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Local teen earns Eagle Scout title

EHS student completes community service projects

By LIANE SMITH (Contact)

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Estero High School sophomore Ryan Davis has some major accomplishments to look back on from 2006.

The Banner first met Davis as a freshman in March 2006, when he wrote a letter to the paper introducing himself as a member of the Estero High School Band. He also wrote letters to local businesses asking for donations for new sousaphones for the band, most of their current sousaphones were missing parts and taped together.

Special to the Banner

Eagle Scout Ryan Davis, pictured with his stepdad and scout master, Kevin Lieberenz, and mom, Candy Lieberenz, drops off 3,000 comfort bags to the Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida in Fort Myers to complete his Eagle Scout service project.

The sousaphones have been an original fixture at the school since it opened its doors in 1987.

"It is essential that we have the best instruments possible," Davis wrote in the letter.

In the letter, Davis said having the right equipment will allow the entire band to achieve better results year after year.

"If more sousaphones were purchased, the Estero tuba section will do nothing less than to keep them in supreme condition for as long as it is within our power," Davis wrote.

In July, The Banner met up with Davis again to find him organizing his Eagle Scout Service Project, the last step before becoming Eagle Scout. Davis is a senior patrol leader and head scout for the local Boy Scout Troop 734.

This time, a few months before his sophomore year began, Davis planned on leading a project he called "Comfort Bags or Kits" for children awaiting surgery at The Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida.

"He's a natural leader," Davis's mom, Candy Lieberenz, said.

With just a few phone calls and letters, Davis had already received feedback from a few organizations in town. Davis hoped to make 2,500 kits, which would provide the hospital with a six-month supply.

The hospital performs approximately 90 to 100 children a week for surgeries and procedures.

In addition to the Comfort Kits, Davis built two bookshelves for the hospital's waiting room so that there was an area to keep books and other toys.

The Banner met up with Davis for the third time shortly before the New Year began. First, Davis talked about the tuba section's quest for new sousaphones.

Special to the Banner

The 3,000 comfort bags for children visiting the hospital filled up 92 boxes.

"We ended up getting $12,000," from grants, individual donations, and Estero High School's principal, George Clover, Davis said.

The expense of sousaphones was more than anticipated, at $5,500 an instrument, so the band was able to purchase two sousaphones.

"Expensive pieces of metal," Davis said.

According to Davis, the band would love to have a full set, but all of the other tuba players are graduating in the spring, and so far no tuba players have popped up at middle school band visits.

"I may be the only one here next year," Davis said.

Davis said the band was able to get three of the old sousaphones working, prior to that only one worked properly.

"What I think I'm going to start next year, is hopefully use the old sousaphones for football games so we can set them down on the bleachers, and then the two new sousaphones will be strictly competition use," Davis said.

As for his Comfort Kits project, Davis exceeded his goal by 500 bags of goodies, which filled up 92 file boxes, and a couple truck beds.

"It turned out good," Davis said. "I was able to make 3,000 bags."

According to Davis, he got mixed reactions from people at the hospital when he arrived with trucks full of boxes.

"Most people just gave me a look like I was crazy," Davis said, except, of course, for staff members at the hospital who knew what was inside the boxes.

Kelly Cowan, child life specialist at the Children's Hospital, said she helped Davis come up with the idea after Davis came to her with a request for project ideas.

"Ryan is a straightforward young man," Cowan said.

In the future, Davis says, he has his heart set on college to study both musical performance and musical education. He'd like to become a band director, or perhaps play in a professional orchestra.

In the near future, Davis will be honored officially as an Eagle Scout Jan. 13, and he hopes to one day hand down his project from the hospital to another scout.

"The scouts right now are a little younger, in middle school, but I'd like to pass it down," Davis said.

"Join if you haven't," he added. "I think the scouts gave me the tools I needed to do these projects."