Rawley Smith saves an Esperanza rite of passage in tile for its youth
We’ve all seen it dozens of times when we are at our church grounds, the Tile Wall with handprints of the little ones who “graduate” from Lynn Hockenberger’s pre-K class.
It lost some of its cuteness, though, as it fell into disrepair over the years. Tiles were coming off and falling, some shattering, taking a youngster’s rite of passage to the ground with it.
The Tile Wall was in disrepair before Eagle Scout Rawley Smith got his hands on it.
That’s when aspiring Eagle Scout Rawley Smith stepped in last spring.
As one prong of his two-pronged Eagle Scout project, Rawley, 15, a sophomore at Desert Vista High, did a massive renovation of the Tile Wall so that it looks even better than new.
Rawley Smith (left) examines the finished product with Michael Paradise and his son, Jax, who is pointing to his tile on the wall.
As the second prong of his project, Rawley repaired stucco that was breaking off of another wall that faces the playground and repaired a sprinkler that was hitting the building and causing the decay. He and other Scouts then painted the massive wall.
Boy Scouts from Troop 14 help Rawley Smith paint the repaired wall facing the playground.
“It’s very generous of the church to let us use space for our Troop to meet, so I wanted to do something to give back to the church,” Rawley said. “I talked to people about it and I could see different project options. This one kind of struck me.”
Rawley has been involved with Boy Scout Troop 14, which meets at Esperanza, for about five years. He’d been a Cub Scout prior to that at Horizon Elementary School.
As Rawley lost his father, Rick Smith lost his son in a car crash 13 years ago. Rick, now assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 14, has been Rawley’s father figure in his upbringing.
Rawley said that he was inspired by his grandfather, Rick, who was an Eagle Scout himself.
Almost a year ago, during spring 2021, Rick noted that every time he and Rawley walked past the Tile Wall they’d stop and look at it. They noticed that a portion of it was coming apart. Caulking was coming out.
The Tile Wall was in such a state that Rawley had to take a portion of the wall down and cut out a new backing board in order to put back those loose or fallen tiles.
“Neither of us knew how to do much of that,” Rick said. “Part of Rawley’s project was doing the research of that kind of work.”
Rawley also made a cosmetic adjustment. One end of the wall had been oddly shaped. He corrected that to make the display symmetrical and more pleasing to the eye.
Getting approval for an Eagle Scout project isn’t a stamp-it-and-ship-it process. Rawley had to follow protocol by writing out a proposal, getting signatures of approval from all parties involved, from the church, to the Scoutmaster, to the district Eagle Scout service-project coordinator.
The proposal included costs of material and labor, and then working within a budget.
That required research, going to Home Depot and pricing out grout, backing board, screws, stucco patch and paint.
Rawley Smith pieces a shattered tile back together as part of his Tile Wall restoration.
Rawley put in 232 hours on his project.
“The most time-consuming part was learning the skills, learning how to do it properly,” Rawley said. “I did a few practice backer boards with practice tiles to make sure I knew how to attach the tiles and how to grout them so I didn’t mess up anything with the final product.
“Eagle Scout projects are done kind of by yourself, all the preparation work by yourself. You maybe have family-member help. But then, when you go to actually do the project, usually other Troop members will help you. I had around 10 other Scouts.”
Plus parents and one very proud grandpa.
“Projects are designed to teach the Scout various skills, such as leadership of other people and organizational skills,” Rick Smith said. “Rawley learned all of that.”
And, Rawley said, he walked away with a sense of pride and satisfaction.
“I feel good. I feel accomplished,” Rawley said. “It was a lot of work. I was happy to do it. I feel good for the church now that everything is up to snuff the way they want it.”