Each spring thousands of daffodils push their way up through mud and snow in the open spaces around Antrim. By mid-April, no matter the weather — Antrim is awash in sunny yellow. Daffodils welcome people at every roadway entering town, and wave from planters in front of Town Hall. They line sidewalks and decorate lawns and gardens around the library, churches and parks.

Thank Brian Beihl and his legion of volunteers for this spread of flowers they began planting five years ago. The “Daffodil Daddy” will celebrate his 50th birthday in a couple of days, the last half of those 50 years as a resident of Antrim. The easy going midwesterner was born in Spring Lake, Mich., so they get bragging rights to him as their hometown boy, but Antrim gets bragging rights now.

Beihl and his wife, Jeana White, graduated from Michigan State University in 1984, Beihl with a degree in journalism. The college sweethearts married and moved to New Hampshire when Beihl took a job with Wayne Green Enterprises, a flourishing publishing company at the time.

The couple lived in Harrisville and Peterborough for a while before buying one of Antrim’s big 19th-century houses within walking distance of the Presbyterian Church they’d been attending since moving east.

Antrim is the town Brian and Jeana chose to call home nearly 25 years ago to raise three children who could walk to school and the library and know their neighbors. And this is the town Beihl has chosen to pour thousands of volunteer hours into, rolling up his sleeves to help make a good town even better. From Scout Master to Daffodil Daddy, he’s had a hand in lots of good works around town, with plenty of help, he insists.

“I sure didn’t plant 10,000 bulbs all by myself.”

Beihl’s community projects usually do well because he knows that in order to succeed, an organization must stay relevant. You have to adapt your mission over time to serve the people in your community.”

The annual Tulip Time Festival in Holland, Mich., which draws 250,000 visitors, was Beihl’s inspiration for Daffodil Day. He thought daffodils could bring good things to Antrim, too. A prettier Main Street should be a point of pride for residents and businesses and a festival would bring residents together and attract visitors.

The goal was to plant 20,000 bulbs in 10 years. Beihl said that goal is on track because Mary Allen and other volunteers staunchly tend the existing flowers and keep planting more. Antrim’s Daffodil Daddy takes great pride in this project, knowing the flowers will greet residents and visitors for the next 100 years.

Last year Edmunds Hardware and Tyler’s Small Engine hosted workshops for festival attendees. Master gardeners Linda Tenney, Kin Schilling and Roger Swain shared garden wisdom. And the annual Fishing Derby, also part of Daffodil Day, was complemented by fishing clinics hosted by the pros at Place in the Woods. Festival attendees had a whole lot more to do than just enjoy the daffodils.

“Build it and they will come” is Beihl’s recipe for success. He plants things, organizes events and simply makes things happen. And people do come.

When asked to take over the annual soapbox derby six years ago, he did so cheerfully. But when only three cars showed at the starting line and predictably clinched first, second and third place, Beihl left the course scratching his head. Something was terribly wrong. Why host a race no one cares about?

He noted kids everywhere blazing by on skateboards, not coasting in go-carts. In short order, the man with a plan replaced the quaint soapbox derby with a world-class event.

Sponsored by the Antrim Chamber of Commerce, the Can/Am Slalom Championships are one of only five such International Skateboard Slalom Association sanctioned races in the country. The event draws racers and fans to Antrim from the U.S., Canada and Europe. Once again Beihl hit the bull’s eye.

From 1990 when their first child, Madeleine, was born, until 1998 when she and the younger Claire and Ethan were finally all in school, Beihl was a stay-at-home dad. Always painting, patching and pounding nails in their beloved old house, Beihl also ran carpools, packed lunches, and helped with homework. And he worked for various magazines as a circulation consultant. He tackled volunteer projects like a paid consultant, making sure they were feasible and sustainable. His marketing and publicity prowess got things started and has kept them going.

Beihl helped paint the Presbyterian Church a couple of times, chaperoned field trips, helped out with Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, and photo edited a pictorial history of his adopted town. He served for 12 years as a trustee at his church and developed national marketing campaigns for the organization.

While he’s found all his volunteer work rewarding, it’s his work as Scout Master that he’s most proud. The impact he’s had on dozens of Scouts in Troop 2 over the past 10 years will last for generations, like the thousands of daffodil bulbs he’s helped plant.

Keeping Boy Scouts relevant in his community has been a mission for Beihl. While Scouting is down nationwide, Troop 2, which was started in 1913 has more boys enrolled now than in the past 30 years. “We keep it fun. Many of these boys would never go camping or learn to backpack or paddle if it weren’t for Scouts. These young men get out in the wilderness to experience things they might otherwise never get to see.”

“The sense of accomplishment they get from paddling out to a beautiful place and seeing harbor porpoises, and the work it took to get there — it keeps them in the program, because they know there will be more outings. All the character building happens along the way.” Troop 2 works the way Boy Scouts was always intended to: the older boys teach the younger ones.

At last Wednesday’s troop meeting, two of the older Scouts taught the younger boys about winter camping. In preparation for an upcoming overnight in the woods, Chris Brinkley, 17, taught the younger scouts how to pack and dress for the cold. Beihl’s son, Ethan, 16, prepped his troop on cold-weather camping — the right sleeping bag, and why it’s important to not breath into it. Why it’s critical to change out of wet socks and other wet clothes.

In the same meeting, each of the boys made a fleece neck gaiter for their January adventure. “It was entertaining and terrifying to watch a bunch of Boy Scouts sew, but it’s a useful skill,” Beihl said.

Beihl recently visited his former Scout Master while he was in Michigan for the holidays. He got to tell the older man how grateful he was for all the Scout Master had done for him when Beihl was a boy.

“I do this because I want to have a positive impact on kids’ lives. They’re learning life skills including leadership skills and the importance of teamwork. We want them to bring these skills out into the world and be successful and to always lead by example.”

Beihl’s mother was a den leader, his wife a Girl Scout leader and all three children are Scouts. They all get it and wish more people did — that you take a pledge and you live by that pledge. It’s a code of honor and one of the reasons why it’s so important that more men and women step forward as Cub Scout leaders. Beihl said having more leaders stay for longer at the younger levels would help develop the program for more boys. “It’s hard to be a scout now with other kids looking at it as geeky,” Beihl said.

A 20-mile backpacking trip? Winter camping and learning to pull a sled over a crevasse and up a mountain? Ocean paddling to an island for four nights in a tent? Building and fixing things? Sounds cool to me.

Annie Card, owner of Annie Card Creative Services, helps small businesses and nonprofits get noticed. Her creative team develops websites, brochures and publicity campaigns. Card is co-founder of NHBusinessBlog.com, a recently launched group blog that helps businesses optimize social media. Tell Annie about the volunteers making a difference in your town by sending her e-mail. Send it to annie@anniecard.com or contact her at www.anniecard.com.