WB_120519

10 | December 5, 2019 | The wilmette beacon NEWS
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Posted to WilmetteBeaconDaily.com 3 days ago
Wilmette student remodels community
basement for Eagle Scout project
Hilary Anderson
Freelance Reporter
Alex Bailey searched
for a project that would
benefit both the community
and help him earn his
Eagle Scout Award.
He looked at several
possible projects.
The Wilmette Boy
Scout, member of Troop
2 and New Trier High
School sophomore,
learned through his mother’s
friend the space in
the Winnetka Community
House’s basement where
the Winnetka Youth Organization,
held its drop-in
center and other events for
teens, badly needed a new
floor.
“The flooring was old,”
said Lynne Levernier,
chairman-WYO. “An area
there had just been flooded
so some of the tiles needed
to be replaced as well.”
Bailey talked with his
scout leader, Steve Galindo,
members of his scout
troop and other friends, secured
their help and decided
replacing the tile floor
would be his Eagle Scout
project.
It proved to be no small
undertaking, not an easy
one especially since the
area was not open floor
space. There were many
things to consider.
Measurements had to be
taken — figuring out how
to factor in the posts in the
basements and openings
such as doors and windows.
Bailey brought his family
along and sought the
help of the Northbrook
Lowe’s store staff person,
Mike Stoeckle. He proved
to be instrumental in helping
Bailey decide on the
best product and how to
correctly install the flooring.
“It was hard figuring out
what was the best option
in flooring for the WYO’s
space,” Bailey said.
“There were so many possibilities.
Then we had to
learn what supplies were
needed, make a list along
with the required tools.
We discovered it would be
necessary to do an overlay
on the tile.”
Fortunately, the WYO
had just held a fundraiser
so there was money in
the budget for the necessary
supplies according to
Levernier. The job seemed
enormous but Bailey was
relentless.
Even those who were
not experienced in laying
a new floor offered assistance
in some way.
“Alex spent many of
his free hours at Lowe’s,”
looking at samples, reading
about each product’s
benefit, talking to its staff
and sought the advice and
help of yet other adults
who had experience doing
similar jobs,” said Grainne
Bailey, Alex’s mother.
“We viewed several You-
Tube videos that showed
what to do. Alex finally
wrote up a proposal.”
The choice made for
flooring was luxury vinyl
tile.
The weekend to install
the flooring arrived.
Bailey and a crew of
about 20 scouts and other
volunteers spent Friday
night before the actual
installation moving furniture
and scrubbing the old
floor.
Alex Bailey, a sophomore
at New Trier High School,
begins his work for an
Eagle Scout badge at
Winettka Community
House. Photo submitted
“Many adults who arrived
Saturday morning
to drop-off their kids who
volunteered, stayed to help
as well,” Grainne Bailey
said. “There were sign-in
sheets. We counted more
than 100 man-hours of
work that weekend putting
in the flooring. Ten people
actually spent two tenhour
days working on the
project.”
Pizzas fed the hungry
throughout the process.
“Putting in the flooring
was not all the group
did,” Grainne Bailey said.
“They had to install the
finishing touches like
baseboards. It was learning
on the job. There were
things to consider we never
anticipated—like how
to cut properly.”
Bailey now will write
about his completed efforts
to install a new floor
for the WYO’s teen dropin
center at the Winnetka
Community House for his
Eagle Scout badge.
Full story at Wilmette-
Beacon.com.