While most people stayed home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanjay Reddy spent hours volunteering at the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry. So, it was only natural for him to select the pantry as the recipient of his Eagle Scout project: a brand-new cabinet built from scratch.
Reddy said that he’s been involved with the Boy Scouts of America program for 11 years. He said it was his mother who pushed him to volunteer for the pantry the first time during the 2020 pandemic, and he’s been involved ever since.
“The cabinet that they had was about like 5 years old and it was deteriorating,” Reddy said. “I’ve been volunteering there since COVID, so I wanted to do something for them. I just like the idea of helping people in the shelters that come [to the pantry] and it was pretty wholesome, especially during COVID.”
The cabinet Reddy built, with the help of other Troop 2 members and volunteers, was the first large-scale wood project he’s ever worked on.
“I probably spent at least 10 or 15 hours drawing blueprints for it, just to make sure everything worked,” Reddy said. “It was a really great experience having led a project like that, and the reward from being the leader of that project was very high. I’m grateful to have had that opportunity.”
The cabinet took about 237 hours to plan and build, and the cabinet ended up being about 8 feet tall, 8 feet wide and 2 feet deep, according to Reddy, who said that the planning and designing portions of the project were something he really enjoyed.
“It steered me more towards maybe engineering,” Reddy said. “Not necessarily woodwork, but I did like the process of doing things hands-on and building something.”
Reddy’s advice for other Eagle Scouts looking to plan their projects is to be prepared and plan accordingly.
“Planning is an important skill that shouldn’t be overlooked when doing a large-scale project like this,” Reddy said. “It feels really great and I’m glad I was able to [build the cabinet] for [the pantry.]”
