EAST PROVIDENCE — Last Saturday morning, Oct 13, a hearty group of volunteers led by local youngster Liam Wojas began the installation of a “reflection garden” and brick walkway at …
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EAST PROVIDENCE — Last Saturday morning, Oct 13, a hearty group of volunteers led by local youngster Liam Wojas began the installation of a “reflection garden” and brick walkway at Riverside’s Sabin Point Park, in part to add to the lasting legacy memorialzing a tragic accident that occurred there over 40 years ago.
Wojas, an East Providence High School junior and current Life Scout, earlier this year presented his proposal to the City Council, which gave its approval. The walkway bricks are to be inscribed with the names of deceased city residents with the garden composed of “native” vegetation. The majority of the improvements have paid for through donations from local businesses and families of the deceased.
Liam’s initiative is an offshoot of a previously completed project directed by another Riverside resident, Julie Grant. Ms. Grant’s young brothers Steven and Christopher Grant died in a drowning incident back in August 1976
A few years ago, Ms. Grant led an effort to place a bench at the site, engraved with a memorial to her lost siblings. In an attempt to do more, she, her community outreach group “Riverside Sisters” and other local residents, including Ricardo Mourato, the presumed next city councilor from Ward 4, considered building the “reflection garden.”
In search of worthwhile cause to fulfill his Eagle Scout requirements, Liam, whose mother Susannah counts Ms. Grant as a close friend, joined the endeavor.
“As the adults, we were kind of behind the scenes helping things move along, but Liam is the one who did most of the work. He’s the one who got things going,” said Mr. Mourato, a city resident and Bristol Police officer who is running unopposed for the Riverside-based council seat in the upcoming November 6 election.
Mr. Mourato, himself, donated the gravel for the walkway. J&J Material, located on Route 6 in Seekonk, provided most of the other essentials and Mourato Construction of Rehoboth, owned by Mr. Mourato’s cousin Larry Mourato, offered the technical support for the laying of the bricks.
Of the project and of the process of becoming an Eagle Scout, young Mr. Wojas admitted, “It’s a lot of work.”
Liam, who has been in Scouts for some eight years and is now a member of Providence Troop 28, said he was inspired to attain the Eagle rank by his father, James, who started him in the program, and his older brother, Michael, who also became an Eagle Scout and who is now in the U.S. Navy.
Engaging the community in this type of action is just about the last thing Liam needs to become an Eagle Scout. He’s previously earned 13 Eagle-specific merit badges and 14 other merit badges.
Liam’s future goals are just as lofty as this most recent aim. When he graduates EPHS in the spring of 2020, he intends to enlist in the National Guard and later that fall hopes to earn his way into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wherever he attends college, Liam plans to study computer technology.
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