A Boy Scout And His Groton Troop Turn An Eyesore Into A Park

A local boy scout working on his Eagle Scout project cleared brush and trash for two days with his friends from Boy Scout Troop 13 in Groton, to clear an overgrown lot along the Thames River and install park benches.

“It’s helping to beautify our community and it’s for a non-profit group,” said Groton Town Mayor James Streeter. “The more important thing, though, was that it was a project that he organized and showed his leadership in.” The Avery-Copp House Museum owns the lot next to Puffins Restaurant on Thames Street, and it had gotten away from them, said Streeter, who is on the museum's board of directors.

Tyler Homand, 17, of Stonington, worked Sunday and Monday with 17 scouts from the Groton troop where his father is scout master and with members of the .

Grass and brush had grown at least three feet high, and the lot had collected tires, trash and debris that washed up from the river.

Homand, who is autistic, and his fellow scouts used equipment borrowed from the Mystic Rod & Gun Club. The scouts carried out two trailers of debris. John and Helen Gibson, of Mendon, Mass., - Tyler's uncle and aunt - donated four benches the boys then installed.

Homand said he did the work so you can “watch the river. So you can see it, the boats and the trains.”

His father, Mark Homand, said he hopes the site will become a place where people sit by the river and relax, watch fireworks during summer, and greet and wave goodbye to servicemen and women returning home or heading out to sea.

“We’d like people to use it,” he said of the park. “That’s why we’re here.”

Caleb Young, 18, of Groton, who recently completed a different Eagle Scout project, said he contributed because it’s his duty and he wanted to help a friend.

“It does look a lot better,” he said. “The benches are a nice add on.”