Local Scout to canvas Windham to make it safer - By Michelle Libby

Boy Scout Glenn Vajda has been keeping his eyes and ears open for an Eagle Scout project to complete before he turns 18. As a junior firefighter and an EMT student, he found a need in Windham many times when the fire truck went to a call. 

“One time there was a woman in labor and we couldn’t find the house,” Vajda said. It’s calls like that which prompted him to do a project that would benefit the community and its safety. 

Starting this weekend, Vajda and other volunteers will be going up and down streets searching for homes that need large reflective numbers to help emergency first responders find the homes. Numbers will be put on mailboxes or posts or on metal blue signs that will be mounted to the house so that “the fire department can better see the addresses,” he said. 

The beneficiary of the project is the Windham Fire-Rescue Association, which is made up of retired firefighters, active firefighters, junior firefighters and fire-police. If more signs need to be done after Vajda’s December deadline, the association will take over the project, he said. 

Vajda is looking for volunteers whether they are Scouts or anyone looking for community service hours. His goal is to put numbers on between 250 and 300 addresses in Windham. He’d like to concentration on Center Windham which is where he covers when he works for the department, but he said that he will go anywhere in the Town of Windham if there is a need. Applications can be filled out and sent to Vajda at “Mailbox Numbers”, General Delivery, Windham, ME 04062. People can also email mailboxnumbersbsa@gmail.com for more information or to ask for numbers to be put on their location. 

All of this will be done free of charge. Vajda has been selling popcorn for the six years he’s been in the troop and has raised enough money to do the majority of the project without additional fundraising. The money he has saved over the years could have been used for summer camp or other programs, but Vajda saved it for his project. 

He would like to have the project completed by November or when the snow begins. He will be going door to door starting with areas he knows needs numbers. 

Vajda is a senior at Windham High School and a member of Boy Scout Troop 51. He has been a Scout for 11 years. When he graduates he would like to join the military to do fire and rescue. He is considering attending Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor in their fire science major. 

To have your home numbered, email mailboxnumbersbsa@gmail.com or fill out a form in next week’s edition of The Windham Eagle and drop it in the mail at the address above.