Mansface GR symbol receives needed painting improvements

Repainting the GR on Mansface will allow one Boy Scout to obtain his Eagle Scout award.

Coleton Spalding, a 10th-grade Green River High School student, is a member of Boy Scout Troop 19. Spalding has been a member of this troop for the past three years, however, he was a member of the Cub Scouts since he was 8.

The Boy Scouts organization is something her church encourages its boys to become members of, Kristy Spalding, Coleton's mom said. She said it sort of acts as a youth group program.

"It's important to his parents," Spalding said. "His dad was a Marine and Boy Scouts teaches discipline and responsibilities."

Some of Coleton's favorite Boy Scout activities, include camping, completing community service projects and helping people. Coleton enjoys helping shovel snow or raking leaves for those who are unable to do it themselves.

As for the repainting of the GR on Mansface, Coleton cannot take credit for that idea.

"My sister told me I should do it," he said.

"Every Boy Scout has to do an Eagle Scout project," Kristy said.

Soon, the family started to learn about the GR; and who used to paint it. Apparently, the GRHS senior class would paint it for a project, but for the past four years they have failed to do so, which left the GR in pretty bad shape. It was barely visible anymore.

The family also discovered they would need to receive the Green River City Council's permission to paint the GR.

Coleton said the GR is on city property. Luckily, Coleton's grandfather works for the city and knew what needed to be done in oder for the project to be approved.

After obtaining the City Council's approval, Coleton started seeking donations in the form of paint and painting equipment. With the help of a couple of local businesses, he was able to obtain the needed supplies.

Next, Coleton needed a painting crew. All he had to do is ask and soon volunteers were ready to help, including A.J. Nathan and his family, Darren Glathar and his family, Robb and Marriella Slaughter, Bud Allen, Kyle Fillingim, Gary Leonard, Scott Heiner, Terry Thomas, Megan GoLightly and of course Coleton's own family.

"I thought there was going to be more, but we had plenty of people," Coleton said. "They were excited to help out. I didn't even tell some of them."

The whole project only took about three hours, but it did not go as smoothly as expected.

When they arrived, Coleton set to work sweeping off the area he was going to paint. Once that was completed, he poured some paint into a paint holder and started rolling a paint roller into it. When he started to paint, he quickly realized the paint was way too thick. After a short discussion, the group decided to add some water to the paint to thin it out.

That did the trick.

The group used 25 gallons of water and 25 gallons of white, outdoor acrylic paint to complete the project.

Soon, the group was rolling the white paint onto the previously painted GR and bringing it back to life with each push on the rollers.

"Before you never even noticed it, and now it really stands out," Coleton said. "You can really tell."

Kristy said even though Coleton just completed the project within the last two weeks, people are already taking notice.

She said an employee at the GRHS already told them it was great that they brought the GR back to life and she was hoping the senior class would start repainting the GR each year like they used to.

"I think people forget about it," Kristy said. "I think they forgot about it for a long time."

Coleton's favorite part of the project was pouring the paint and painting it onto the landscape.

"It was nice to get outside and do something," Kristy said.

Kristy was impressed with how her son planned, organized and carried out the project.

"I think Coleton learned a lot of organization (skills) and how to demonstrate leadership," Kristy said.

Although Coleton has his Eagle Scout project done, he will not receive his Eagle Scout award until he earns two more badges -- the citizenship in the world badge and personal management badge.

Coleton almost has all of his work for the personal management badge completed, but he has not started the citizenship of world work yet.

Once he completes and obtains these two badges, he will be presented with his Eagle Scout honor at an upcoming meeting.