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| A Gold Star falls from a tree house By Stacy Trevenon [ stacy@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 3:12 PM PDT Chelsea Michaels of El Granada had been a Girl Scout since kindergarten, but it took adult skills like architecture and working through permit processes to top off her career with a Gold Award. Michaels, 18, earned the award by bringing to fruition a large tree house in El Granada’s Quarry Park. “It was pretty cool to see my design work out and become reality,” she said. Born in Pacifica, Michaels became a Girl Scout at 5 after her family moved to El Granada. A member of local Troop 33311, she helped put on a father-daughter dance, summer camps for kids, and annual international festivals, and earned badges. For her Bronze project, she helped organize a kids’ camp, and participated in another community benefit for her Silver. But she was stumped when the time came to go for the Gold. She had attended an architecture camp at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo. She liked it. “My mom decided I should put all that stuff I learned into my Gold Award project,” she said. After poring over several ideas she realized that “a tree house seemed like the best idea” and family-friendly Quarry Park the best place. It already had a “tot lot” play area, and all other nearby tree houses she could think of “are illegal and badly built.” She began by attending a meeting of the Midcoast Community Council in January, with photos of several potential sites. County parks director David Holland agreed with her, and stepped in to act as liaison with the county to obtain permits over the next two months. While he was doing that, Michaels was securing donations for the project from the Half Moon Bay Lions Club and building materials at a discount from Sierra Point Lumber in Burlingame. She was putting those architectural skills to use too. Her El Granada neighbor and friend Tom McCaffrey taught her the finer points of designing and drawing up her idea. When it came time for the building stage, she tapped her father Guy, her sister, friends and carpenter neighbor Mike Wilkinson to help out. The finished product is an open tree house, about 20 feet in diameter and about six feet off the ground. Plans call for a corkscrew slide to be installed. The tree house was opened at an ceremony Sunday at Quarry Park. There were refreshments, a few words, and then local kids climbed up to play on the tree house. “It will feel really good to see it finished, finally,” said Michaels before the ceremony. The Gold Award will be the culmination of her Girl Scout career. “Girl Scouting is pretty much over for me,” she said. But she has plans to replace it. Having graduated from Half Moon Bay High School in June, she will attend San Francisco State University to major in civil engineering. She says she would like to design houses and business buildings. And in the meantime, children will play on her tree house. “It’s really cool-looking,” she said. “I didn’t think it would look as cool as it does.” |