Oldehoeft Paints for Scout Project

By Leesa K. Bartu, Exeter Correspondent

Clint Oldehoeft, a Boy Scout in Troop No. 218 in Exeter, recently completed his Eagle Scout project at the Fillmore County Fairgrounds in Geneva.
Oldehoeft, who shows cattle at the fair with his 4-H club, noticed that the cattle barn area had started to look a little rough. “We would pull staples off the boards to try to make the area look nice,” he said. “I wanted to paint our section. I thought it looked tacky and needed to be redone.”
Besides spending a lot of time in the cattle barn, Oldehoeft noted that the cattle barn is the only permanent livestock area. “It’s a good centerpiece for the fairgrounds,” he said. “There is a lot of pedestrian traffic going through there.”
Time and weather had gotten to the inside of it. “Paint was peeling, boards were rotting. It was overdue for a freshening,” explained Oldehoeft.
Oldehoeft researched the project and approached the Fillmore County Fair Board for both permission and financial assistance for the project. His plan was to scrape and paint all of the sound boards and replace rotten boards inside the cattle barn.
Oldehoeft obtained the supplies and the manpower and the Fair Board funded the paint and tool bill.
An Eagle project is never just about the actual service project. Instead it’s a tool to teach young people how to show leadership, coordinate workers and finish a job, including the paperwork.