By Dakota Antelman, Managing Editor
HUDSON – Jaxon Capobianco isn’t letting vandalism of his eagle scout project dampen his celebration of more than a year of work to benefit the Danforth Falls Conservation Land in town.
Having grown up just a few streets away from the main entrance to this wooded loop trail, Capobianco and his father, Chris, both remember noticing a lack of trailhead kiosks. Now in high school, Capobianco recently reached out to a familiar contact at Town Hall to offer his services to build a kiosk.
“We used to walk there and it was always one of those things that ‘someday somebody will build one,’” Chris said. “And then Jaxon came along.”
Capobianco met with town officials back in March of last year, just a matter of weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
He already knew some of those individuals from a previous volunteer project helping mark town land on Old North Rd. with “No Trespassing” signs.
“We got together and went over a few basic ideas before I started planning out measurements and everything,” Capobianco said.
Immediately, officials were excited to have a new place to showcase everything from maps to flyers advertising town efforts, events and initiatives, Capobianco said.
Capobianco got to work building kiosks for both the main Danforth Falls entrance off Lincoln Street as well as for a secondary entrance behind the Farley Elementary School.
He installed the kiosks back in May with the help of fellow scouts and a family friend.
He and the Conservation Commission then prepared for a formal unveiling event on Aug. 27. Jaxon and his father visited the kiosks a few days ahead of time to check that everything was all set for that event.
“Everything looked fine,” Chris said.
Jaxon then visited one more time a few days later to install plaques on the kiosks that had just arrived. That’s when he found that the plexiglass on one of the installations had been scratched and scuffed.
“That was really annoying because I had to then send emails out to everyone trying to rearrange where we were doing our ceremony in a couple of hours,” he said.
Pushing forward, nonetheless, Capobianco and the town adjusted their plans and moved forward with their event on Aug. 27.
They added materials to the kiosk display areas and took pictures featuring Capobianco and his fellow scouts.
“It felt really good to stand there with them with what we worked on,” Capobianco said of those photos.
Many months into a process that was delayed by COVID-19, Capobianco is excited to see the fruits of his labor standing by trails he grew up walking.
“It’s been a long process that under better circumstances could have been finished last year, but it is what it is,” Capobianco said. “I got it done in the end. I’m excited to have it all set up.”
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