By Yegor Zenkov

TPA senior Kyle Pickard recently completed his Eagle project, which involved raising money to build batting cages. After generous contributions for the TPA community, Kyle was able to raise $700. De Equitibus asked him about his experience.

DE: What gave you the original idea for this project?

Kyle: When I was first starting out, I wanted to help my community with something I was passionate about. Baseball is my favorite sport, and a lot of coaches and players were concerned about our team not having batting cages. Once I saw the need, it seemed like the natural thing to do.

DE: Did you have any unexpected challenges come up during the project?

Kyle: While the project itself was pretty straightforward, I had a hard time actually finding a company that manufactured the specific type of steel pipe that we needed for the project. Once we solved that problem, everything else went smoothly.

DE: Now that the project is done, what kind of effects have you seen from your work?

Kyle: Even though we’re still early in the baseball season, people have been using these cages over the past few weeks, and we should see the TPA baseball and softball teams benefit from this much-needed resource for many seasons to come.

DE: Besides your parents, was there anyone else that was instrumental in this project?

Kyle: I do want to extend a huge thank you to Coach Lambros for all of his advice, as well as the Muniz family for their donation of the nets and pipe fittings.