Service Projects
Boy Scouts is, at heart, a service organization. Our girls and boys always stand ready to help the community. In fact, they need service hours in order to advance in rank.
There are several fixtures on our service project calendar, most notably the annual food drive.
The food drive
We camp out at a local grocery store the weekend before Thanksgiving, collecting turkeys, non-perishable food, and donations.
We pass these along to the "Loaves and Fishes" Food Cupboard, operated by the Jenkintown United Methodist Church and officially sanctioned as a food distribution center by the PA Department of Welfare.
Each year we manage to beat our old record. The figures for last year: 3,946 items, $444, and 3 turkeys.
Township events
The boys and girls are also engaged in various local annual activities, helping the police at Cheltenham's fall Harvest Fest, reporting to a VFW post to put flags on graves for Memorial Day, and aiding the organizers of Abington Hospital's June Fete.
Ad hoc help
We also perform ad hoc service projects as needed, always ready to lend a hand when we see people who need help, from laying Christmas wreaths near Ground Zero as part of a 9/11 memorial to helping New Jersey homeowners and Pennsylvania fire companies clean up after Superstorm Sandy to building paths, latrines, and other infrastructure at an Alaskan heritage site.
Eagle Projects
Each year there are a handful of Eagle Projects.
Boy Scouts must donate service hours to advance to each of the higher ranks, yes, but in order to reach the highest rank and become an Eagle Scout, each boy must come up with, organize, and execute a community service project of his own.
The idea is to teach leadership, engaging other members of the troop and the community in a service project, often in conjunction with local, state, national, and even international institutions and charities.
Past eagle projects have ranged from collecting clothes for the homeless to restoring historic sites to helping lay out new sectors for public parks.
Many boys and girls choose to give back to other institutions, besides Scouting, which have given them so much: laying out trail markers and map boards for the old cross-country team, helping construct new facilities at churches or synagogues, or fixing up trails to a beloved rock climbing cliff in a state park.
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