Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Dassel youth becomes Eagle Scout at Dec. 10 honor court



Zach Kaiser, 16, of Dassel became an Eagle Scout at a Court of Honor Dec. 10 at. St. John’s Catholic Education Center.

Kaiser, the son of John and Amy Kaiser of Dassel, completed a cabinet project for Camp Sanderson of Spicer to qualify for the honor, in addition to completing all the other required Boy Scouts’ achievements.

Kaiser’s sisters, Kate and Elizabeth, had attended Camp Sanderson, a Girl Scout camp, so he had seen the cabinets he was going to replace before he thought about them as a project. It was the camp manager, Laura Tweeten, though, who had approached him about rebuilding the wood cabinets as a project to qualify for Eagle Scout, he said.

The cabinets were too small for the camp, and the wood was rotten. With Tweeten’s help, Kaiser came up with a plan to build four plywood cabinets and paint them white. The cabinets had an overhang, “So you could sit and work at them,” Kaiser added.

The cabinets he planned were similar in style to the originals, but shorter, and with added work space, he said.

Kaiser submitted his plans to the troop committee, camp staff, and Northernstar local council. The cabinets cost between $400 and $500, but most of the materials were donated by Simonson Lumber and Menards, both of Hutchinson, Kaiser said.

The preliminary work in the fall of 2005 was more challenging than the project itself, he said. Once he and the 10 to 15 people started working on the cabinets, the project went smoothly.

The cabinets and its overhang were completed in the spring of 2006, and Kaiser was pleased with the results.

“The best part was knowing that I had helped the camp,” said Kaiser.

Kaiser has been in scouting since he was a Cub Scout in first grade, and met with his fellow den members at the Evangelical Covenant Church in Dassel.

His father works at HTI in Hutchinson and his mother works at Dassel Elementary School.

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