Boy Scouts Troop 170 on May 7 ventured out on a cold and rainy morning to fix up Faith Lutheran Church Syosset’s nursery playground and power wash the fence.
“The playground is a part of our nursery school,” Rev. Rebecca Sheridan said. “And our nursery school, like a lot of places, closed in March of 2020. We weren’t able to re-open in the 2020 through 2021 school year.”
This school year, Faith Lutheran Church was able to open the nursery school as a morning only program.
“It’s fair to say the playground was in some disrepair because it was not being used,” Rev. Sheridan said. “So we had some wood underneath the fence that needed to be replaced. We needed some power washing to be done, things like that.”
Boy Scouts Troop 170 rose up to the occasion to help create a fun, safe and clean playground for Faith Lutheran Church’s children.
“Some of our members participate in the Boy Scout troop,” Rev. Sheridan said. “One of our members is our church liaison to the Boy Scouts.”
The Faith Lutheran Church Syosset is the sponsoring church for the troop and Carl Juul-Nielsen serves as the liaison.
“They have been great since they came to us a few years ago in assisting in many projects,” Juul-Nielsen said. “They have helped spring cleaning and planting our gardens, power washing the nursery playground, cleaning vinyl fences, setting up Christmas ornaments and our Nativity Scene and even having a car wash for our community.”
The focus of the latest project on the playground was replacing landscape ties along the fence and enclosing the church playground.
“It was a cold, rainy day, but the boys were troopers, egged on by their scoutmasters and parents,” Juul-Nielsen said. “There was a real team effort that exemplified how a group can work together to accomplish a tough task.”
Also assisting in the project was the Syosset Home Depot.
“I recently got elected to sit on the board of the Syosset Chamber of Commerce,” Rev. Sheridan said. “And, one of the other members of the board is a person who works for Home Depot. So, he had offered to donate the wood so that we could accomplish the project. We were able to refurbish the playground without needing to dip into any of our reserve fund.” The playground is now ready for the spring, and the summer program from the Faith Lutheran nursery school that already has two classes enrolled.
“This will be excellent for our nursery school moving forward and in the fall we’re planning to open up again full-time,” Rev. Sheridan said.
Juul-Nielsen added that this Boy Scouts troop has been “invaluable” to the church, allowing to make the church more beautiful while keeping the budget in line.
