Eagle Project Matthew Zimmerman - Accessible Picnic Table

HUGE THANK YOU to future Eagle Scout Matthew Zimmerman for making a wheelchair-accessible picnic table with table games for our participants.

Let's hear from Matt himself: "Hello! I’m Matt Zimmerman and I just completed my Eagle Project for Park Lawn. My group and I built a wheelchair-accessible picnic table. I always liked collecting things as a little kid which is what first piqued my interest in boy scouts. I liked the idea of ranking up and collecting merit badges with friends. I had no idea how much boy scouts would change my life.

I joined scouts in March of 2016 and I completed my Eagle Project for Park Lawn on October 24, 2021. This was such a great experience and pleasure working with Park Lawn to get this project completed, but of course, I cannot take all the credit when I had so many great and helpful people who stayed with me through this year-long process of setting up this project.

I would like to thank all of troop 318 and the great counselors who helped me with approval. I would like to thank the great people who helped on October 23, 2021: my cousin Martin Murphy who goes to Marist High School and is in Troop 617, Maksym Sierak who goes to Tinley Park High School and is in Troop 318, my brother Nick Zimmerman who goes to Carl Sandburg High School, Jack Kelley who goes to Carl Sandburg High School and is in Troop 318, and my cousin Jimmy Darché who goes to Lewis University. I would also like to thank the great people who helped on October 24, 2021: Trevor Murray who goes to Andrew High School and is in Troop 318, Greg Kotsiviras who goes to Carl Sandburg High School and is in Troop 318; and again Nick Zimmerman, Jack Kelley, Jimmy Darché, and Martin Murphy. I would like to give special thanks to my mom and dad, they helped me throughout this whole thing and without them, I would have nothing. Finally, I would like to thank Park Lawn, especially Mark Dynia and Nancy Schmitz for this great opportunity.

The main reason I chose Park Lawn was that I know how difficult life can be normally. I cannot imagine how difficult life is with a disability so I wanted to not only give a wheelchair-accessible picnic table to Park Lawn but I also wanted to spread awareness on people with disabilities because these people are some of the most incredible and bright people I have ever met. I have a cousin with special needs, his name is Charlie Darché and he attends Park Lawn also! Charlie Darché is the brother of Jimmy Darché, who helped with the table. He is one of the greatest people I have ever met and can talk your ear off about Godzilla for days! Charlie is 25 years old and has Mitochondrial disease. Thanks to him and his mom (my Aunt Tracy) we were able to find out about this organization. Charlie also showed up to the project and helped build the table and paint it!

As for what I want to do in the future I am not too sure about that... I hope to go to college somewhere south and I really like space so maybe something like an astronomer, Astro Engineer, or even an astronaut. I attend Carl Sandburg High School and I am in NHS (National Honors Society). I also am a soon-to-be Eagle in troop 318!

Again I would like to thank everyone who helped me through this life-changing experience, not every second was sunshine and rainbows but we got through the problems we ran into and were able to make a wheelchair accessible picnic table with tabletop games painted on it and I hope the participants at Park Lawn love this table as much as I do!"

In today's world, the media focuses on what divides us. Matthew & his team has shown what can happen when we work together to help one another. Thank you again Matthew and keep reaching for the stars!

#WeAreParkLawn #BetterTogether #ParkLawnStrong

#BoyScouts #EagleScout #MakeADifferenceDay