News

Herds of goats appear around town

By Scott Wagar

10/22/2013

Darrell Waters and the First Lutheran Church of Bottineau have started a project which deals with herding goats around town into individuals’ yards with hopes of raising money for people who live in poverty on the island of Haiti.

Perhaps stating that these individuals will be herding goats through Bottineau is a little strong when it comes to wordage, these goats will be herded but they are made up of plywood.

For a number of years, Waters’ son has been purchasing goats around the holiday season through a project called, “Goats for Haiti”, which deals with individuals purchasing a pregnant goat for around $80, which is given to a school child from a poverty stricken neighborhood. The child then takes the goat home and the family raises the goat for off-breeds, milk and to be sold at market for a profit to assist the family financially.

“In Haiti, 80 percent of the population lives in poverty,” Waters said. “They basically live on less than a dollar a day.

“Goats are a way for the people of Haiti to boost their income,” Waters added. “A couple of goats will pay to put their children through school, because in Haiti parents pay money to send their kids to school.”

For a number of years, Waters and his wife have purchased goats for the Goats for Haiti. Last year at Christmas time, the Waters purchased 22 goats, but this year they wanted to do more with a goal of 25 goats. Waters remembered as a kid that there was a fundraiser called the “Pink Flamingo” where plastic flamingoes were placed in people’s yards.

“The people who had them in their front yards would then call up the people who head up the project and say I will give $20 to take them over to another yard. Then, the next family would call up and say I will give you $20 to place them in another yard,” Waters said. “So, I thought why not do it with goats. So, I found a pattern of some goats and made some.”

With that in mind, Waters asked the First Lutheran Church’s youth group to assist in the project, which they agreed to do.

With the project a go, the plywood goats in good shape and form, the project kicked-off Wednesday evening with the youth group carrying the goats down the streets of Bottineau to place in local residents’ yards.

Once the goats are set-up in a yard, there is a sign placed on them which reads:

“Congratulations you have been selected to participate in a fundraiser for First Lutheran Church of Bottineau’s “Goats for Haiti” project. In this project we help purchase goats that will be given to the people of poverty who live in Haiti. Make a donation of any amount, we will then herd the goats to the lucky recipient of your choosing and place the goats in their yard. If you do not want to participate in this project all you do is call the numbers above and we will have the goats removed.”

The sign also has phone numbers on it for individuals to make a pledge and to state where they want the goats herded to next.
This project is not only for the members of First Lutheran Church, but for the entire community if residential members who are not part of the First Lutheran Church congregation wish to participate.

So, in the next couple of months, residents of the community will be seeing plywood goats in the local yards or being herded down the street or into a back of a vehicle. They might only be plywood, but they are worth valuable money to the people of Haiti. So, if individuals like to have a few goats “grazing” in their yard for a day or two to assist poverty in Haiti, give a call to First Lutheran Church and the youth group will lead some goats to your yard to help others in dire need.