Thank You Troop 321!

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Troop 321 received a nice thank you letter from Dick Derby and the Wesley United Methodist Church for the Scouts' help with "Project Keep Kids Warm."

Troop 321 pitched in and helped prepare the donation bags, distribute the donation bags, and collect the donation bags all around the Ishpeming area this past month.

This is the sort of project that helps grow our boys' character and their reputation in our community. Click on the "Service" label for postings about other great projects our boys have supported.

Scouting for Food

Tyler W brings in a donation

In addition to helping keep kids warm, today also marked the official pickup date for the "Scouting for Food" service project. Scouts who hung bags on doors around their neighborhoods spent some of their Saturday collecting their bags.

Troop 321 will be donating its items on November 9th as part of the TV 6 Canathon drive to help restock local food banks. We hope to get a bit of media coverage during the drop-off, so all Scouts are encouraged to continue their collection activities until then and then help out on the 9th in uniform. 

Project Keep Kids Warm - Part 3

Our Scouts continued their service project to help "Keep Kids Warm" this morning by hitting the streets and picking up bags of winter clothing that donors left on their doorsteps.

Gary hits it big

Pickup day is always much easier than bag distribution day. With pickups, volunteers need only slowly cruise their route searching for bags stuffed with donations left on doorsteps.

Perhaps one in seven residences donated winter clothing this year, but collecting clothing is only half the project. The other half is to get these items out to people who need them. So even though most bags we distributed remained unfilled, they still served a purpose - to get the word out that warm winter wear will be available next week.

Sure, one in seven doesn't sound like a lot, but we hung bags on nearly seven thousand doors, so we may see a thousand donations. This means that our Scouts will be called once again into action to help set up tables at the Armory and sort through the donations by gender and size.

Project Keep Kids Warm - Part 2

Jackson & Gary visited 108 Apartments

Project Keep Kids Warm continued today with a very large community turnout. On this day, we distributed the bags we'd prepared last Tuesday. They went to Negaunee, Ishpeming, Ishpeming West, Republic, and Michigamme, nearly 7,000 bags in all. Pack 321 and Troop 321 contributed 9 scout volunteers in uniform and several adults. The boys represented themselves well.

The weather didn't cooperate for the first time in four years. However, we saw no shortage of help, and they covered all the routes as if it had been a sunny day. We have a word for that, sisu, and we have it here in abundance.

Hot dogs, hot chili, chips and sodas greeted the volunteers back at Wesley upon their return. And really, is there a better way to spend a rainy, dreary Saturday morning (short of a spa) than helping ensure no child goes without a warm winter coat this coming season?

You can read more about our efforts today here in the news.

Project Keep Kids Warm - Part 1

Jake attaches labels to bags

Project Keep Kids Warm put out the call for volunteers. They needed people on October 8th to help prepare clothing bags for distribution. This is the fourth year the project has gathered and distributed free used winter clothing to youth in need. This year the project will distribute 7,000 bags throughout Ishpeming, Negaunee, Republic, and Michigamme.

Both Pack 321 and Troop 321 responded to the call, and it's great to see how our Scouts' involvement has increased every year.

In today's phase of the project, Scouts, along with many other volunteers from various churches and community groups, prepared donation bags for distribution. This involved affixing a label explaining the project to each bag, tying a rubber band to a handle to secure the bag on door knobs, and counting out bags to go on each route. On Saturday, drivers will pick up a route map, pre-counted bags, and a couple of runners to distribute their bags.

Our volunteers included Nick, Jake, Willard, Gary, and Preston.

On Saturday volunteer drivers will pick up route maps, and their runners will deliver the bags throughout the area.

Webelos Weekend

Erick leads a nature hike

Each year Erick's troop hosts a "Webelos Weekend" and invites other packs to participate. Pack 321 sent two Webelos, and Gary went along to help out. We have a good relationship with Erick, even though he's Carl's older brother, and we look forward to this campout every year.

Although the weather looked dismal the entire weekend, in actuality, it stopped raining every time we had an outdoor activity. How's that for luck?

There's also a photo gallery available for those who want a longer look.