Matt Deneff, a junior at Toll Gate and a member of Boy Scout Troop 71 Cowesett, wanted to do something unique with his Eagle Scout project. As he searched for ideas, he received an e-mail about several needed projects at the Pilgrim Senior Center. When he heard that a bocce court was on the list, Deneff knew he found his project.

“I talked to Kevin McMullen, who works at the Senior Center, and he said they were looking for something else for the seniors to do during the spring and fall,” Deneff said. “The bocce court looked like one of the more challenging projects that was available.”

McMullen, who is also an assistant scout leader for a troop in Bristol, said as he was gathering ideas for Eagle projects, he remembered the Senior Center was kicking around a few ideas of how to provide more activities for the members, and decided to reach out to local troops.

“We had some ideas in the back of our mind. It was an ongoing thing of what to do about the area,” he said.

Deneff said other projects at the Center included a memory garden, to plant things in memory of past members of the Center, and a horse-shoe pit, but the bocce court seemed like the biggest project and also the one he was most unfamiliar with, which meant it required extensive research.

“I needed to do a lot of research so I could understand what I was getting into. Bocce was new to me, so I had to look up a lot of information on how to make the court,” he said. “It took quite a while. I went to courts in East Providence and did a lot of reading online about the rules and design of the court.”

Deneff said there aren’t hard and fast rules when it comes to bocce, but people tend to follow a set of general guidelines. He said the court turned out to be a lot bigger than what he anticipated and required a lot of work.

“There’s gravel and stone dust that goes underneath the court, so first we had to mark off an area where everything was level and dig it out,” he said. “Then we filled in the hole with the gravel and stone dust and built special boards to go around it to keep the balls from bouncing out. It was quite intricate when it comes to a court.”

McMullen said Deneff did an unbelievable job.

“From the beginning of gathering research to building the final product, this was all on him,” he said. “He really has a talent for detail; he and his fellow scouts did a fantastic job.”

Deneff said the project took a total of 175 hours to complete, including both research and building, but there was more.

“I did a lot of fundraising on my own and I got a lot of donations, including one from Kevin [McMullen] and also from Lowe’s,” he said. “Lowe’s sold me the wood for the boards at cost, which was huge for me. I couldn’t have done the project as easily without that donation.”

Deneff said he enjoyed seeing the end result of the project.

“It was nice to sit back and see all the work that was put into it,” he said. “It felt good to see that come together.”

Deneff said he wasn’t the only one who was thrilled to see the court completed.

“Some of the seniors would see us working on it and they kept trying to get me to finish it,” he said. “There was a high demand for it because they really wanted to use it.”

McMullen said some seniors have started taking lessons on how to play the game from one of the staff members, and another group is in the process of trying to start up a league.

“The seniors were eager to play, so we knew we had a good, strong interest,” he said.

Deneff said the Eagle project is a valuable tool for becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest rank that can be attained by a Boy Scout.

“It’s a really good concept because it teaches people how to lead and how to stay organized with planning,” he said. “I know I learned a lot about leadership and what it means to be a leader.”

In addition to Lowe’s, Deneff said he wanted to thank McMullen, John Seubert, and his father, Chris Deneff, for all their help on the project, as well as the following people who worked on it: Cameron Brennan, Connor Brennan, Nick Toth, Paul Alexander, Tarek Thebarge, Matt Rocheleau, Joey Turner, Zack Rottenberg, Drew Turner, Matt Sanita, Tyler Gates, Josh Frank, Nikolas Reygadas, Jake Deneff and Trudy Deneff.