Please use the Windmill Island parking lot before proceeding to cache. Off to the NW of the cache you will notice the Dutch Windmill that was rebuilt here in Holland, a gift to the city from the Netherlands. You may know some things about this windmill but you probably aren't aware of a Boy Scout Troop 43 Eagle Project that was completed at the windmill! For that...see the published newspaper article below!
While you're here, locate the small geocache marking this spot and sign the log! And of course, you may visit the "Windmill Island Garden" to see firsthand the mill in operation!
Alisa Crawford is the only Dutch-certified miller in the United States and she operates the DeZwaan windmill located at the Windmill Island Gardens.
For Alisa Crawford, it took a trip to physical therapy to realize that the process she used for her job needed an update.
Crawford is the only Dutch-certified miller in the United States and she operates the DeZwaan windmill located at the Windmill Island Gardens. It is a strenuous job where during Tulip Time, she was hand bagging anywhere from 250 to 450 pounds of wheat a day.
In a year, that number grows to between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds.
Crawford had a need and after reaching out to different venues, the project was given to area Boy Scout Remy Reed as part of his Eagle Scout project. From there, he took the lead.
“To do an Eagle Scout project, basically the Scout is the project manager,” said Todd Reed, president of National Bulk Equipment and Remy’s father. “It is his job to define the project, coordinate it with the recipient of the project and coordinate it with the workers, engineers, the materials and to work on the budget.”
For Remy Reed, it provided a challenging project that served not only Crawford, but also the people of Holland.
“It feels great honestly because just hearing what she (Crawford) had to go through with physical therapy and just the labor of the whole process and to be able to ease that has been great,” Remy Reed said. “It has also been nice to be able to help out a huge landmark of Holland and to leave my mark on the city.”
Remy Reed ended up coordinating the construction and installation of two parts of the windmill.
The first added a motor and an auger to the piece of equipment that feeds the wheat into a bag. By adding those parts, Crawford said while she still needs to weigh the bags, the process has been made a lot less labor intensive.
The other part Remy Reed worked on was constructing a new stainless steel hopper to go above the windmill’s mill stones. The old hopper was made completely of wood so to be able to install the steel lining, it has helped improve the cleaning process.
Remy Reed currently is a freshman at West Ottawa High School and on top of being a Boy Scout, he also swims and plays soccer at the school.
He became involved with the Boy Scouts in first grade and has been working his way through the organization ever since.
A large part of the project was coordinating the acquisition of the different parts and materials needed for the project.
To save money, Remy Reed was able to get the whole gearbox and the magnets donated and also was able to use scrap metal to rebuild the hopper. The labor for the project was donated by National Bulk Equipment, Inc.
Since the new parts have been installed, Crawford said she hasn’t had to make any more trips to the rehabilitation center and she is extremely thankful for the hard work Reed put in.
“His efforts have greatly improved the amount of handling and work that I do with the packaging here in the windmill,” Crawford said. “He did a terrific job with his project and it has helped my work tremendously.”
As for Remy, he has his sights set on studying aerospace engineering or business management when he gets to college and is looking forward to hopefully reaching the Eagle Scout level.
“I think it is a great experience for scouts to go through because you really get to see what adult life is like by communicating with everybody,” Remy Reed said. “I have had a great time and it has been amazing to get to work with her (Crawford) on the windmill.”