 |
| Contributed photo/Shawn Cote Carl Soderberg of Soderberg Construction, left, receives a plaque from Scoutmaster Vaughn Keaton of Caribou Friends For Scouts in appreciation for donated property for the new CFFS Meeting Hall on Aldrich Drive. |
By Shawn Cote
Special to the Aroostook Republican
The new Caribou Friends For Scouts Meeting Hall opened its doors June 29 with a ribbon-cutting event at 71 Aldrich Drive in Caribou.
For Vaughn Keaton, scoutmaster of Caribou Boy Scout Troop 184 and president of the nonprofit corporation CFFS, the event marked the realization of his longtime dream to give the Scouts of Troop 184 a meeting place of their own. Previously, the Scouts had been forced to hold their meetings wherever they could, including an upstairs conference room of TD Banknorth, a space whose entrance and rest rooms were not ADA compliant.
“The Scouts have been bounced around Caribou quite a bit,” Keaton said. “Now [with the new meeting hall] everything is centrally located, and we’re not at anybody’s mercy anymore. That’s what it means to us.”
The new meeting hall is a rectangular one-story structure built entirely by volunteers, with knotty pine and half-log siding. The interior pine for the hall was donated in memory of Keaton’s father, Rogis S. Keaton, the founder and first scoutmaster of Troop 184, who served on the Troop Committee until 2003. In addition to serving as a meeting place for the Scouts, the building also houses a storage area, an office, as well as an ADA-compliant rest room and entryway. Framed photographs, plaques and Rockwellian Boy Scout prints adorn the interior walls, lending the space an atmosphere that is both fresh and traditional.
Keaton says he first became keen on the idea of giving his troop its own meeting hall 30 years ago. Early on, however, he found his aspirations hampered by a federal charter which prevents the Scouts from owning real estate. Then, in 2006, Keaton was asked as a contractor to donate and install a fire alarm system for the Scout dining facility at Camp Roosevelt in Eddington. During the subsequent dedication ceremony, a friend of Keaton’s pointed out that the Camp Roosevelt property was actually owned by a nonprofit corporation. This led Keaton and others to form CFFS, whose board members include Treasurer Duane Walton and Eric Scott, both of whom are with the Northern Maine Development Commission.
The new hall is situated on an acre and a quarter of land donated by Soderberg Construction, whose president, Carl Soderberg, was presented with a plaque at Friday’s ribbon cutting. Other top contributors include Larry’s Construction, whose crews cleared the land and set up the meeting hall parking lot, and Cyr Construction, which donated the facility’s metal doorjambs and doors.
Powers Roofing and Sheet Metal Inc. donated machines, scaffolds, and high lifts for the construction of the meeting hall. John Powers, the company’s construction superintendent, also happens to be the secretary of CFFS. For him, the motivation to help out was simple.
“It’s extremely important to keep a community-based youth organization viable in any area to retain interest in a community,” Powers said. “The busier you keep the youth, the happier they’re going to be.”
According to Keaton, future plans for the meeting hall include a hot-top driveway and picnic area, as well as a place for the Scouts to build fires. Keaton says plans are also under way for an Eagle Scout reunion to take place at the facility sometime next summer.
