Boy Scout Bryan Stevens poses with the Rev. John Paul Passara, pastor at St. Patrick’s Angel Camp. Photo by Karen Stevens
A high school senior looking for inspiration for his Eagle Scout project in an abandoned space that many people don’t even realize exists has now inspired the community to create a special space.
St. Patrick Catholic Church in Angels Camp held the grand opening of the St. Patrick Rosary Garden on May 26th with a blessing ceremony, dedication ceremony and reception following morning Mass.
The garden, which took about a year to design and complete and will be a public meditation space, cost about $32,000 in total to build. The garden is actually a walking rosary, incorporating large, symbolic depictions of the physical components of the rosary, allowing people to walk through it and recite and count the various prayers along the way.
Brian Stevens, a 2024 graduate of Libertas Academy in Angels Camp, conceived and led the project with the help of his mother, Karen Stevens. Karen shared that they had just joined the parish a few months before Brian came up with the idea that would become the basis for this project. Now, a year and a half later, Karen commented, “We didn’t know anybody, but now we know everybody. Everyone wants Brian to succeed and is very supportive.”
At the Rosary Garden’s grand opening, Brian Stevens placed a wreath on the statue of Mary. The wreath was made by church altar association members Norma Rodriguez and Rebecca Nava, who also made the floral decorations for the statue’s base. Photo by Karen Stevens.
“At the grand opening ceremony, many of the (volunteer) workers who helped with the garden were there and you could see the pride on their faces that their hard work had come to fruition,” Brian said.
A prayer garden wasn’t his original idea, but he and his mother decided to do something for the church, and church administrator Suzanne Bakke offered some ideas. “She showed us around the church, showing us areas that needed repair and areas that weren’t being used but could be used,” Brian recalls. The church, which was rebuilt in the 1980s, had an area that had been abandoned after the site of a future parsonage had been cleared.
Previously: “A Place You May Forget”
“Before we started (the garden project), it was a very forgotten area, and people who had been attending the church for years didn’t know there was a vacant lot there,” Brian said, “but we looked at what it would look like, the changes, the drainage, the electrical lines and conduits that would be needed, as well as drip systems, pipes and other underground utilities.”
“We also had to level the ground, drain, lay conduit, do underground works and add drainage gutters. Then we moved on to building the footpath – it’s a brick footpath, a sturdy, solid footpath, but[the original plan]has changed a lot!”
Brian had never done any of this before and everything was new knowledge, so this project provided many challenges and a steep learning curve that he was able to slowly climb.
He laughs: “The hardness of the ground was torture. Originally we were digging with a tiller, but we had to use an excavator. The excavator hit bedrock and found a big boulder in the middle of the work area, so we had to remodel the drainage area to go around the boulder. We used picks and shovels. We used geometry to create the path, and a bit of engineering. Initially we wanted a perfect oval with no straight lines, but we changed it to two semicircles connected by a straight line.”
He said, “I worked on at least a little bit of every piece…Bricklaying was one of the biggest learning curves. We had to cut so many bricks for special cuts on the edges because of the curved path design, we cut over 700 bricks. Russ Thomas, a professional mason, has been laying bricks for over 70 years and really helped us with knowledge, effort, bricklaying dos and don’ts, how not to mess up, etc.”
“The road is so much nicer now and it’s all thanks to him. It was such an exhausting experience and took so long – it took a lot longer than I’d like to admit to get the sand all level and level – and that was probably the most painful part of the whole job!”
Volunteers step up
Regarding the construction, Brian laughed, “I basically only had the knowledge of a four-year-old, but I learned a lot about this stuff and (now) know a lot about a lot of things. Obviously not enough to build (the house) by myself, but I can help other people! It’s easy to say, ‘I’ll just do this,’ and not think about all that goes into it. One of the most time-consuming parts was the concrete slabs we had to add to the bench and statue. We had to make the forms, pour the concrete, and get a mixer ready.”
That’s where Duarte Bento and his family came in, Karen says. “To find help and get it done, Brian reached out to the church and regularly spoke at mass asking for help.”
“I pleaded, ‘We really need some concrete help,'” Brian recalls. “Bent and his two sons work in construction, so the whole family got involved and took leadership roles on that part of the project.”
“Honestly, making the phone calls and talking was the hardest part. But in the senior ranks of the Boy Scouts, you have to attend board meetings to move up the ranks, so it helps you develop interview skills and how to present yourself.”
Brian expressed his gratitude to Passara, saying she watched over him and the volunteers most of the weekend while they worked. “Passara was very dedicated and made lots of announcements after Mass encouraging the volunteers to help out,” Brian said.
Over the course of the year the project was underway, Brian raised more than $29,000, and the church loaned the rest to the construction budget, which was eventually covered by additional donations. Over 100 volunteers put in more than 1,700 hours and completed the entire job without being paid a dollar for their labor.
Eagle Scout Paperwork
As part of the Eagle Scout project process, Brian had to present his proposal and beneficiaries, get clearance, and then present a fleshed out proposal with a tentative budget for approval by the Area Council and Scoutmaster. The second phase includes planning, fundraising, and execution. Just before graduation, he compiled his final presentation in a binder along with his Eagle Scout application. The final phase is to present it to the Greater Yosemite Council review committee.
But that last bit will probably have to wait until a more convenient time in the next few weeks, he said, because he has to leave for an eight- or nine-week summer assignment at a Boy Scout reserve near Ukiah. “I work as an area director, in charge of instructors teaching the Scouts the Merit Badge,” he explained. When asked how he ended up in the job, he replied coldly, “I went in there my final year of youth, applied to be an instructor this year, got promoted to area director, and just kept coming. This is my first official job!”
He emphasized, “This project was work. Almost every Saturday and Sunday we went out and worked in the garden. It was a little bit weather dependent. We started this project last summer and spent last summer working.”
In the fall, Brian will be attending Franciscan University of Steubenville, a Catholic university in Ohio, where he plans to major in Computer Science and minor in Cybersecurity.
“I’ve always loved tinkering with computers and I always wanted to code and develop computer hardware,” Brian says. “As I got back into programming and (cyber)security and tinkering with operating systems, I became interested in the tools used to hack into Linux and other operating systems.”
Karen interjected, “This is called ‘white hat’ hacking, or ‘good guy’ hacking.” Brian added, “It’s penetration testing. Basically, companies can pay you to break into their servers, or parts of their company, and tell them about vulnerabilities and how to fix them. So this is ‘ethical’ hacking – hacking before the hackers do.”
Volunteer Team
Brian and Karen said special thanks should be given to the group of team leaders drawn from among the parishioners who helped Brian with the basement work, gutters, grading, concrete borders for the walkways, and advice and direction on the project. Among them were Jose Alfredo Jimenez, Francisco Nava, Elmer Melquiades, Angel Galvan, and Alfredo Torres. Nava and his sons Manuel and Angel also joined in the final push to complete the garden.
Thomas showed Brian around, helped lay and cut the bricks, erected a statue of Mary in the center of the garden, and led the singing of “Ave Maria” at the grand opening ceremony.
Isaias Datram, a parishioner and former contractor from St. Andrew’s, San Andreas, who led the fencing work, lent a hand wherever it was needed and handcrafted over 80 rosaries as gifts for the volunteers who worked in the garden. As mentioned above, Bent and his family led the final concreting of the stone slabs for the benches and the center stone slab of the garden. Brendan Wicke and his sons Max and Ben contributed to the heavy lifting, including carrying all the remaining rocks to various parts of the garden.
Brian described Tom Duttil as always being there to help with trash removal and trailers bringing in materials when needed, and keeping an eye on the project area and tools at night. Other members of the community involved in maintaining the garden included Paul and Bysell Hicks and their families, Mark and Andrea Hicks, the Stevenson, Rigsby, Oliver and Inks families, Boy Scout Troop 343, Jukes, Don Smale and DeWayne Brown, church office staff Bakke and Heather Oliver, students from Libertas Academy, and Rodriguez and Nava, who created the floral arrangements for the grand opening.
Major donors to the Rosary Garden included Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Adams, who paid for the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. The garden benches were sponsored by the St. Patrick Altar Society, Italian Catholic League Local 413, Daniel and Eide Vogl, Elizabeth Thompson, Mary and Tom Kingsill, and one anonymous donor.
Major donations for Brian came from Virginia Jean Brown, Joe and JoAnn Quirke, Charles Crespi, Marie Crespi, Andrew Cademartori, Noline Troski, Clara Noetling, the Moore family, the Raggio family, Phyllis Goodwin, Lambert J. Sodon, Bob and Susan Middleton, and Smale. In addition, more than $12,000 in small donations was raised through a brick fundraiser.
