Last summer, the BSA asked Scouts to share how they were fulfilling their oath “to help other people at all times.” The initiative was called the Summer of Service.
All Scouts had to do was pick a project, Good Turn or random act of kindness, complete it and tell the BSA about it.
A total of 734 projects were reported with 13,398 people participating, contributing 71,043 service hours. The good deeds included food drives, Eagle Scout service projects, community clean-ups and flag ceremonies – you know, things Scouts have been doing since the inception of the BSA in 1910.
The initiative isn’t continuing this summer, but that doesn’t mean Scouts don’t stop serving. We’d still love to see how your units are helping others this summer. You can share by visiting go.scoutingmagazine.org/showandtell or by emailing us at onscouting@scouting.org. Here are just a few of the many projects Scouts did last summer:
Cub Scout Pack 156 of Flanders, N.J., helped clean up the grounds at a local elementary school.
Cub Scout Pack 328 of San Jose, Calif., safely picked up trash at a local park, collecting six bags of litter.
Scouts from Troop 795 and Troop 763 of Glen Allen, Va., installed three pollinator hotels at a local church. The hotels provide a place for solitary bees, such as carpenter bees, mason bees and leafcutter bees.
The Powhatan District of the National Capital Area Council hosted conservation projects, including labelling 100 storm drains, designed to educate the public about the watershed.
Cub Scouts with Pack 351 of Townsend, Dela., decorated paper bags that were filled with personal hygiene items that a local Elks Lodge distributed to the homeless.
Troop 621 of Olean, N.Y., cleaned up garbage at a campground in Allegheny State Park.
Cub Scout Pack 595 of Birdsboro, Pa., participated in a local parks and recreation event, where they planted a garden at the industrial park sign near the entrance to town.
Troop 109 of Halethorpe, Md., collected more than 2,000 books for the Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools. They then cleaned and sorted them for the Books for Bins campaign.
Cub Scout Pack 167 of Caguas, Puerto Rico, participated during Scouts Trash the Trash Day, a global litter collection day held every May.
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