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by Roger Miller –
It’s 8:30 on a Saturday morning. Most teenagers are still hours away from getting their day started; not 17 year-old John Kleinheksel. He’s leading a group of volunteers at The Salvation Army’s warehouse in Denver. They have painted dock doors, built shelves, cleaned and painted walls and designed and built sorting tables that will see extensive use for scheduled clothing and food drives. John is working on becoming an Eagle Scout and part of the requirement is to lead a community project of his design and see it to completion.
Troop 199 has been actively involved with The Salvation Army for 13 years, donating time, energy and talents to help collect food, clothes and toys, sort them and help distribute them during Christmas. This project was an easy choice for John. His troop would benefit from this work later in the year.
Thirty-nine volunteers contributed nearly 290 hours of time over one weekend to see the job to completion. John contributed another 35 hours in the planning and design of the projects, and in recruiting and coordinating other scouts, parents and neighbors to help in the endeavor. Additionally, over $2,200 in materials was provided to The Salvation Army for the weekend project.
“It was a lot of work to get it to this point, but it is going to be worth it. We like working with The Salvation Army,” said Kleinheksel.
John will submit his project package for review and hopes to complete all of his Eagle Scout requirements by November 2006.
