Community Service

Both of my boys were in Cub Scouts and their father was their den leader. They subsequently crossed over into Boy Scouts and enjoyed the scouting experience. Cameron particularly loved it being that he is a social butterfly (his favorite part of little league was the dugout, forget about the game) and was active in the troop until he turned 18. Their dad was pretty involved in the troop also but I sometimes thought it was cult like but that's just me. I do think it's a great organization especially for boys that may not have a male role model in their lives. The Boy Scouts of America do have some issues in my opinion but that's for another time. Let's just say they're too worried about gay people and not worried enough about pedophiles.

While Cub Scouts is fun, there is much more work with Boy Scouts. Both of my sons became Eagle Scouts. To reach that rank you have to earn 21 merit badges, hold leadership positions within the troop, do volunteer work and serve your community. You also have to do an eagle project that takes much planning and organizing.

My oldest son's project was to collect school supplies to assemble kits that would be sent to children in Afghanistan through Church World Service. He solicited donations from businesses and the public. He went to the home-ec teacher at school and asked if any of the students would be willing to sew the canvas bags needed for each kit. His project was very successful and he put together over 20 school kits.

My youngest son's project was to benefit Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong here in Rochester NY. The children's hospital rooms were equipped with a VCR and at the time of my son's project the hospital was just switching over to DVD. Problem was they didn't have many DVD's for the kids to watch. They were also going to get a few Playstations. He organized a DVD/Playstation donation drive for the hospital. He solicited businesses for new DVD's and games and also put collection bins in each of our elementary schools and the middle and high school as well as at the community center and public library.

It took a while to come up with a project and both projects took over 100 hours to complete.It's a lot of hard work to become an Eagle Scout and that's why the majority of Boy Scouts don't do it. One of the required merit badges is Citizenship in the Community. Click on the link to see what these two scouts came up with for this community service. I'm sure my boys wished they had thought of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbVifPkbYsk

I'm not sure how the interviewer kept a straight face.