Three years ago, the family that owns a Grocery Outlet in Sparks, Nev., started a school supply drive for children in the community. Last year, that family joined Pack 443 in Spanish Springs, Nev., and asked if the Cub Scouts wanted to help. A couple of dens volunteered, collecting school supplies to help fill 60 backpacks.
Meanwhile, the pack in the Nevada Area Council did a separate project as part of the Messengers of Peace program by collecting and distributing food to families in need.
“We really felt that program was something that resonated with us as something we wanted to make a pack tradition,” says Nicole Franklin, Pack 443’s Cubmaster.
This year, the pack’s Messengers of Peace project focused on filling backpacks. Working with the grocery store and local television station, the pack gathered enough supplies to fill 150 backpacks.
Group effort
The Messengers of Peace is a World Organization of the Scout Movement program that encourages Scouts around the globe to help their communities. Those who complete the service requirements in the program get to wear an award that encircles the World Crest emblem on the uniform.
As part of their project, the Cub Scouts in Pack 443 began fundraising at the end of the last school year. Some set up lemonade stands; others asked local businesses for donations. Many Cub Scouts donated their own money.
“Lots of families made a deal that whatever the Scout donated from their piggy bank, the family would match,” Franklin says.
Many families bought extra supplies when it was time for back-to-school shopping.
The pack collected 300 backpacks, but they didn’t have enough supplies to fill them all. They will hold on to the extra backpacks for the next school year. But this year, the pack was able to fill 150 bags with pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, pencil bags, glue, rulers, markers, crayons, colored pencils, folders and notebooks.
Helping the community
The pack donated the backpacks to an elementary school in Sparks. The donation helped many students start the school year in a positive way.
The pack’s adult leaders made sure the Cub Scouts knew this Good Turn wasn’t done to receive accolades.
“Part of our discussion with the Scouts was that the recipient kids would not know how they got their backpacks,” Franklin says. “We would be doing the work without necessarily seeing the direct result or receiving a direct thank you. And that was OK.”
Still, the pack received plenty of praise. A city council member in Sparks commended the pack and donated several school kits, which the pack, in turn, gave to Spanish Springs Elementary School, their chartered organization.
A local television station, Telemundo Reno, donated some backpacks and also aired a segment on the pack’s project.
Let us know
If your unit recently completed an amazing service project like this pack did, you can let us know by sending an email to onscouting@scouting.org. You can also submit service projects to Scout Life magazine.
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