By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Tucker Adams watched hospice workers care for his granddad, tending to him until his last moments.

Even at 15, the Lewiston boy appreciated the workers’ goal: to make his grandfather, Charles Penley, comfortable and peaceful as he died.

A year later, Tucker is trying to spread some peace of his own.

The Boy Scout has led the construction of a 100-yard path into the woods beside Hospice House.

He calls it the “Reflection Trail.”

The pathway of pale stone dust winds down a short slope on the east side of the facility. About 30 yards in, a bench surrounded by flowers faces down the hill. Another 70 yards farther, the trail ends in a circle, with two more benches, lots more flowers and a bird bath from Tucker’s own house.

“It’s a place where people can sit and think or just soak up some nature for a minute,” said the teenager, who dreamed up the concept as a Boy Scout project.

He hopes it will help him reach the rank of Eagle Scout.

“It’s really a very special place,” said Julie Shackley, president and chief executive officer of Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice, which operates the house.

The trail was completed within the past two weeks, and patients and visitors to the home have been appreciative, Shackley said.

“Tucker did a phenomenal job,” she said. “It’s a relaxing place for people to get away for a bit.”

Tucker came up with the idea after visiting the home last year with his parents, Mark and Katherine Adams. His dad, Auburn’s former assistant city manager, serves on the nonprofit organization’s board of directors.

When Tucker learned that the home was surrounded by several acres of untouched woods, the idea hit him.

At first, he imagined a much larger trail, one that wound for several hundred years and surrounded the facility.

His parents convinced him to shorten his path. Even at the shorter distance, they worried he might not finish.

But Tucker started working the phones, calling people for donations. He wanted flowers, mulch, benches and enough crushed stone to create his circle garden.

“I called probably 150 different businesses,” he said. “That’s no exaggeration.”

It paid off. About 20 businesses, including K&K Excavation in Turner and Farmer Whiting in Auburn, gave Tucker supplies valued at more than $3,000.

The teenager then enlisted help from family, friends and his scout buddies from Lewiston Troop 116, gathering about 45 volunteers on a rain-soaked Saturday in late May.

They spread the stone dust along the path, gathered brush and planted the flowers, something that Tucker has been finishing ever since.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he said as he walked the path, picking up errant branches from the path and marveling at the way the forest had grown lushly along the trail’s edge.

It was prettier than he imagined.

Tucker’s mom sat on a bench and smiled. She, too, hadn’t imagined it would look this good.

“I guess he proved us wrong,” she said.

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