DHS Courtyard Renovation

Overview

For my BSA Eagle project, I restored a neglected courtyard space within Dexter High School. The courtyard space would allow students to go outside without leaving the walls of the school; however, it was largely overgrown and didn't serve as a functional space for students.

I worked with the school district to bring life back to this space by organizing volunteers to clean out the space and build tables and benches that made the area far more functional. I also worked with the school to repurpose old turf from the football field into a softscape centerpiece of the courtyard.

CAD Render for Fundraising

The main reason I used CAD for this project was to help in obtaining funding. After working through the goals of the project and tabulating the materials I'd need, I estimated that the cost would be roughly $700. My plan was to use crowdfunding to obtain a majority of the money to be used for the project.

In order to raise the excitement about the project, I used Fusion to make a 3D render of my vision for the space. While this wasn't the best program for this type of model, I had experience with its rendering capabilities and knew I could make something highly presentable with it. Having a high quality render to use for my promotional materials brought much more excitement to the project, and we received donations from many in the community who wanted to see this idea come to life.

Use of CAD for Volunteer Management

I also used CAD to make an instruction manual for the furniture we'd be building. Many of the workdays I had planned involved a wide variety of tasks taking place simultaneously. I needed to ensure that as I went from group to group, everyone would have an understanding of how to carry out their tasks.

I created an assembly of the table we'd be building in Fusion, and then went through step by step what would take place in the assembly. I compiled this into an instruction booklet that overviewed each step with photos, screw placements, and a brief verbal overview.

Having this reference book proved critical for my ability to manage large groups of volunteers. It allowed the groups building the tables to be largely self-sufficient, and enabled me to easily spread my attention among all the volunteers.

The Courtyard Today

I finished the courtyard the summer before my senior year of high school, and throughout the rest of the year I'd often see students eating lunch at the tables, reading books on the grass, and classes coming out to the space for work time.

My project also renewed the school's attention to the space. They now keep it better maintained, and have even funded their own additions to keep the space a place that students can enjoy.