For His Eagle Project, a Pasadena Scout Gives Back to a Church That Helped Fire Survivors

For months after the Eaton Fire, families who had lost nearly everything pulled into the parking lots at Victory Bible Church for food, water and a moment of calm. This past week, a teenager raised in that Pasadena congregation repainted those same lots — faded lines and worn handicap markings made new — a quiet thank-you to the place that had supported and steadied his neighbors when so much else was gone.

The work was Destin Cleveland’s Eagle Scout service project, the capstone every Scout must plan and lead to earn Scouting’s highest rank. What started as a fix for faded parking lines grew into something larger in a community still rebuilding: a young man giving back to the church that had opened its doors to fire-displaced families, and pulling in two Scout troops, a crew of parent volunteers and a roster of local businesses to do it. A year and a half after the fire, recovery around Pasadena and Altadena is still grinding on, mostly out of the headlines. This was a smaller, quieter version of it.

In the weeks after the fire, Victory Bible Church became a hub for distributing food, water and toiletries to survivors, some of them members of its own congregation. The Red Cross later used the church as a site where people could apply for aid, according to news coverage at the time.

Destin, a member of the church his whole life and of two troops — Troop 507 and Troop 40 — said he chose the lots after watching how hard the faded lines made it for families to park safely.

“I wanted to use my Eagle Project to give back to the specific community that raised me, making our church safer and more welcoming,” he wrote in response to questions.

Over two days last week, eight Scouts and 10 parent volunteers restriped both lots. A local paving contractor donated the striping equipment and trained the Scouts to run it — the kind of detail, Destin found, that a project like this turns on.

“It surprised me how much project management goes into execution before you even touch a paint roller,” he wrote.

Alongside the striping, the Scouts painted kindness rocks to give to families affected by the fire — small hand-painted stones meant, Destin wrote, to leave each family “an immediate sense of comfort, love, and a reminder that the Pasadena community stands firmly behind them as they rebuild.”

Destin’s mother, Yolanda Barker, who first brought the project to Pasadena Now’s attention and whose events company was among its donors, said the effort was about more than a parking lot. “This project is really about giving back to those who gave so much to others,” she wrote.

At the church, Deacon Wendell Griffin walked the lots with Destin before the work began, and the two brought the idea to church leadership, which approved it. What he hoped families and congregants would take from it was simpler than fresh paint.

“I hope the congregation and impacted families will feel seen and heard; that they are loved,” he wrote.

Lee Blaine, Destin’s Scouting mentor, has known him since he was small.

“I’ve seen him grow from a little guy to a self-assured Scout who others will follow,” he wrote.

The lines are white and straight again. The rocks are painted, each one meant for a family that lost almost everything.