Piedmont high-school senior maps city’s memorial benches in Eagle Scout project

Sean McKee presented a completed Eagle Scout inventory and interactive map of Piedmont’s city-installed memorial benches to the Park Commission, describing a volunteer-assisted survey that recorded engravings, photos and exact coordinates for each bench. "I am Sean McKee. I'm a senior at Piedmont High School right now," McKee told commissioners and said roughly 20 volunteers helped collect data and drop pins into a Google map so residents can search engravings and find donor benches.

The project stitched together prior partial lists and an original sweep to locate about 170 wooden benches the city installed across parks and public rights-of-way, McKee said. He told commissioners the map shows concentrations — roughly 100 in Piedmont Park and about 30 in Drusena — and includes both close-up and distance photos of each engraving and the bench’s location.

Commissioners praised the project as a practical public resource and discussed next steps for hosting and publicity. Nancy, a city parks staff member, said the map and spreadsheet can be embedded on the city website or hosted through local partners so residents searching for donor bench information can find engravings and locations. Commissioner Dave Johnson suggested coordinating with the city communications team for a public write-up to explain how to dedicate a bench and approximate costs.

The commission did not take formal action on the presentation; members encouraged staff to work with McKee on embedding the map on the city site and on public outreach.