Eagle Earning Wings With Lighthouse Dock

Eagle Scout candidate Alex Rees recruited many helpers to build a dock which he later installed at the Huntington Lighthouse. Photos/Viewpoint Photography

By Sophia Ricco
sricco@longislandergroup.com

When looking for a service project to reach the rank of Eagle Scout, Alec Rees from Centerport, turned to the water. The 15-year-old took on construction of a floating dock for the Huntington Lighthouse Preservation Society.

The 8 x 24 floating dock was completed this spring by Rees with help from other scouts, friends and family, and was put in the water at the beginning of August. A ceremony will be held in the coming weeks to install a plaque with Rees’ name on it.

The dock took four eight-hour days to complete. The preservation society is grateful for his donation, which will allow improved access to the lighthouse for boaters. It also helped him to achieve his Eagle Scout service project requirements that call for a scout to lead others while helping a non-for-profit organization.

Rees has a deep love for all things nautical. When he was first looking for an organization to help with the service project, he began researching the Lighthouse Preservation Society.

It took many months of planning and consultation with marine contractors for Alex Rees to come up with the design for the floating dock he built for the Huntington Lighthouse.

“Since I was young, my family has been boating out of Huntington Harbor,” Rees said. “Everytime we would go out boating, we passed Huntington lighthouse and I never thought much about it, I just thought it looked cool. And when the time came and I was thinking about an eagle project, I wanted to do something that meant something to me. I wanted it to have a lasting effect on me and a lasting effect on the person I did it for.”

Rees made contact with the society and began brainstorming ideas. In the past, a Girl Scout had created a historical display for the society, but he is the first Eagle Scout to do a construction project for them.

“We kicked around various ideas,” Pamela Setchell, President of Huntington Lighthouse Preservation Society, said. “It’s funny because the ideas that we came up with were nowhere near as involved and intricate to build as this one.”

At first, Rees considered a large storage bench for the lighthouse, but after meeting with his eagle coach, decided he wanted to do something more significant. This is when the dock came into play.

“When you first see the dock you think, ‘Oh it’s a dock, it’s just a big rectangle.’ But there’s a lot of structural components and a lot of details that went into it,” Rees said.

All of the details came together as Rees designed the dock. Local marine companies advised him on how to start and what materials he would need. With their input he designed a dock that would best suit the lighthouse

Rees then held a garage sale in October where he was able to raise around $3,200 to buy materials for the dock.

“All the planning and contacting of people is something I would have never done if I hadn’t performed this project,” Rees said. “Even all the details and everything that have to go into a project, helped me learn new things.

Rees and others worked on the dock in his driveway during the spring. This was a busy time for Rees, with finals at school, scouting events, family commitments, and a job, that forced him to learn how to balance his time.

But to him, it was all worth it. Rees only has a few more requirements to complete to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest achievement in Boy Scouts.

The newly installed dock allows more boaters access to the lighthouse.

“I really hope that it benefits Huntington Lighthouse for many years to come,” Rees said. “I know that during MusicFest it definitely helped them out because it gave them more dock space. I saw pictures of the dock being used and it made me feel great seeing that.”

“We’re on a bed of rocks out there, so needless to say, we don’t have much real estate at all,” Setchell said. “So for us, it gives us more square footage and at the MusicFest, that square footage was worth the world.”

Now, when Rees and his family go out boating, they will pass the dock that he constructed and Rees said, he will be happy to know it is benefiting them. Also, this project helped him to see that he would enjoy a career working in a nautical environment.

According to Setchell, the contractor who worked on the $1.1 million renovation to the lighthouse foundation said, “I would give this kid a job building docks in a heartbeat.”