Miami County boy scouts made touchless hand sanitizing stations for local district

Boy scouts from Miami County have made more than 100 touchless hand sanitizing stations to be used primarily in the Tipp City School District.

Tippecanoe 7th grader Jacob Farris, and his mother, saw the design for a touchless hand sanitizing station made from PVC pipe and Jacob pitched the idea to the school board.

The board and superintendent Stefanik were impressed with the presentation as well as the boy scouts' ingenuity, craftsmanship, and work ethic. This also came at a time when the district was trying to get touchless sanitizing stations for the start of school but they were hard to come by.

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Once they got approval Jacob and his friends went to work and even had to make adjustments to the plans on the fly.

“We had to resize some of the different PVC piping because it wasn’t the right size,” Farris said.

The stations are all throughout the middle school as well as other Tipp City school buildings. There’s 74 stands in Tipp City Schools, Miami County Educational Service Center received 34, and the Tipp City Enrichment Program received two stands.

“I’m just kind of proud that I was able to help build them so the schools can be more safe,” Farris said.

It took the group about two months to make the 110 stands. The Boy Scouts are from Tipp City, Bethel, and Troy schools.

“I want to make everything better for the school environment,” 7th grader Brighton Li said. “I want to make (it) so my friends can have hand sanitizer so they can hand sanitize their hands and don’t have to worry about this COVID. (It) took us time and work but definitely worth it.”

Some of the scouts that helped in this project include: Tipp City students Jacob Farris, Zach Clune, Thad Clune, James Burkett, Drake Burkett, and Brighton Li from Troop 413.

Gabe Long, Kade Bryce, and Trent Schweikhardt also worked on this project. Long is a Troy student in Troop 413, Bryce is from Bethel and in the same troop, while Schwikhardt is a Bethel student in Troop 395. There were also 4 boys from Pack 285 that helped in this project.

Several companies helped provide supplies to the boys in making these stands and without these companies the project would not have been possible.

Butler Heating and Air Conditioning in Dayton donated 900 feet of PVC pipe, Woods System LLC in Piqua and Cloverleaf LLC in Springfield also donated PVC pipe. Home Depot and Winsupply in Piqua provided discounts as well.

Cox Media Group