On March 29, members of Conestoga’s New Grounds club hauled buckets of yellow paint for its club-wide speed bump project. Volunteers layered paint onto the speed bumps, transforming the blank humps into brighter reminders for drivers.

The speed bump project took place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Howellville Road, Berwyn. Volunteers from New Grounds repainted eight speed bumps, covering half a mile on the road. According to junior and New Grounds president Adarsh Maddi, the club decided to paint speed bumps as an introductory project for the club.

“I didn’t want to go really hard and make (New Grounds members) do a whole stand or a whole building,” Maddi said. “I wanted them to try and do normal, easier stuff. And painting is probably easier and it’s more fun to do.”

Howellville Road leads into the Field of Dreams in Berwyn, where the Berwyn-Paoli Area Little League plays its baseball games. Both Maddi and sophomore Nikhil Pothula, vice president of New Grounds, participate in Eagle Scouts. Sophomore and New Grounds outreach leader Faiz Murtaza sent an email to Tom Toscani, owner of the Field of Dreams, asking about potential projects New Grounds could host, and Toscani recommended the speed bump project. According to Pothula, the speed bump project idea originated from Eagle Scout projects.

“Our inspiration was, ‘What if we try to run Eagle Scout-like projects and make that into a club?’ And (Tom Toscani), who owns the Field of Dreams, has connected us with different projects and such,” Pothula said. “So we thought he’d be a good connection to have (for) our first project (on Howellville Road).”

According to Pothula, New Grounds’s goal is to strengthen the community through club-wide projects. In preparation for the project, New Grounds held group meetings throughout November and leading into March. New Grounds provided the yellow paint, traffic cones and other materials. The speed bump project is the club’s first project since New Grounds got together for its first meeting on Oct. 22 last year. According to Maddi, the club is planning several more projects near Howellville Road.

“One of them is about windows, replacing the windows in a couple places. And then another one is, we’re trying to revamp a zone of grass patch,” Maddi said. “There’s a lot more that we’re trying to do after this (speed bump project).”

Around 20 members of New Grounds helped repaint the speed bumps. Sophomore and treasurer Sarang Neogy assisted with the project. Neogy believes that the speed bump project contributes to improved safety in the nearby Toscani field.

“The speed bumps are necessary because, especially in this area, there’s a lot of kids playing (baseball),” Neogy said. “It’s very important for us to ensure the safety of the kids and also help the community.”

Board members of New Grounds planned the timeline, food for volunteers to eat and advertisements of the event to bring in club members. According to Maddi, the most rewarding aspect of the speed bump project was knowing that the project benefitted the community.

“My favorite part of the project is actually coming out on a nice, beautiful day and doing helpful stuff for the community,” Maddi said. “The planning part is kind of cool because we did everything from start to finish. We actually set it up, and we actually made the project happen. That’s the biggest part of this club.”

Viktor Wang can be reached at [email protected].