Pictured above, Tate Keuler and Ethan Bagwell.

If you haven’t been in the church lately, you are in for a treat when you return. Two recent projects by Belmont members have been finished over the summer and have wonderfully enhanced our facilities!

The first project highlight was completed by high school senior Tate Keuler in order to fulfill his work towards his Eagle Scout badge. The library in Parker Hall has been in danger over the past years with several flooding events, and after the most recent one, it was decided to relocate the library to protect this valuable asset at Belmont UMC. Tate’s project consisted of not only moving the existing library shelving up into its new home (room 120), but also included getting a good start on creating a database for Belmont’s library collection. While this part of the project will be ongoing (not all books have scannable barcodes), the new library location is a wonderful new resource for all Belmonters. The room is light-filled, comfortable for sitting and reading, or just browsing the collection. In addition to Tate’s many hours spent on the project, Marie Nowell and other library friends have brought up and shelved the remainder of the books and are still going through some donations and getting everything else on the shelves - not a small task! Please visit the new library in room 120 and enjoy this lovely space.

The second project was to replace all the existing wayfinding signage at Belmont. It was originally installed about 7 years ago and needed updating and redesign. Ethan Bagwell, a senior at Bowling Green State University in graphic design, took this on as a summer project while home from college. He worked with Angie Slade, Paul Purdue, and a few members of Properties to review the designs and test them out in their locations. He also worked with Alexcia Dee to add the word “Welcome” in the Karen language to the main entry signs. Once the design was settled, Ethan created 41 new signs which were then printed, trimmed, and installed all around the church.

Both projects have been well received. Many thanks to Tate and Ethan for their hours of work and their willingness to to take on these projects to make our facilities better!