While on a campus tour last year, Copley High School senior Grant Hyne and his mom, Allayne, noticed there wasn’t a specific area where students could hang hammocks and just chill out. Their discovery opened the door to Hyne combining his desire to do an Eagle Scout service project with the need for an outdoor hangout space on Kent State University’s Kent Campus.
Hyne developed the Hammock Hangout, a space located near the volleyball sand pit just adjacent to Tri Towers.
While participating in , formerly Boy Scouts of America, hanging out in hammocks has been one of Hyne’s favorite activities. He wants to share his passion and provide Kent State students with leisure opportunities.
Kent State Today spoke with Hyne about the project as he recently demonstrated how to attach the hammocks to the posts that the Office of the University Architect installed.
Plans for the Hammock Hangout began last November after Hynes, who is interested in aerospace engineering and flight programs in the College of Aeronautics and Engineering, toured the campus. Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in Scouts BSA, a program of Scouting America. It signifies a major achievement in leadership, citizenship and outdoor skills, earned by only a small percentage of Scouts. Scouts must do a service project and accumulate at least 21 merit badges before earning the Eagle Scout rank.
After the campus tour, Allayne Hyne helped her son contact the university during business hours when Grant Hyne was in school to help set up meeting times with staff.
Many standards had to be met to complete the project, including balancing constructability versus safety and longevity, said Jeff Billenbender, project manager with the Office of the University Architect. This is the first time that Kent State has worked with a Scout troop on such a project.
“The architect’s office was looking for an opportunity before this project to make some more outdoor hangout areas,” Billenbender said. “The students already use some of the trees in wooded areas to hang their hammocks. This was a perfect fit, and we are happy to help young people with their projects. Hopefully, we can find similar projects with Kent State students, other Scouts, or other community outreach groups to create informal social spaces [that] are just wonderful.”
Grant’s mother said she’s all in for anything that benefits Kent State students.
“This is a positive way to enhance their experience on campus,” Allayne Hyne said. “It’s fairly unique. It lets him take a passion that he loves hanging out in the hammock with the scouts and brings it to campus as a prospective student.”