Friendship Trail Inspires A Flock Of Eagle Scouts

Volunteers Kaikane Busquets (from left) Estevan Bonifacio, Lyle Alloy-Glover, Vinson Pohlman, scoutmaster Kurt Pohlman, Chad Laba and Leon Laba stand behind the trail drainage project they completed Nov. 24 at Kaneohe's Friendship Garden. The work was part of Alloy-Glover's Eagle project, with help from St. Ann's Boy Scout Troop 113. Photo by Bernie Amado.

The Friendship Garden Trail above Kokokahi Place has won a number of friends since the 1920s, the latest being St. Ann’s Boy Scout Troop 113.

For part of his Eagle Scout project, Lyle Alloy-Glover orchestrated a group of haulers and pavers who assembled Nov. 24 with the goal to officially divert rain and stream water from a section of the path. And according to garden caretaker Jack Gillmar and scoutmaster Kurt Pohlman, it wasn’t easy.

The project required moving 20 bags of concrete mix up the hill, plus a number of curbing stones that weighed 200 pounds each.

“It was pretty remarkable, a great community project,” said Gillmar, who oversees the 10-acre park for the Friendship Garden Foundation. “They did it in six hours, and there was a lot of mentoring going on.”

Gillmar, whose grandfather was a minister at the old Camp Kokokahi, has counted three Eagle Scout projects so far at the garden, whose trails offer inspiring vistas of the Windward side. He is president of the FGF, which now owns the property and aims to keep it well-maintained into the future.

“I like to have people engaged in this,” he added.

Pohlman explained that the trail goes through a dry streambed, but it can ruin the trail when it rains. The dense, basalt curbing stones he stockpiled were recycled from older building projects in Honolulu, he said, and they were perfect for lining the mini channel. “But it took some doing.”

Alloy-Glover had 15 volunteers, several of them already of Eagle rank. The younger ones were helpful for mixing and hauling duties.

You can see the results about 50 yards up the trail, Pohlman said. Meanwhile, another scout has in mind an additional project along the same trail. That’s what friends are for.