I was honored to be mentioned in the "Helping Hands Preserve House" article in the Oct. 12 edition of the Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot, written by Suzanne Sommerhalter. However, I am an Eagle Scout candidate - not an Eagle Scout - as the caption under the photo of the recently restored Well House indicated.

My Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project was the restoration of the well house for the Oyster Bay Historical Society's Earle-Wightman House Museum. Thirty people volunteered over 519 hours while working on the project over the course of seven weekends this past summer, of which I spent 184 hours in planning, coordinating and supervising the project. The old well house was in bad repair, as it had been attacked by termites and parts of it were rotted.

The well house sat on a concrete slab foundation and did not actually have a well below it. As part of my service project, we dug a shallow well and lined it with salvaged antique curved bricks that were donated by Mr. and Mrs. Steven Johnson. The restored well will assist the museum guides to better interpret 19th century life to visiting school groups and other museum visitors.

The project took much longer to accomplish than I had originally anticipated. In addition, the cost of the project was also more than I had initially estimated (approximately $2,000). All of the materials and supplies were funded by donations, as is required for any Eagle Scout Service Project. Local businesses were very gracious in donating materials, particularly a local lumber yard that donated all of the cedar planks, lattice panels and wood shingles; Brendan McLaughlin, of Brendan McLaughlin Contracting, who built a new foundation for the well house because the circumference of the new well was larger than the old well house's foundation; Craig Becker of South Huntington, who milled all of the lumber for the project; Lloyd Bernstein of Bernstein's Home Center who donated all of the paint and painting supplies: Dunkin Donuts for donating doughnuts for the volunteer workers on several mornings and Stop & Shop, who donated food for lunches.

A special thank you is in order to Betty Ann Arnik, director of the Long Island Maritime Museum for the donation of an antique wheel pulley. For such a small structure, an awful lot of time and effort were spent on restoring and rebuilding the well house which now includes a trough spillway, lattice panels, handmade wooden bucket, and an actual well.

I am grateful to the 30 enthusiastic volunteers who spent countless hours helping me with my project, as well as the many Troop 253 families who made financial contributions to cover the cost of my service project.

The restoration of the well house, a unique historic structure, was one of the greatest and most satisfying accomplishments of my life. I want to thank the Oyster Bay Historical Society's Director Thomas Kuehhas, and the board of trustees of the society for allowing me to take on this project. It was a wonderful and very rewarding experience for me and a way for me to make a small but hopefully lasting contribution to my community.