Poplar Bluff student becomes an Eagle Scout after creating a new playground feature

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (KBSI) – A Poplar Bluff High School student earned his Eagle Scout rank by creating a new playground feature for elementary students.

Sophomore student at Poplar Bluff High School, 15-year-old Noah Adams is a Boy Scout, and he needed a meaningful project to become an Eagle Scout. 

Adams found a project he’d like to do at the elementary school he previously attended. Adams painted a sensory path on an otherwise unutilized concrete slab adjacent to the playground at Eugene Field as a service project.

After receiving approval through both his Scout leaders and the school Adams got to work. Over the course of multiple weekends in October, Noah prepped the site, then sketched a series of lines and shapes to form an obstacle course that is designed to lead students through various challenges such as the tightrope walk or bunny hop.

He explained how the concept is similar to a hopscotch outline one might draw with chalk on a sidewalk, only he used long-lasting paint with leftover supplies he acquired from a home project. Noah’s mother is a first-grade teacher at Eugene Field Elementary, so he’s spent a lot of time at the elementary school. 

“The sensory path is for the students to use to help with movements and to just get the wiggles out,” Michelle Adams, Noah’s mother says. “It has also been a big hit with the students. He gets off the bus here at Eugene Field in the afternoons and that first week he was a local celebrity.”

Elementary Principal Kristen Spain calls the project a “win-win.”

“Noah’s plan truly made something out of nothing,” stated Kristen Spain, Eugene Field principal. “It is a win-win because our students benefit from his service project, and it helped him complete a huge goal [toward] Eagle Scout.”