Paul Kooyman honored

Fallbrook Union High School Senior Paul Kooyman was recently honored by President George W. Bush for his outstanding community service accomplishments. The award, which came in the form of a certificate and a letter signed by the President, was recently presented to Paul by Fallbrook Union High School Principal Ruth Hellams.

Paul has been active with the FUHS FFA organization and also with Boy Scout Troop 725 (LDS Church) as an assistant scoutmaster.

In FFA he helped with the award-winning horticulture display at the San Diego County Fair last year. His animals were also shown at the fair. He raises and shows beef cattle and has learned tips from his mother, who showed cattle during her high school years. Paul also raised swine last year and will again this year. He is thankful to his FUHS agriculture teacher Doug Sehnert for his guidance and advice.

Paul’s career goal is to become an agriculture teacher at the high school level. He may study agriculture at Reedley Junior College for two years and then transfer to one of the Cal Poly campuses.

He has been involved with Boy Scouts since he was about seven years old and completed his Eagle badge project when he was twelve. Paul was living in Utah at the time and organized a three-day petting zoo at the local fair, complete with llamas, peacocks, goats, turkeys and a miniature horse. He invested 3,000 hours in his Eagle project, which is well beyond the required 500.

As assistant scoutmaster he leads the boys in many community projects, including cleaning the yards of some of the elderly in their congregation.

Paul is the youngest of a family of five and his father passed away before he was born. “I never knew him, but I know he was a great guy from what I have heard,” said Paul. Instead of becoming bitter because of his life situation, he is helping other boys see the bright side of life and at the same time helping them complete their scout projects. “I am giving back what was given to me,” he said. “I didn’t grow up with a father in my life so I like to give them an example of what a father would be like,” said Paul. “It’s great to see the faces of the kids light up when they finish something that they try so hard to do.”

Paul is thankful to his grandparents for sharing their positive work ethic. In addition to working hard as a student and at scouting, Paul works alongside his grandparents in their business. He is grateful to his grandfather for encouraging him to get a college education.

When Paul is not at school, working or leading scouts, he is working on restoring his 1951 Chevy half-ton truck.