very same thing, especially Tanner.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for those who have, and are currently serving!
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