Chance Lowery attains Eagle Scout rank

Chance Lowery’s Eagle Scout project included building this bridge in Chi-Bro park over a section of trail that is used by the Cross-Country team and included a swampy area and dilapidated steps.

On Tuesday evening, October 23, lifelong Boy Scout Chance Lowery joined the elite status of Eagle Scout at a special Court of Honor. Eagle is a rank that only about 3 percent of Scouts worldwide attain.

For many years, Manchester has had a higher than average number of Eagle Scouts, due to an incredible support system of leaders and fellow Scouts.

Chance, the son of Sean and Angie Lowery of Manchester, is now a senior in high school. He started out in Tiger Cubs in first grade and has taken an active role in scouting all along. He is the only one of his original group of classmates who started out as Tiger Cubs, to still be in scouting, and is proud to have achieved the ultimate award of Eagle Scout. He has earned a total of 43 badges during his years of scouting, including the 21 required to complete the Eagle rank.

Each Eagle Scout candidate must determine a specific community project, get appropriate approvals, plan and carry out the project, including fund-raising, along with support from their mentors and fellow Scouts. Chance’s project, a deck bridge over a low-lying area of the cross country trail in Chi-Bro Park, built on a previous Eagle Scout project from twenty years ago. A prior Eagle candidate had built steps out of railroad ties to make a small crest in the trail a bit more navigable. However, over the years one of the steps had rotted and the trail was once again unsafe. Chance not only repaired the rotted step but added five more steps on the opposite side of the crest, and built the deck over an area that often gets washed out during running season. Although Chance isn’t a cross country runner, he knew that this was an important project.

“I used to walk this trail home when I was in middle school,” Chance explained, “So I knew that some repairs were needed. It was a lot of fun building it.”

The “fun” wasn’t without its challenges, though. During the construction, Chance and his fellow Scouts found clay, dirt, and a very high water table in the area of the deck. On the first hole they dug for the footings, they sheared a pin on the auger. Taking out the rotted step, Chance discovered a bent pin that almost thwarted that effort. However, in the end, the Scouts successfully completed the deck project, and now have just some brush-clearing to do to finish up.

Managing to complete the project while playing football, carrying a full class load in his senior year, and working at the Manchester Subway certainly added to the challenges Chance faced, but he didn’t let that stop his momentum.

Chance would like to thank his fellow Scouts, Logan Luckhardt, Tyler Elliott, Derek Brickley, Ryan Amrhein, and Joseph Grebe; plus adult mentors and leaders Lance Luckhardt, Jeff Elliott, Dean Amrhein, Don Huff, and his dad, Sean Lowery, for their help and support with his Eagle Scout project.

In addition to building steps above his deck bridge, Chance also repaired a rotted step on the other side of a small hill, that made the trail dangerous to traverse.

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.