Trevor Snodgrass, a member of Boy Scout Troop 501, lower, center, introduces his giant chess and checkerboards to children in the Game Time program at the Durango Community Recreation Center on Monday. He created them for an Eagle Scout project.
Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Trevor Snodgrass, left, a member of Boy Scout Troop 501, introduces his giant chessboards to children at the Durango Community Recreation Center on Monday. Trevor built three giant boards with the aim of igniting kids’ imaginations. “They see something large, and they want to go touch it and play with it,” he said.
Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
A child’s hand is on a giant chessboard that Trevor created for an Eagle Scout project.
Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Boy Scout Troop 501 members Trevor Snodgrass and Alex Kolter paint the grid on the checkerboard for Trevor’s Eagle Scout project. It is one of several Eagle Scout projects that have been donated in recent months to help the community.
Courtesy of Trevor Snodgrass
Trevor Snodgrass, left, with Boy Scout Troop 501, introduces giant chess and checkerboards to children in the Game Time program Monday at the Durango Community Recreation Center. He created the boards for an Eagle Scout project. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Trevor Snodgrass, a Boy Scout with Troop 501, center, introduces giant chess and checkerboards he created to children in the Game Time program Monday at the Durango Community Recreation Center. He made the boards for an Eagle Scout project. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Trevor Snodgrass, left, with Boy Scout Troop 501, introduces giant chess and checkerboards to children in the Game Time program Monday at the Durango Community Recreation Center. He created the boards for an Eagle Scout project. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
A child’s hand shows the size of a life-size chessboard Troop 501 Scout Trevor Snodgrass created for the Durango Community Recreation Center. Children in the Game Time program Monday got to try out the boards, which were created for Snodgrass’ Eagle Scout Project. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Troop 501 Boy Scout Trevor Snodgrass, lower, center, introduces giant chess and checkerboards he created for the Durango Community Recreation Center. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Trevor Snodgrass, center, shows off giant chess and checkerboards he created for an Eagle Scout project at the Durango Community Recreation Center Monday. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Trevor Snodgrass, center, shows off giant chess and checkerboards he created for an Eagle Scout project at the Durango Community Recreation Center Monday. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Boy Scout Troop 501 members from left, Dennis Snodgrass, Trevor Snodgrass and Phillip Kolter, lay out the grid for the checkerboards for the Game Time program. Courtesy photo
Boy Scout Troop 501 members Trevor Snodgrass and Alex Kolter paint the grid on a checkerboard for Trevor’s Eagle Scout project. Courtesy photo
Alex Kolter of Boy Scout Troop 501 sands a panel of the game boards for Trevor Snodgrass’ Eagle Scout project. Courtesy photo
Boy Scout Troop 501 members Alex Kolter, left, and Dennis Snodgrass adjust the respirator mask for Davonte James so he can sand a panel for Trevor Snodgrass’ Eagle Scout Project. Courtesy photo
Boys and girls slipped off their shoes and crawled on top of oversized checkerboards donated to Chapman Hill, the Mason Center and the Durango Community Recreation Center on Monday as part of an Eagle Scout project.
The 8-foot by 8-foot game boards were designed and built, for the most part, by Trevor Snodgrass, 17, to fulfill one of his community-service requirements for becoming an Eagle Scout.
The three boards were unveiled at Durango Community Recreation Center, where streams of students cycled through as part of Durango’s Gametime program, which provides after-school and summertime activities. (Durango School District 9-R students were out of school Monday for a staff-development day.)
“When we first brought them in, the looks on their faces – it’s nice to know they’re enjoying it,” Trevor said. “I think the kids are going to love it.”
The jumbo-sized boards – Trevor built three of them – are meant to lure kids and ignite their imaginations, he said. “They see something large, and they want to go touch it and play with it,” he said.
It is one of several Eagle Scout projects that have been donated in recent months to help the community. Others include a dog-agility course to help train La Plata County Search and Rescue K-9s, efforts to repair a bridge and build a retaining wall at the Four Corners Christian Camp in Mancos, and the donation of 15 homemade birdhouses for the Durango Nature Studies Center near Bondad.
Trevor, a junior at Animas High School, said he has about 330 hours invested in the giant-size checkerboards, including the hours contributed by his fellow scouts. The wood was donated by Alpine Lumber and the paint was donated by Home Depot, he said.
He decided to make the game boards while working as an aide last summer with Gametime. It was his second attempt at an Eagle Scout project: For the first one, he spent about a year designing a new set of stairs for his church, but he had to abandon the project because of design requirements and financial limitations.
For the chess and checkerboards, Trevor took a regular-size chessboard, measured the dimensions, and multiplied it to give him the dimensions for a life-size board.
About one in eight Boy Scouts make it to Eagle Scout, said Dennis Snodgrass, Trevor’s father, who is assistant district commissioner of the Mesa Verde District of Boy Scouts of America.
“It’s quite an honor to become an Eagle Scout because there is a lot of hard work and determination from the youth part,” he said. “It’s more than just trail building; it’s giving back in other ways.”
Trevor said becoming an Eagle Scout teaches skills the regular school system doesn’t, and future employers will look at that favorably.
Ashleigh Siegrist, supervisor at Gametime, said the game boards are going to be a welcome addition to after-school programs.
“It’s going to be used a lot this summer,” she said. “Kids like taking off their shoes and playing on it.”
