Matthew Brown

Fredonia officials treated a Scout to a big round of applause this week for completing a trail project at Russell Joy Park. They also happily took more than $300 in unused donations for the project, which he offered to give to the village.

Back in February 2020, Matthew Brown told the Fredonia Board of Trustees about his plans to improve a trail at Russell Joy Park for a service project he needs to become an Eagle Scout. He made his presentation at the board’s last meeting before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the pandemic and the long list of challenges it raised, he got the job done, with help from village workers and financial support from his community. “One of the phases of the project was fundraising,” Brown said at Monday’s meeting of the village trustees. “I have leftover money, $327.33, excess money which I would like to donate to the Fredonia parks and rec department.”

Village officials thanked and applauded him. “Matthew, it’s been a pleasure meeting with you along the way,” Mayor Douglas Essek said.

“We met here about a week or so ago to sign some paperwork,” he continued. “What you’ve done is you’ve accomplished a very big achievement in your life. Being an Eagle Scout is a really proud thing to be and it’ll make a difference in your life moving forward.

“I’m very proud to have worked with you on this project… it’s a great honor, my son, Adam, was an Eagle Scout as well. You’re going to do really well and I appreciate everything you’ve done to make things better in the parks,” Essek concluded.

Trustee David Bird also thanked Brown and invited him to offer more ideas for improvements to village parks.

“Myself and (Trustee) Michelle (Twichell) are the … liaisons for the parks and rec department. We are going to be putting out announcements about different things we’d like to hopefully get accomplished and asking the village to come up with some ideas they’d like to see,” he said. “Please watch the Facebook page and if you have any ideas for that money — street dances, Taco Tuesday, whatever it might be — feel free to put in a recommendation for that. And thank you for helping out the village.”

“It’s great to have young men of your caliber in the community,” Trustee James Lynden said to Brown.