Well as a requirement for graduation, Im required to do a "senior project". I had two options for this senior project, option A) being a job shadow or option B) being 60hrs of community service. For option A i would have wanted to shadow an airline pilot but i didnt know of any, so i chose B. Now i had to think up of a way that i could envolve aviation into Community Service and this is what i came up with and was approved for. Since i was a member already of Air Heritage Inc. which is a aviation museum and restoration facillity, i decided i would do somthing for them.
A lot of the members there are in their 60's or older. One guy who is very active flew P-47D's in WWII and gets around by a mobile seat/wheelchair. Another member just recently celebrated his 93rd birthday. There are two older ladies who also normally do the flower beds that are in front of the hangar.
Gardening is a Hobby of mine. Ive lived in the country all my life so i grew up having good landscapes around me especially at my grandma's who was my neighbor and where i spent almost all of my summers living at. So taking pride in a nice lawn got stuck into me. I had brought up the idea to the members of me redoing completely their front landscaping back at the march monthly members meeting and they all liked the idea. So April came and i went back to the board meeting this time and formally submitted my master plan for the redo. The object in mind was to make it as upkeep friendly as possibly while making it extremely nice. The board talked about it and the only thing holding it back was the funding. They thought it was just too expensive and that they didnt believe the members would want the 3000 dollars it would take to do all of it to go torwards this instead of the planes. So i went back to redo the plans but keeping it very simular.
I was able to adjust things and have gotten it down to about 1200 dollars. I went back to the May Board Meeting and the majority wasnt there, however in their By-laws they were able to approve it and give funding for the amount of 1000 dollars. The other 200 dollars, which has now turned into around 500 dollars will be coming straight from me and my family along with a few fundraisers and donations from businesses and other people. I myself will be putting about 200 dollars that i have made mowing grass towards it.
So here finally is the plan.
*all new plants except for exsist Hostas and Bulbs which will be removed and replanted elsewhere.
*6in high retaining walls using 12in long tan landscaping brick from homedepot to seperate the beds from the parking lot.
*all new topsoil and dark brown mulch on top
the actual plan itself
currently how it looked before i even touched it in march. As you see there are patches of daffadil bulbs and inbetween each patch is where the Hostas came up. That was pretty much all they have besides weeds and its the same for the whole length of the hangar
(these are to the right of the main entrance)
(looking down from a small hillside)
as you can see it wasnt maintained very well but, the bulbs are done blooming, the hostas have finally completely come up and the brick was bought and delivered by my dad and me saturday. luckily the homedepot is on the other side of the street not even a mile up the road so was a relatively easy job getting it there...
Hopefully, either Wednesday or thursday ill be able to go over and get the bulbs out since their done for the summer and hostas which are big enough to be taken out so i can spray the whole thing down with weed killer. Then either Saturday or Sunday i can actually start preparing them to put the bricks in.
I did a project like this at my house so the brick part should be pretty easy to do. Im hoping to get them planted and mulched by Memorial Day or within the first two weeks of June for the Summer guests.
A little about Air Hertiage. They started back in the 80's when the B-17 nine-O-nine crashed at the airport during an airshow. They restored it back to flying condition after a few years of being at the airport. In the early 90's the group formally was launched. We operate one of only a handful C-123K's in the mainland US (a couple are used in Alaska by a private owner for use in his diamond mines), 1 OV-1D Mohawk (use to have two but sold one in 2007) and a L-21. We currently have a T-28 Trojan that is around 80% restored to flight condition along with a Fairchild 24D which only 10 were ever made which just had its engine hung and is nearing the end of its restoration. We also have a T-34 and 1946 Funk which are in the early stages of restoration. For Static Displays, last year we received a F-15A from Georgia and a T-3 from a member who donated it. We are located at the main entrance to the Beaver County Airport (KBVI) which is 18nm north of Pittsburgh Intl Airport by plane or 35miles north of Downtown Pittsburgh by car.
I will update this post as i go along. Since Finals are tomarrow and Thursday, ill be able to spend some actual time torwards it in the next few weeks.
