During the academic year, USI students take a narrow path through the woods from the O’Daniel South apartments to Parking Lot B as they make their way to class. Along this path, easy to miss, is a piece of granite with a weathered plaque embedded onto it. Backpacks slung over shoulders, earbuds in, students trod down the dirt path, where just a few feet to the left is a meditation path constructed by Brian Knapp as an Eagle Scout project between 1995 and 1996.
Scoutmaster Bert Miller: a West-Side Institution
Knapp fondly recalled his days at Cub Scout Day camps and crossover ceremonies held in the outdoor amphitheater along the bluffs of the wooded southern side of campus and on Reflection Lake. He followed in his grandfather’s and uncle’s footsteps by becoming a scout in Troop 399. Helmed by his grandfather and Scoutmaster, Bert Miller, Boy Scout Troop 399 was an institution on the west side. Hundreds of former west side Boy Scouts sold balsam and scotch pine trees in front of Sacred Heart Catholic Church during the holidays under the watchful eye of Miller. The troop was an extension of Knapp’s family with many cousins and uncles passing through the ranks and earning Eagle Scout status.
In 1982, Bert Miller retired as scout master of the troop he founded. According to a story in the March 15, 1982, issue of the Evansville Courier, he wrestled with the idea of stepping down. "I laid on my cot (on troop camping trips) and worried about it." He worried who would give the troop the continuity he had worked so hard to establish over nearly 30 years. In his stead, former troop members stepped up to take the mantle. And through the years, the position of scout master returned to his family to help guide it along.
An Eagle Scout Project Takes Shape
When Knapp began thinking about his Eagle project in 1995, his grandfather had been retired from leading the troop for 13 years. "My neighbors included Matt and Pauline Bartek (who were on the Newman Advisory Board). Their sons are Eagles and they were aware I was seeking an Eagle project. Pauline was interested in making something of the property the Diocese owned situated behind USI's student housing and previously made a motion at a meeting in January 1995 that the Newman Board consider supporting the development/maintenance of 'a place for reflection, meditation and prayer' on the property," Knapp explained.
The two-acre wooded piece of Diocesan land Pauline referred to was steep and rocky when Knapp and his father, Allan C. Knapp ’73, looked over it in the fall of 1995. It was full of medium-sized trees, poison ivy and downed branches. A shallow, rock-lined creek ran along the bottom of the hill, carved-out from storm water run-off. Knee-high weeds sprung up along the gravel between the parking lot and tree line. The area was full of ticks and a snake or two, but Knapp saw the hillside had enormous potential for an Eagle project; a meditation trail. It would be a huge task for him, but not an impossibility.
After meeting with the Diocese, Knapp began fundraising, recruiting workers and community leaders to donate time and talent, and putting together a rough work schedule to commence with his project. He then drafted a plan of what his meditation path would look like.
Phase One
A few months later after his first look at the property, on an unseasonably hot and windy fall day, Knapp and his crew began constructing the path. Armed with pickaxes, rakes and saws, they cleared away brush and cut up branches at the top and bottom of the hill to create entrance and exit points for the area. Soon, the path began to take shape, weaving its way along the contours of the hill. Once the area had been cleared, the crew began a back-breaking two days of spreading three truckloads of wood chips to help against erosion on the pathway.
As he continued work, Knapp found himself navigating a more complex project than he originally anticipated. A meditation path needed focus. Working with professional wood worker, Robert Koressel, Knapp decided a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, who is associated with the environment and animals, was an appropriate addition to the wooded path. Another addition to the plan came from Charlie Koressel ’76, who created the meditation signage at no cost, basing them on universal values of kindness and compassion from the teachings of Jesus.
Wintry weather at the end of the year gave Knapp and his crew a chance to paint and stencil the redwood signs when outside work was not possible. In Knapp’s original design, he planned to place benches along the path but had not found the monetary support. Newman Catholic Ministry Board President Tom Corcoran and Jay Fredrich, then Chair of the USI Engineering Department, agreed to fundraise, build and install the benches under the condition they would be dedicated to their individual parents.
As the meditation path began to take shape, Knapp’s mother, Mary Helen Knapp, suggested dedicating the path to his long-time Scoutmaster grandfather, Bert Miller. A Master Gardener, she volunteered to draw up plans for a small, landscaped area at the entrance of the trail located near USI campus housing. In addition to her work, Knapp began searching for donations to purchase a large decorative rock and a dedication plaque.
Phase Two
In the summer of 1996, Knapp began the final phase of the meditation path. Under the watchful eye of Robert Koressel, the 275-pound catalpa wood statue of St. Francis cradling a bird in his hands was carried across the creek, eased under a shelter and bolted to the floor of the shelter house. Knapp then led the crew in digging eight 30-inch-deep holes for the path's signage created over the winter months.
On August 23, the morning the Meditation Path was dedicated, there was a break in the typical heat and humidity of late summer. A large white tent was pitched in the Parking Lot B and chairs were set up for a dedication mass. With members of both Sacred Heart and Corpus Christi parishes, Boy Scout Troop 399 and Newman Catholic Ministry present, the ceremony was standing room only. After the mass, people walked the meditation path, admiring the hard work and dedication put into the Eagle project by Knapp and his crew.
In his Eagle Scout Project Board of Review paperwork, Knapp acknowledged his personal growth in undertaking such a large, complex project. “I can talk to people and get my ideas across more clearly and easily than when the project began,” he explained. “I understand now it can take a long time to get things approved by a big organization such as the Diocese of Evansville. This experience has taught me that getting something done in the real world can be a long and painstaking process.”
Soon after he finished the meditation trail project, Knapp earned his pre-med biology degree. While he was away, the Newman Center assumed responsibility for trail maintenance, refreshing the trail over the years, mulching the path with wood chips, adding stairs, repainting signs and repairing benches. While he was a medical student at Indiana University-Evansville’s USI campus, Knapp found himself drawn back to the trail. “I have walked the trail many times to clear my head and make sense of any number of things,” said Knapp. He would also take a bow saw to clear away branches and do upkeep on the pathway.
When Knapp graduated medical school, he moved to Wisconsin and “My cousins, most of whom also Eagled, are now helping out there as their kids continue the tradition,” said Knapp.
A time or two, St. Francis disappeared from his platform. A March 29, 2021 issue of the The Shield reported multiple times signage being pulled up and thrown into the seasonal creek at the bottom of the path. The Newman Center students solved that problem by putting the signage in concrete. Over the years, the physical labor needed to maintain the little trail was too much for the family to maintain regularly. The wood slats on the benches were beginning to rot. The shingles on the shelter house were damp and moldy. Some of the signpost rotted and toppled over onto the path. Years of gentle neglect had rendered parts of the little path unpassable.
New Life is Breathed Into Meditation Trail
The two entrances Knapp and his crew had trimmed during the project had grown back. Tree limbs along the trail had grown to overshadow the pathway from campus, rendering it invisible if you did not know it was there. “I had walked past it three times looking for it before I found the entrance,” said Levi Kunkler, mechanical engineering major who spearheaded the meditation paths’ renewal during the summer of 2023.
Kunkler, along with Dylan Norman (criminal justice) and Timothy Brenner (business administration) had all been members of Troop 399 that was Knapp's old troop. Upon finishing their own Eagle projects and graduating from Mater Dei, all three students moved from the Troop experience into a Venturing Crew. Venturing is a youth-led program under the umbrella of Scouting America that focuses on building adventure while developing leadership skills. They chose to come to the University of Southern Indiana so they could transition from being members to help leading a small troop of scouts from 14-20 year of age. The three Venture Scouts agreed that like the the Millers and the Knapps, Scouting is something that stays with you for life.
When they were looking to achieve their Ranger Scout Conservation Award, the scoutmasters from Troop 399 approached Kunkler, Norman and Brenner about taking on Knapps’s meditation path as their Ranger project. Once the group found the entrance and walked the trail, they agreed it was a peaceful respite from college life and began drawing up plans to revitalize the path.
Coordinating the volunteers to restore the trail was one of the hardest parts of the project. “We were coordinating college and high school students to get their work, school and extracurricular schedules to line up with workdays. Then there was the weather and the mud,” said Kunkler.
Bryan Morrison, Environmental Safety and Health Manager, met the three Venture Scouts on the path and offered to reach out to his uncle, the originator of the signs and now-retired Charlie Koressel for help. “I was no longer in the glass or sign industry and did not have capabilities/facilities to do the work myself. I reached out to many associates in the sign business I knew from years past, but contacts did not pan out. Brian made a connection with a professional painter to repaint the signs and signposts,” said Koressel. “To me, the meditation path is one of the many hidden gems on the USI campus.”
The Venture Troop finished the job in August 2024. This included restoration of the shelter house and statue of St. Francis, new slats for the benches, and regrading and restoring the walking path. Kunkler coordinated with USI’s Public Safety and Facilities Operations and Planning departments during the project. Brenner led the effort in the sign restoration. Norman managed the volunteer efforts, including reshaping the meditation path, rebuilding the benches and refinishing the statue. It was all hands-on-deck to finish the job before the trio started their sophomore year at USI.
“The meditation path project began as a way for Venture Crew 399 to fulfill the conservation requirement for the Ranger Award,” said Kunkler. “And while this project started as a means to sign off on the requirements, it became more meaningful-a chance to improve our respect for the environment and add more beauty back to campus. One of the core principals of Scouting is to leave a place better than we found it, and I believe our work on the meditation path reflects that ideal.”
Nearly 30 years after completion of his Eagle project, Brian Knapp said "It's exciting to hear that scouts are continuing to give back to the students of USI and the greater community on the west side. I was so happy to read the last chapter of the trail's story. I didn't know that the Venture Crew picked up the project until I read it here."
Eagle Projects Continue to Make USI's Trails a Place of Tranquility
Scouting has had a long, storied history at USI, from the time David L. Rice—a nature enthusiast—led Troop 71 Cub Scouts through the woods behind the President’s Home. Gary Burgdorf, retired USI Construction Project Manager and a Cub Scout from Troop 71, remembered Rice being patient, kind and humorous on those excursions. The Westwood Garden Club used the scouts in Troop 371 to develop the trails and the Outdoor Education Center. Countless Scoutmasters and Eagle Scouts have cycled through USI, both professionally and through the Merit Badge University. USI still welcomes countless Boy and Girl Scout Day camps at the Outdoor Education Center
As the Venture Crew was putting the final changes on their projects, Jacob Stoen and Sarah Parker were starting their Eagle Scout Projects on the USI Trails. Working under the direction of Eagle Scout and USI Grounds Maintenance Supervisor, Bruno Martin, Stoen installed dog waste poles along the paved part of the campus loop trail. Parker collected 500 lbs. of plastic lids and the raised the funding for two park benches that she and her Scout troop built and installed on the Bent Twig Trails.
Thanks to the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, USI Archives, Boy Scout Troop 399, David Bower, Chris Hoehn, Anna Schulten, Gary Burgdorf, Bryan Morrison, Charlie Koressel, Bruno Martin, Eagle Catholic Newman Community, Buffalo Trace Council, the Miller family, the Knapp family, the Stoen family and the Parker family.
Credits:
Photos and story by Barbara J. Goodwin