You can’t promote world peace by sitting on your couch.
No, you’ve got to follow the lead of units like Venturing Crew 122 of North Carolina’s Tuscarora Council. The Venturers and advisors of Crew 122, along with some Scouts from Troop 33, cleaned a 9.5-mile portion of the Neuse River by canoe last month.
Over the 10-hour day, they collected more than 400 plastic bottles, 70 glass bottles, 52 toys, 37 aluminum cans, and 36 styrofoam/paper cups.
Almost as impressive as that garbage haul is the fact that the Venturers kept a count of what they had collected: almost a half-ton of trash in all. And remember they collected it all by canoe.
The conservation effort went beyond just a daily good turn, though. It was the crew’s Messengers of Peace service project, earning them the ring patch seen above.
You were first introduced to Messengers of Peace in a blog post last year. The global program, which launched in 2011, is “designed to inspire millions of young men and women in more than 220 countries and territories to work toward peace. The initiative lets Scouts from around the world share what they’ve done and inspire fellow Scouts to undertake similar efforts in their own communities.”
How do you participate and get one of those Messengers of Peace ring patches? Read on…
Become a Messenger
Go online and register your Messengers of Peace (MOP)-related community service projects (including Eagle Scout projects). Doing so adds pins to a global Messengers of Peace map, which Scouts from around the world can click on to learn how their fellow Scouts are making a difference.
Scouts who complete MOP projects will become eligible for a special recognition: the ring patch ($1.49 each, seen above) that goes around the World Crest. That patch will symbolize your participation in an ever-widening circle of Scouts who are not just visualizing world peace but are helping to make it a reality.
Messengers of Peace at the 2013 Jamboree
Jamboree attendees, listen up.
All participants will take part in the Messengers of Peace Day of Service at the 2013 National Scout Jamboree. On this day, Scouts will be provided with transportation to one of the counties surrounding the Summit to help with a service project that will benefit the BSA’s new neighbors.
By the time this jamboree is over, 32,000 Scouts will have completed 300,000 community service hours over five days of work. It will be one of the BSA’s largest service projects of the year.
And it’ll be a great way to announce the BSA’s presence in West Virginia.
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