To celebrate his 18th birthday, David Gabisan is bringing a sense of peace and tranquility to the Los Altos community.
After six years as a Boy Scout with Troop 74 in Long Beach, he is now undertaking his final project which will earn him his Eagle Scout badge: a Serenity Garden for people to relax and reflect at a Los Altos church.
The garden has been under Gabisan’s direction from the planning and designing process to laying down the bricks that will become the community’s labyrinth.
“[The project] has to be able to show his leadership, his ability to plan a project to lead people, to get the design done, the approvals gathered. This is his project to get done,” said Assistant Scout Leader Bob Carpenter. “Usually you need to build something and leave a legacy behind and it’s going to benefit the organization. That’s usually the type of project that gets approved.”
Work on the Serenity Garden began months ago, when Gabisan had to present his formal plan for the garden to the Scout committee for approval, then to the group’s charter organization, The Los Altos United Methodist Church. His presentation included a financial report and ways that the garden will benefit the community and charter.
The Los Altos United Methodist Church, the troop’s charter organization and meeting place, will directly benefit from the Serenity Garden, as it sits in the lot adjacent to the church.
The garden will act as a place to “sit and reflect on your thoughts,” Gabisan said. It will feature a sphere in the center of the labyrinth and a post with the Serenity Prayer written in 12 different languages.
“I’m looking forward to having another area for the church to be able to practice their faith and get out into the outdoors,” Carpenter said. “A group of people can go out there and kind of have some fellowship and talk about things and enjoy the labyrinth and the garden itself.”
The community can help Gabisan complete his project on time by donating to the Troop’s GoFundMe page. The campaign has raised $1,243 of its $2,000 goal. Most of the funds will pay for supplies and materials for the project, according to the post.
“We are still in need of more donations to help us finish the project in time,” an update from June 29 read.
Gabisan has until his 18th birthday, on July 21, to complete the project in order to earn his Eagle Scout badge. Once a scout turns 18 they are no longer eligible for Boy Scouts, although they can return as an adult leader.
“We’re cutting it close,” Gabisan said laughing. “I was busy with lacrosse the past few months, that’s why we’ve been waiting for school to end.”
The troop cleared the space for the garden on June 21, tilling and leveling the soil to make space for the brick maze and scattered benches. Since then, they’ve been using pickaxes to break up especially hard parts of the ground, filling in the spaces between brick with gravel and installing benches in the four corners of the garden.
Gabisan has acted as supervisor over the garden’s creation, appointing the roughly 30 members in his troop as well as the adult volunteers. He said the garden will be accessible to the community, as it sits in the west side of the church’s parking lot and is visible from the crosswalk.
“People have been walking by and saying, ‘Oh what’s this going to be?,’” Gabisan said. “This is going to be a nice place to sit and relax and just reflect, I guess. [It will] be an attraction for the church and the community.”
The troop will take a camping trip from July 9 to July 16, so Gabisan said they are hoping to complete the garden before camp, by July 8 and hold an official opening on July 17.
“He’s really developed into a very strong young man and a confident young man and his ability to guide the younger scouts in the troop on this project and to give good work direction to the adults too, it was really, really good seeing that,” Carpenter said. “It really is the culmination and the whole purpose [of the troop] is to be able to demonstrate all those things. And he’s definitely come through.”
The Serenity Garden will be located at 5950 E Willow St.
