The Village of Riverside and the Frederick Law Olmsted Society sponsor Landscape Work Days. The next one is Saturday, May 12 along Riverside Road near Olmsted Road

During several workdays in 2011, dozens of volunteers removed buckthorn and grapevine to reveal a view of the Des Plaines River. Help keep the momentum going! This year, volunteers plan to maintain the cleared section by weeding, applying herbicide & planting native grasses & sedges. Ultimately, the goal is to open up the view along the entire length of Riverside Road and into Miller Woods. With the invasive weeds removed, volunteers found numerous native species such as cup plant, solomon’s seal, wild indigo, woodland sunflower, dozens of oak tree seedlings, elm leaved goldenrod, riverbank wild rye, switchgrass & wafer ash. Come see for yourself!

Scouts are invited to participate, and this project is automatically approved for service hours. It’s also one of the easiest ways to fulfill the community service hour requirement for the Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge: While working on this merit badge, volunteer at least eight hours of your time for the [charitable community] organization. Don’t forget to bring your service hour form to have it signed by one of the volunteers in charge (look for scout parents there). The form is available here: http://troop24riverside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Service-Hour-Form.pdf

All workdays are scheduled for Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Look for the Riverside Public Works dump truck. Come for an hour or three, whatever your schedule allows. Bring your favorite work gloves & a water bottle, and the service hour form. All other supplies & snacks will be provided.

Future locations & dates:
Scottswood Commons: June 23 & September 22
Riverside Road: June 9 & Sept 8
Scout Cabin area: May 19
Longcommon & Downing triangle: July 14 & Aug 11
Longcommon (Big Ball Park): November 10

Scouts are asked to bring a box (or boxes) of cereal to the Troop meeting for RPC’s cereal drive. The cereal goes to an inner city church that provides breakfast in the summer for kids who normally eat breakfast at their school. The scouts have been an enormous help in donating cereal in the past, and RPC would appreciate your help again. Boxes of cereal can be dropped off at any Troop meeting in May.

Please report to Riverside Foods ten minutes before your shift this weekend! It will be raining, so please bring all rain gear that you think you will need for carrying boxes or walking back and forth from stations – scouts will be mostly indoors. Also, please show up in your scout uniform. This will set a good example for the community. Instructions will be given to you before your shift, so it is important to show up at least ten (10) minutes early.

The people signed up are as follows (adults first, scouts last):

Saturday- 9-12 a.m.: Roman S., Sue J., Pat R., James S., Max H., Daniel D., Abraham and Elijah O., Joe J., Ryan C., Andy C., Robert D.

Saturday, 12-3 p.m.: Michael P., Elizabeth G., Max and Noah H., Daniel D., Andrew S., Nick S., Karl J., Chris M., Georgi G.

Sunday, 9-12 a.m.: Beth M., Chris M., Charlie M., Joseph B., Louie M., Erik R.

Sunday, 12-3 p.m.: Carolyn R., Roman S., Jeff R., Chris O., Mike G., Caleb S., Jose L., James S., Charlie M., Robert M.

Please contact Joe Rogers for any questions at rogersj17@gmail.com.

Help! Book Drive 2012, the Eagle Project starting on April 14, needs more scouts and adults to sign up! There are less than 3 weeks to go until the project! Scouts and adults are still needed on Saturday, April 14, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., as well as Sunday, April 15 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., to man book collecting stations in downtown Riverside. Also, one more adult and scout is needed for the unmanned collecting station signup. Remember, this means that volunteers will meet every day, Monday April 16 to Friday April 20, at about 3:45 p.m. or 4:00 p.m., to check on 3 stations close together around downtown Riverside. This process will take half an hour (or less) each day. More information will be given at signup.

Also, we need boxes! If you have a box that can fit 10 reams of paper, or with dimensions roughly 9” by 12” by 17”, please donate them to Joe Rogers by contacting him at rogersj17@gmail.com. We need about 30 more to prepare fully for the project, so please donate soon!

For his Eagle Project, J. Rogers will be collecting and donating books to Worm Angels, a 501 (c )(3) non-for-profit charity based out of Chicago, which donates the books to Chicago Public Schools.

Scouts and adults are needed to help man and/or check on the collecting stations. There will be two types of collecting stations: unmanned and manned. The manned stations will be hosted on Saturday and Sunday, April 14 and 15, in 3 hour shifts from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. They will be hosted at Riverside Foods, Grumpy’s Café, and the Riverside Library. (Please note: the Riverside Library will not open until 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 15, and the only shift available for that location on that day will be from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.). The unmanned collecting stations will be boxes that people will drop off books in. They will be set up from Monday, April 16, to Friday, April 20, and will be at Town Hall, RPC, and the Riverside Bank. Volunteering for an unmanned station means that adults and scouts will meet all five days at a specified time and location to check on the collecting stations for damage, overflow of books, and types of books donated. Also, if the boxes need to be emptied, the volunteers will set up a new box and transport the full one to another location. This will not be a long process, but please note the adult’s work schedule and the scout’s after school activities.

Signup sheets will be at all Troop Meetings until the week of the project. If you cannot make the meetings and would like to volunteer, or have any questions, please email Joe Rogers at rogersj17@gmail.com.

The Village of Riverside and the Frederick Law Olmsted Society sponsor Landscape Work Days. Scouts are invited to participate, and this project is automatically approved for service hours. It’s also one of the easiest ways to fulfill the community service hour requirement for the Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge: While working on this merit badge, volunteer at least eight hours of your time for the [charitable community] organization.

All workdays are scheduled for Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Look for the Riverside Public Works dump truck. Come for an hour or three, whatever your schedule allows. Bring your favorite work gloves & a water bottle, and the service hour form. All other supplies & snacks will be provided.

Locations & dates of work days:

Scottswood Commons: April 28, June 23 & September 22
Riverside Road: May 12, June 9 & Sept 8
Scout Cabin area: May 19
Longcommon & Downing triangle: July 14 & Aug 11
Longcommon (Big Ball Park): November 10
Various locations: Oct 13

Scouts are invited to sign up to help with Riverside’s annual “Riverside Springs Ahead” spring clean-up of the downtown business district on Saturday, April 7. Volunteers will meet at 8:00 in the parking lot next to Riverside Bank. The clean-up goes from 8:00 a.m. to noon. Tools will be provided, as well as water & snacks. To have an idea of how many volunteers to expect, we’re asking scouts to sign up here: http://troop24riverside.com/2012/03/riverside-springs-ahead-form/

Scouts who would like to earn service hours are invited to participate in St. Adelbert’s spring clean-up on March 31 (noon to about 3:00 p.m.). St. Adelbert’s is located at 17th & Ashland, Chicago, and is the home church of the Olszewski family. Interested scouts should contact Renee Olszewski at reneeo94@yahoo.com.

Don’t miss this great opportunity to earn 2 service hours, help desperately hungry children around the world, and have lots of fun with fellow boy scouts.

There is no cost for this outing/service project.
We will meet at RPC at 1:00 PM on Friday Feb 10 (early release for District 96 students)
We will return around 5:30 PM.

To register, please fill out our registration form: http://troop24riverside.com/2012/01/feed-my-starving-children-service-project-21012-form/

Deadline to register: 2/1/12. So sign up today!

For more information on Feed My Starving Children check out their web site at http://www.fmsc.org/

Contact Susan Lynch with questions.