Joshua Schoenherr, Boy Scouts of America Eagle Scout candidate with Troop 256 of Leonard, is partnering with Addison Township officials to rebuild the baseball diamond located behind the Addison Township Hall in Lakeville.

As of the date of this article, there stands a lone, rusted backstop net in an overgrown field.

Schoenherr, an entering sophomore at Oxford High School, is working to change that.

According to Shoenherr, he plans to clear the field, replace the worn backstop and install new bases and benches to create a community baseball diamond.

“It won’t be something like Comerica Park, but it will definitely be better than what’s already there,” Schoenherr said.

The effort is part of Schoenherr’s Eagle Scout Service Project, which serves as an opportunity for a Boy Scout, Varsity Scout, or qualified Venturer in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to demonstrate leadership skills while spearheading a project for the benefit of his community.

During his search for an Eagle Scout project, Schoenherr said it was Addison Township Supervisor Bruce Pearson who inspired him to create an official baseball diamond behind the hall.

“I asked him if he had any projects that needed to be done and he gave me a list,” Schoenherr said. “I saw ‘baseball diamond’ and I thought it looked like a good project. It will help out the community and it’s something everybody can use – not just certain age groups or certain types of people.”

Pearson said he couldn’t be more proud of the aspiring Eagle Scout.

“This is teriffic,” he said. “I support the Eagle Scouts 100 percent and he’s a really nice young man. I think this will be a great project for the community that he can be proud of. Down the road, he can look back and say ‘I did that.’ It’s a great thing he’s doing for the community and I’m doing whatever I can to help him because he’s helping us.”

Schoenherr and Pearson will be doing the labor themselves, right alongside Addison Township resident Philip Marshall.

Schoenherr said he is awaiting a final level of approval from the Boy Scout council before officially beginning the project.

“Hopefully, we can have it done by the end of the summer, but it’s looking like by the end of the fall,” Schoenherr said.

“It’s been going well. There have been different set-backs, like with any project, but it’s going well,” he added.

Schoenherr and Pearson said they plan to host fund-raising events in the future to help finance the project.