Whiz Kid: Scout Leads Efforts to Repair, Repaint Midvale's Safety Town

Each week, Patch spotlights young people in the Birmingham community who are successful, talented and just plain awesome. This week, our Whiz Kid is:

Ben Cooper

• Age: 17
• School:
• Achievements: As part of his Eagle Scout project, Cooper — a member of Troop 1024 — organized a group of volunteers and spent close to 100 hours upgrading the buildings in the 's Safety Town, used to teach incoming kindergarten students general safety rules each summer. 
• Key to awesomeness: According to Laura Tinsley, director of the Early Childhood Center, Cooper went above and beyond what was expected.
  
  The Safety Town buildings were in desperate need of a new paint job, she said, but Cooper noticed they could use a little more help.
  
  “Because so many people help with Safety Town and because they’re taking the buildings down and putting them up every day, they needed a better system,” Cooper said. “Before they might be putting a roof on the wrong building, so I decided to number the pieces. Now they can be put together by anyone making the buildings safer once they’re together.”
  
  To earn Eagle Scout status, a Scout must take on a leadership role and organize a team to complete a project, such as the Safety Town upgrades. Cooper raised funds to complete the project by orchestrating a bottle drive and organized a group of volunteers to help with the project. It took approximately 72 hours of work, with Cooper leading the team as it repaired, sanded, replaced hardware, primed and painted and labeled the Safety Town Buildings.
  
  “We were so grateful that Ben was able to take this on for us,” Tinsley said. “This was a project that really needed to be done and we’re happy that we’ll have upgraded buildings for next summer’s Safety Town.”

Do you know a local young person who deserves applause for volunteer work this summer, for challenging how we think about the environment, or an impressive athletic achievement? Everyone deserves attention, and we want to tell these stories.

Email nominations to Editor Laura Houser at laura.houser@patch.com, provide the information shown above and include a photo with names and ages. Then, come back each Tuesday for our Whiz Kid spotlight; you never know who's up next.