Small Scout Troop Makes Big Effort to Help the Hungry
Lisa Patrick
Ashland Beacon
“Scouting for Food” is a Boy Scout tradition that has been taking place every November since 1985. Scout troops across the nation participate in a food drive to help local food pantries get through the holidays. One small local troop has been gathering food donations the past few years to help fill the Thanksgiving boxes at the Hillcrest-Bruce Mission and, as their numbers get smaller, their efforts get bigger.
Boy Scout Troop 1100 out of South Ashland only has four members, but that doesn't stop them from doing their best to help out their community. Last Monday evening, in lieu of their normal Boy Scout meeting, the four boys walked up and down several of the streets in South Ashland leaving "Scouting for Food" bags on all of the front porches. The bags themselves have an explanation of what they are asking for and when they will be back around to pick up the donations. Then, this past Saturday morning, two of the boys (the other two had prior obligations with school and family) revisited the homes where they had left the bags to pick up the filled bags.
The small scout troop has been very blessed by the support they have received from their South Ashland neighbors on Holt, Hackworth, Hampton, and Ashland Avenue, and this year proved no different. They could tell that the neighborhood had stepped up again to help them out as Boy Scouts. Nick Osborne and Blake Patrick gathered bag after bag of donations.
After collecting all of the food, they met up with Mike Maynard at the Hillcrest-Bruce Mission on Eloise Street. The scouts turn in an estimate of how much they have collected to the local council office, so they counted the items as they unloaded them. This proved to be their best year ever as they filled two entire shopping carts full with more than 270 cans and more than 60 boxes/packages of donated food items.
The Boy Scouts' sister troop, Girl Scout Troop 1100, also turned their own donated goods in. The girls were the hosts of a "birthday party" for Juliette Gordon Lowe (the founder of Girl Scouts) a couple weeks ago. More than 30 girls from several different local troops attended for fun and crafts but also to bring in donated birthday party items such as cake mix, frosting, and candles. Girl Scout Troop 1100 was able to create 30 birthday cake kits out of the donations. Girl Scout Lily Dillon presented the kits to Hillcrest-Bruce Mission as the representative for the girls. The kits filled up an additional two buggies.
Mike Maynard said the birthday kits will be “going to our neighbors having a birthday in the next month,” and the food that the Boy Scouts bring in always comes “at just the right time.” Maynard also wanted to give “thanks for the hard work that our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts do every year to make sure that no one in the community goes hungry. And, thanks to the parents and sponsors who work so hard with these troops and all the neighbors in the community who contributed.”
The Boy Scouts of Troop 1100 would like to thank the neighborhoods of South Ashland for always being willing to support them for the Scouting for Food event. They would like to give particular thanks to Josh Ravencraft of Ashland Avenue for taking to Facebook every year to ask for donations for the event. The boys are always excited to see how much food is covering his porch to help feed the hungry.
