• Eagle Scout Project Spruces Up Local School

Donald Graham Elementary was the location of the most recent Eagle Scout project.

The entryway to the school.

Recent high school grad Damion Gonzalo of troop 430 (formerly of Troop 332), undertook the project of sprucing up the atrium area of DGE.

Sparkling up the windows.

The project included cleaning out the atrium (which included removal of some large rocks), assembling some picnic benches that will remain inside, cleaning the windows and painting storage cabinets (which took between 4 and 5 coats of paint).

The cabinets at the halfway point of repainting.

His inspiration sprang from his long association with the school. Though he didn't personally go to DGE, his two brothers did... his youngest brother is still a student there. 

He's helped out with countless projects and events over the last seven years at the campus.

Damion is on the tall side, and had to crouch down to paint the cabinet doors.

His mother Vitalia is a member of the DGE PTA, and when the assistant principal mentioned needing new benches and having the area cleaned up, a light went off in Vitalia's head and she thought it would make a terrific Eagle Scout project.

Eyeing up another coat of paint.

There were about half a dozen helpers that helped with the project, including long time scoutmaster and mentor Kip Yotter.

Team effort.

Kip was telling me about a project that he helped with back in 1998, when troop 430 planted all the trees that you see at Donald Graham Elementary today.

Eagle Scout alum, and Troop 332 Hall of Famer, Ryan Bellinghausen lends a hand.

The fundraising was done with a series of garage sale.

Getting closer to completion.

From left to right: Damion Gonzalo, Blake Devere, Mitch Kelly (standing), Mathew Gonzalo (sitting) and Ryan Bellinghausen (still painting) ☺.  

Damion giving the thumbs up to the newly painted cabinets. The surface is like a whiteboard.

Long time fixture of Troop 332, Doug Ames, takes a selfie with the Gonzalo brothers in the newly upgraded atrium.

Since the benches will get a lot of use from school age kids, Damion asked Doug Ames to come over and make sure they were properly assembled before calling the project finished.

With the project finished, Damion and his brother Mathew can kick back.

Vitalia Gonzalo lamented a bit about the mural in the atrium. She hopes that another scout project can be to replace it with a new mural. Until then, they did remove the weather worn areas and gave it a quick cleaning.

Damion has four more merit badges to go to qualify for Eagle Scout. They have to be done before his 18th birthday in September. Good Luck! ☺

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Pro Tip: I'm more than happy to highlight all Eagle Scout projects, and Gold or Silver Award projects too... but if no one tells me about them, I can't get the word out. 

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He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.
– Abraham Lincoln 

Sounds like honest Abe could have been a reader of Wildomar Rap.

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