| " When Ben Smithgall was designing a garden cart for his Eagle Scout project, he was sent back to the drawing board by an honest mother." " Scout Ben Smithgall talks with residents of St. Barnabas Nursing Home about the gardening cart he built. " " That kind of candor can come only from a loving mom. So after your son spends countless hours drawing plans for a project, what's it like telling him something he really doesn't want to hear?" " "It was very easy," Amy Smithgall, of Pine, said with a smile, "because he listens and he wanted this to be something that would be used and look nice and it was important to consider the aesthetics."" " The original plan for the cart was an industrial, functional piece that would have worked fine for the people at St. Barnabas Nursing Home in Richland, but it wouldn't have fit the decor of the facility." " "It was going to be a piece of equipment, not a piece of furniture," he said." " He had learned from his mother about people in the nursing home who suffered from dementia, and he researched the therapeutic properties of working with plants, discovering that a cart that allowed people to garden indoors would be a welcome addition to the nursing home." " "Gardening is a very beneficial activity to residents," he said. "When you garden, you're thinking and you're working. It allows them to reconnect with fond memories."" " "I was completely impressed. It was so much more than I thought it was going to be. It was very homey. It looks like you can just put it right into the room for the residents to use," she said." " "Residents with dementia ... are just seeking something stimulating that doesn't stress them. They probably enjoyed gardening for many years and now they can do it again indoors. They can sit in their wheelchair and enjoy something they may have enjoyed all their lives."" " The cart is four feet square and about seven feet high.
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