PROVIDENCE, R.I. — In September 2017, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as a Category 5 hurricane spreading destruction across the island. Brown water polo freshman Roberto Serrano saw the destruction first-hand in his hometown of Guaynabo, outside of the capital of San Juan.
“The hurricane was pretty rough. After the storm there were a lot of trees and utility poles that fell around the entire island,” said Serrano. “We were three months without power in my neighborhood. In other towns, the lack of power last much longer, several months. Power came back around Christmas time in my area. We were running on a gasoline generator. We all got through it because all the community members came together and provided support to each other.”
While working his way up the ranks of the Boy Scouts, Serrano completed projects around his hometown to help the rehabilitation of his city and school after the storm. It started with small projects such as painting speed bumps and handicap ramps around the community, but as Serrano was looking to earn his Eagle Scout rank his attention turned toward something larger.
“For my Eagle rank project I thought, ‘Ok, this is a big skill project, where can I work on this project.’ I thought, ‘the park hasn’t been taken care of,’ said Serrano “Most of the time I was in my community or at the park you could tell that it hadn’t been taken care of since the hurricane happened. It didn’t look as good as it used to, and it wasn’t maintained that well. Some unseen areas were causing trouble with the water system. There wasn’t running water to some of the buildings and there was still water on the roofs of some of the buildings in the park. I had been working on other projects in my community in my other ranks because it brings the community spirit up and helps the community look better.”
The park was a place that in the four years since Maria had fallen into disrepair with some touchups having been done but many of the park amenities still unusable. Serrano felt that this was the perfect area for his Eagle Scout project as it could help revitalize an area that would benefit his community.
“There was a fountain that was full of murky water because it had stopped working. We had to drain the fountain and repair it a little bit to get it working again,” said Serrano. “There were trashcans that were unusable. We worked on gazebos and benches that were deteriorated because they hadn’t been worked on for some time.”
The project involved everything from painting to plumbing to electrical repair and Serrano found help from his father and many of his fellow Boy Scouts.
“With the help of my dad we sat down and said this is how we are going to do it,” said Serrano. “I got help from my neighbors, my scout troop, family members and local agencies, thanks to all those people who helped, we brought the park back to life”.
“We worked on electricity, plumbing infrastructure and a lot of painting to restore the buildings and the playground and the basketball court. To help with green areas like overgrown trees near the electric lines we got those trees cut down to minimize the risk of power outages.”
After two months of work, Serrano completed his project and earned his rank of Eagle Scout. A lifelong dreamed fulfilled, but more importantly, Serrano saw the vibrancy come back to the park he enjoyed as a child.
“As an impact, more neighbors started coming to the park with their kids because it was more inviting. I had a lot of fun.”
“It looks more vibrant and I definitely see more people coming to the park. A lot of the kids were definitely grateful for this work. While we were working on it they would ask ‘can we play on the monkey bars?’ and we would have to say you need to wait a few days we just painted them.”
“As a place I grew up in it is good to see that I brought it back and I keep saying the word vibrant. That is just how I see it. It is way more inviting,” said Serrano.
Release courtesy Brown University Athletics Communications
