With the help of local landscapers and fellow members of Windham Boy Scout Troop 805, Gerard Parent, 17, of Stonebrook Road completed his Eagle Scout project this weekend.

The project, which took three weeks of planning and designing, improved the landscaping the Windham Veterans Center, located in back of the Windham Mall.

The veterans are in financial trouble trying to pay for a mortgage with a limited membership and are seeking help from the public to improve the facility. Parent wanted to address the needs of the Center in hopes of making life better for Windham war veterans, many of whom are in their eighties.

“Don Swander, commander of the VFW, came to me and said they wanted the facility to look a little nicer so they asked me to do this. I think it really needed it, too. It looks completely different and it should look really nice when the grass grows in,” Parent said.

“It’s so amazing. There’s no way to describe it. It looks great,” Swander said of the project.

Parent had the help of Roosevelt Trail Nursery owner Joe Gagne and R.J. Grondin & Sons owner Ken Grondin for the project. At no cost, Grondin provided enough loam to improve the sandy soil at the Center in preparation for Gagne’s donation of shrubs, grass seed and trees. The two were on site at 6 a.m. Saturday with Parent starting to lay the soil and ready the plantings.

“Mr. Gagne was a great help. I couldn’t have done it without him. Same with Mr. Grondin,” Parent said.

About a dozen Scouts and their fathers lent a hand Saturday morning and the crew was done by the end of the day. They planted a crab apple tree and balsam fir on either side of the entrance door and eight shrubs under the windows in the front of the building. Crushed rock was laid around the flagpole.

Swander said the plantings should help with beautifying the building, which he said will hopefully lead to more hall reservations, the vets’ primary source of income.