Western senior builds beds for animal sanctuary despite personal tragedy

Oct. 3—A handful of adults, teens and children gathered around Justin Cline as he showed them how to stretch pieces of fire hose over bed frames. The hoses had to be stretched tight, he told them, because wolves and tigers weigh quite a bit.

They worked in Justin's former driveway. The semi-charred remnants of the Western High School senior's home served as their backdrop.

Months of planning had gone into Justin's Eagle Scout project. He wasn't going to let the Sept. 9 destruction of his home disrupt his timeline to reach the highest Boy Scouts of America rank.

Several Sagamore Council troops volunteered to help the 17-year-old. Mark Bradford, who gave final approval for the Eagle Scout project, said it was rare to see so many troops lend a hand to an individual scout's project.

He also explained Justin was meant to show off leadership skills during the project. He was certainly welcome to jump in and help wherever he was needed, but he was in charge of directing multiple workstations.

Justin said it felt a bit strange stepping into the leadership position.

"It's a little bit of an adjustment from working on it myself to instructing people," the teenager said. "There are a lot of little details here and there that you've got to get nailed down."

For a while, he would demonstrate how the team should install each piece of donated fire hose while cracking jokes or discussing sports with his friends. Then, after that station had a good rhythm down, he checked in across the driveway to make sure hoses were being cut to a proper size.

They planned to make four animal beds that would be donated to Black Pine Animal Sanctuary in Albion, Indiana. Two were for smaller carnivores, such as the sanctuary's foxes or Savannah cat, one would hold a couple of wolves and the fourth was being built to support a big cat — potentially a tiger.

It was a fairly exciting project for Justin, who had been visiting the sanctuary since he was young.

He spoke at length about how much he loved the sanctuary that provides plenty of green space for its animals; doesn't buy, sell, breed or trade animals; and recently acquired a few cats from Tiger King Park.

Once he figured out his Eagle Scout project could help an organization outside of his council area, he knew he wanted to work with Black Pine. After that, he just had to brainstorm a project that was realistic but helpful.

He and his father, Dwight Cline, drove two hours to meet with sanctuary employees and ask which sizes would be useful. The sanctuary told Justin he didn't have to build the large beds used for big cats, but the teenager explained that was the one he was most excited to build.

"I want to become a veterinarian. And I especially want to work with big cats," Justin said. "Being able to build something for their big cats, it just makes me happy because I can actually do something that I feel like would help a lot."

Dwight explained they had already built the two smaller beds when the fire destroyed their home. The beds and materials set aside to make more had been destroyed. They would have to restart the entire project.

Ironically, most of the initially donated fire hoses survived the blaze. In an email, Dwight pointed out "go figure that fire hoses are fire resistant." Still, when a few of the hoses had to be replaced, Black Pine's executive director delivered a few more to Kokomo.

Lowe's donated the rest of the construction materials. When the Clines returned to the shop to explain the original donation had been lost, Dwight said, the company offered to resupply the project for free. He estimated the home improvement store donated around $900 worth of merchandise through the two donations.

"It has been crucial and amazing during this process," Justin said. "It has definitely kept my hopes up."

While the volunteers took a break from their work, the high schooler showed off a bit of his veterinary knowledge by reciting how much weight the beds could potentially support.

For example, he explained the sanctuary's liger (a lion-tiger hybrid) likely weighs somewhere in the ballpark of 300-400 pounds. The wolf dogs likely weigh around 100-140 pounds, so two should be able to sit on the medium sized bed at one time.

"He was very passionate about the sanctuary," Trish Nichols, executive director of Black Pine, said of her first meeting with Justin, adding she was impressed by how much he knew about Black Pine. "Justin has a passion for becoming an exotic animal vet, which I just think is awesome."

Bradford said he loved seeing Justin's passion when he initially pitched the Eagle Scout project.

"What I liked was just listening to the story of how he found this place, why he's been visiting, what they mean to him and how he plans to continue to help them and visit after adulthood," Bradford said. "It's an idea that he came up with, it's something that's near and dear to his heart. It's going to follow through."

He added it was great to see representatives from six troops helping the project come to fruition.

"We've got devastation behind us, but we have the future before us," Bradford said.

Justin said the house fire hadn't discouraged him from completing his project — he has until late January to earn the Eagle Scout rank.

"I know that I want to do this. I want to be able to do this," Justin said. "My only thought was how long is this going to delay, and not will I still do it."

The group wrapped up the first bed — the one Justin figured would support two wolves — in less than three hours. The rest, Dwight said, would likely take less time.

With a bit of fanfare, the group placed the bed on the ground and let one of the younger scouts make sure it could at least support the weight of a child.

The Clines are planning to drop the beds off Oct. 15.

Standing in the driveway watching parts of the celebration, Dwight said he was proud of his son.

Justin takes multiple Advanced Placement and dual credit classes, is a member of the choir and runs cross country.

When the family went through the house to videotape the wreckage, Justin narrated the video to help preserve happy memories. It was something Dwight hadn't thought to do, but was glad the narration was caught on video.

"He's still a teenager, but he doesn't act like one," Dwight said.

With a chuckle, he noted his son isn't one to brag about himself or ask for special treatment after personal loss. He's more concerned with studying and helping animals.

"Even in this adversity, he's still thinking of others," Dwight said. "He still wanted to get his project done."

James Bennett III can be reached at 765-454-8580 or james.bennett@kokomotribune.com.