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New Springfield Scout creates new veterans memorial for Eagle Scout project
NEW middletown
While marching in the 2015 Memorial Day parade, Sebastian Orbin, soon-to-be Springfield Local High School senior, wondered what would happen to the parade and the Veterans Memorial when Springfield Elementary School was demolished.
The old elementary school, the traditional parade destination and location of the memorial where ceremonies were conducted, would be replaced by a new elementary school on Youngstown-Pittsburgh Road (state Route 170) on the campus where the high school is located.
Sebastian, a Boy Scout since elementary school, came up with a solution and made it his Eagle Scout project.
He proposed reversing the parade route – forming at the parking lot of the old elementary school and ending at the high school – and moving the granite memorial that honors World War I and World War II military personnel to a site in front of the Springfield Local High School football stadium.
After nearly a year of work, he got it done.
Monday, the community’s parade will form at 9 a.m. at the site of the old elementary school and move at 9:30 a.m. toward the new Springfield Township Veterans Memorial where a service will be begin at 10 a.m.
Sebastian, with help from his family, fellow Scouts and community volunteers, last week put the finishing touches on the new veterans memorial with some additions he hopes people will like.
To get the project to where it is now, Sebastian, junior assistant Scout master of Troop 119 at the New Springfield Church of God, met with Springfield Schools Superintendent Tom Yazvac to clear his plan with the school district, gained approval for the reversed parade route from Springfield Township and New Middletown officials, spoke to many community organizations to raise funds, found firms willing to donate their equipment and time to move the veterans memorial to the new site, and even learned how to engrave the names of service members on the 250 bricks that people purchased as a fundraiser.
“It raised some blisters, too,” he said.
“Names on the bricks are those of military personnel who served from the Revolutionary War to the war in Afghanistan,” Sebastian said.
While the old veterans memorial is the centerpiece of the Springfield Township Veterans Memorial, the new memorial has some impressive additions.
Besides the 250 bricks, red to honor veterans and brown to honor sponsors of the project, which form a rectangle around the veterans memorial, the site also includes a permanent granite podium for speakers, new bronze medallions identifying the wars in which the United States participated and new U.S. flags that adorn the front of the memorial area.
“I just built an area dedicated to veterans,” said Sebastian, explaining what motivated him.
Sebastian, who resides in New Springfield with his father, Jeff Orbin, and stepmother, Amy, and two younger brothers, Jarrett and Liam, is active in high school and the community.
He is a percussionist with the high-school marching band, pep band and jazz band, and attends the Free Methodist Community Church in New Middletown, where he plays drums for the Worship Team. He also participated for years in the 4-H Mahoning Valley Marksmen Club at the New Middletown Sportsmen’s Club.
The Eagle Scout award is the highest rank that can be attained in the Boy Scouts. Twenty-one merit badges are needed to be eligible to become an Eagle Scout, and Sebastian has earned 73 merit badges to date, his father said.
To raise funds for the veterans memorial project, Sebastian spoke to numerous groups and organizations, met with local public officials and business owners and sought corporate sponsorships.
During his fundraising and marketing campaign, he said he was well-received by the community. He was successful enough to be able to make donations to VFW Post 2799 in New Springfield and the local food pantry.
Sebastian partnered with Ventling Memorials in Austintown, and Gary Ventling, the owner and also an Eagle Scout, who donated his time to coordinate moving the monument and also in teaching Sebastian and a few other Scouts the process to use computer software and sandblasters to engrave the bricks.
Sebastian thanked the businesses that helped make the new veterans memorial a reality, including Bessemer Concrete, Centofanti Concrete & Excavating, Conner Asphalt Inc., Tabor Landscaping and Garden Center and Masonry Materials and Ventling.
He also thanked the many churches and social groups that allowed him to speak about his project in the fall and winter; the New Middletown Village Council and Springfield Township Board of Trustees and the Springfield Local Board of Education for its cooperation and support.
Sebastian, who is leaning toward becoming a nurse anesthetist, said he is especially grateful to his grandfather, Louis C. Orbin, for his coaching, planning and physical efforts and motivation that enabled him to complete the project.