Gavin's Eagle Project

What a happy day! It is finally time to get going on Gavin's Eagle Scout Project. 
Finding a project was hard for Gavin.  He thought, he make lists, he made phone calls, he searched the web, he thought some more.  He really wanted a project that would mean something to him personally.  When his new band teacher, Mr. Summers, asked for Eagle Scout candidates to paint the instrument lockers in the band room, Gavin immediately raised his hand and volunteered.  At that point, Greg and I really didn't care what his project was, we just wanted it done.  But, we agreed with Gavin that this was a good project for him.
Gavin easily got his project approved, and then to the planning.  He was very thorough in thinking through the steps - taking down the lockers, cleaning them, priming them, painting them and then putting them back up.  Planning is always easier than doing, Gavin discovered.
The project started Friday afternoon after school.  Gavin has some wonderful friends from the ward and the band that stayed after to help.  The muffins and juice might have been an incentive as well.

Lots of screws and screwdrivers later, and the locker doors were off.  Yeah, most of us had blisters.  But, it felt good to have the first stage done.

 

 

Grandpa Dee power washed the lockers while Gavin spread out painter's paper in the field outside the band room.  When the doors were dry, we laid them out on the paper and Greg sprayed them with the first coat of paint.  Home to bed because we had an early morning.

Greg and Gavin went over early the next morning to find a mess.  The grass was wet with dew.  The paper was wet because of the grass.  The wet paper stuck to the wet paint and it was bad. Gavin and Greg, along with a few people from the ward, spent the entire morning peeling painty paper off the mesh lockers.  Grrrr.

 After getting all the paper off, we propped the lockers up on each other and some lockers on wood and painted them again.  I was convinced that they wouldn't be dry by that afternoon, but we prayed that they would.  After a lot of running around for more paint, paper, wood and taking care of Kate and Guard, we went home to let the paint dry.  Gavin stayed at the school to literally watch the paint dry.

We came back at 3pm to find the lockers completely dry and looking good.  Thank goodness!

Gavin had some fellow Scouts show up to help put the lockers back on.  Luckily, most of them had electric screw drivers and the work went quickly.

The lockers look so much better.  They were originally the 1970's burnt orange that came with the new construction of the junior high.  Gavin painted them a chocolate brown that updated the look and also took care of the dings and peeling paint.  (We couldn't take off this door because someone forget to take home their lock and we couldn't cut it off with the bolt cutters.  You can see the difference in the paint.)

The biggest, enormous thanks we can offer to those who came and helped.  It made all the difference to have their support and help.  Mr. Summers was happy with the results and so were we.  It feels so good to have that part done.

Now, on to the paperwork.