Scouting family from Murrysville helps others find their way through park trails

Patrick Varine | Thursday, June 3, 2021 12:01 a.m.

Patrick Varine | Tribune-Review

Seth and Shane Shoemaker of Murrysville display one of the signs Seth helped create and place as his Eagle Scout project, marking trails in Townsend Park. Shane is continuing the sign work as his Eagle project.

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Helping others is a central part of the Scouting philosophy.

The brothers in Murrysville’s Shoemaker family — 18-year-old Seth and 15-year-old Shane, members of Troop 208 out of Export — are literally helping others find their way, through the trails at Townsend Park.

Seth supervised an Eagle Scout project to create and place 12 posts throughout the park, identifying the paths walkers and joggers can navigate among its more than four miles of trails.

Seth was trying to get his project started just as the pandemic was setting in, during March 2020.

“As the pandemic was getting started, he was rushing around getting signatures,” said the boys’ mother Heather Shoemaker.

“It took a while to get things in motion,” said Seth, who has been in Scouts since first grade. “There was no place open where we could get materials. I had to go through a friend whose dad did construction.”

The Shoemaker boys come from a family where Scouting is a tradition: both their father and uncle were Scouts.

Shane is still in the early stages, but he is already planning to outdo his brother and erect 20 signs for his Eagle project. He said he enjoys giving back to Murrysville.

“Making your own town better or cleaner, it’s nice because it’s something you can come back and appreciate,” he said.

Heather Shoemaker is hoping that her 13-year-old son will follow the family’s Eagle project tradition.

“He’s got a couple more years before he can start on his Eagle project,” she said.