by Dennis Dalman
A Sartell Boy Scout, Lucas Hintgen, has begun a campaign to raise funds to purchase and install a new storage shed at the Sartell Community Garden near Oak Ridge Elementary School.
The shed is used for storing tools and supplies for Sartell residents who plant plots in the big garden.
If more is raised than needed, the excess will be donated to area community food shelves.
Hintgen, 15, is the son of Julie and David Hintgen. Last month he appeared before the Sartell City Council to present his planned project, the garden shed, as part of the criteria to earn his Eagle Scout honor. The council thanked him and endorsed the project. The current storage shed at the garden is very old, small and dilapidated.
Hintgen plans to buy the shed at Menard’s for $3,000. Hintgen has written letters asking for support from area organizations and businesses. It is more difficult to raise funds in the time of the virus pandemic. But so far, several organizations and one individual have come to the rescue. The Sartell Lions Club donated $250. Lions Club member Mike DeLuca pitched in $500. And the Great River Rotary of Sauk Rapids gave $300. Now, Hintgen is trying to raise the rest of the cost – $1,950.
Anyone who would like to donate can send a check to: Sartell Community Garden Shed Project, P.O. Box 217, Sartell, MN 56377.
contributed photo
Boy Scout Lucas Hintgen and Sartell Lions Club member Mike DeLuca stand by the old, small storage shed at the community garden near Oak Ridge Elementary School. Hintgen, as part of his Eagle Scout requirements, is raising funds to place a new, bigger shed at the site.
Author: Dennis Dalman
Dalman was born and raised in South St. Cloud, graduated from St. Cloud Tech High School, then graduated from St. Cloud State University with a degree in English (emphasis on American and British literature) and mass communications (emphasis on print journalism). He studied in London, England for a year (1980-81) where he concentrated on British literature, political science, the history of Great Britain and wrote a book-length study of the British writer V.S. Naipaul. Dalman has been a reporter and weekly columnist for more than 30 years and worked for 16 of those years for the Alexandria Echo Press.