Good Morning!

An early Saturday, but no blood donation for me today.

Can I ask the assembled a question?

What do you all know about the Boy Scouts? What do you think the program's goals are?



There are three stated "Aims of Scouting"....character development, citizenship training, and personal fitness. Each scout unit has a wide latitude on what they teach and how they do it, but one of the common themes throughout the program is the outdoors....to whit:



Whether or not you know anything about the program itself, I'm sure most of you out there are familiar with an "Eagle Scout". An Eagle must be a boy of the highest caliber; over his scouting career, he'll hold several leadership positions throughout the troop, attend a multitude of outdoor camps and trainings, and earn at least 21 merit badges, increasing his skills and knowledge in a number of subjects, mostly by practical, 'hands-on' training.

The most important requirement of all, IMHO, is the Eagle Service Project. I've been priviledged to serve on more projects than I can count...my hometown of Saugus has been improved, beautified, and made a better community by the more than 75 Eagles the three Troops in town have produced.

The requirement itself is deceptively simple...



I know many Scouts that consider their project to be their life's achievement....and I can drive through town and point out things that I personally worked on even now in some cases 30 years later.

The project can make or break a scout, but the ones that persevere are the ones that go on to greater things.

But back to my early morning. Today, I'm heading over to the Fitzgerald Elementary School with Cub Scout Pack 250. It's our annual service project....in return for the school chartering our pack and giving us space to meet, every spring we assemble and clean up the school grounds. It's been a hard winter; there's lots of branches down and trash everywhere. It's going to be quite a workout.

I hope that somewhere in between the complaining and running to the playground, I can instill a little bit of environmental stewardship among my boys. I think I have...I've been a Scouter for a very long time, and one of my previous Webelos scouts has already earned his Eagle badge...with a second scout already completed and planning on receiving the award before he graduates from High School this spring.

As we all know, Earth Day is coming up at the end of the month. Take a look around your community and find a project to join. And if there's no major organization or project out there....take a trash bag with you the next time you go for a walk. Every little bit helps, and it's up to each and every one of us to do our part for Mother Earth.